There was a very interesting presentation by OFCOM at the HF Convention today regarding the current consultation they are running on the Amateur Radio Service.

It is very important that each and every one of us responds to this consultation individually. The RSGB response only counts as one comment, despite the fact that they represent a large number of Amateurs. As was said today, the RSGB cannot make a submission on your behalf this time, you have to do it yourself.

There have been only 300 responses so far from a pool of over 40,000 licences that could respond. There is just over 10 days left to make your views known and have them taken into account when the decisions are being made. The consultation ends on the 20th October.

Make no mistake, there is a lot at stake and so it is very important that you do take the time to read and study the consultation and make your comments accordingly. The review is complex and the RSGB will publish on their website by lunchtime tomorrow ( Monday 13th October) a guidance document explaining the issues and providing suggestions on how to respond. You are urged to check into the RSGB Website (whether you are a member or not) and read the information/guidelines there before clicking the link to the OFCOM consultation website.

The main issues from the responses so far are these, but you are encouraged to read the details on the RSGB website and OFCOM consultation website for the full picture.

1: RSL ( Regional Secondary Locators) The 2nd letter of your call ( eg the M of GM3WYW when I operate in Scotland). Currently this is Mandatory, but OFCOM are proposing that this become optional, so that even if my home station address was in Cardiff, I could use G3WYW when there, or GW3WYW when in England or Scotland. The use of the RSL would become optional and up to the licensee to manage. This would obviously make a mockery of DXCC, Contests and Award Schemes since there would no way of being sure that the station was operating from where they said they were. The message at the convention to OFCOM was “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, but this message needs to be communicated to them by s_ubmitting a comment to the consultation.

2 :Frequency of Station Ident. OFCOM considers that station ID’s every 15 minutes is adequate, but in practice we ident at the start or end or both of a QSO. Common Sense should apply here, OFCOM has no intention of changing the way we identify now, but needs to have some clarity in the wording of the conditions.

3: The allocations of extra bands at 471KHz and 5MHz. bands carry additional requirements (in the associated footnotes) for Amateurs to be responsible for ensuring that their stations do not exceed RF exposure limits not only on these two additional bands, but on ALL bands that are licensed. This means that if we agree to these additional bands, then we could also be required to provide evidence that our stations are within RF exposure limits on all bands. You can probably imagine the can of worms that this could open. We want the extra bands but not the extra baggage that comes with them!

Another very strong point from OFCOM is that there is a large number of licences that have not been renewed. Only around 55% of licences have been renewed so far and OFCOM now has an obligation to start proceedings to revoke those licenses that have not renewed. There are of course lots of reasons why they may not have been renewed. The holder may now be a SK, moved or a lapsed amateur, but those who are active and just have not checked their licence information on the OFCOM website could find that their licenses revoked. Its not hard and OFCOM does provide help in retrieving you login information if forgotten or registering if you have not done so before.

The bottom line is that each and every one of us should take the time to check the RSGB and OFCOM websites and make a submission to the Consultation before it expires on the 20th October 2014 and also ensure that we have checked and updated our details on the OFCOM website for our Amateur Radio Licences at the same time if not already done so.

Relevant websites:

RSGB: http://www.rsgb.org.uk/

OFCOM: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/amateur-radio-licence/

73

de Paul G3WYW

This week at Pine Trees we will be holding a members equipment sale. This is the ideal place to find that Ham Radio bargain or sought-after part for your next Winter project.

Bring along any Amateur Radio related items you wish to sell or just browse & buy what others have for sale.

All welcome.

Visitor Entry : £1
Visitor Tables : £3
Refreshments : £1
Members entry & tables : Free

On-site parking available.

This Thursday, 18th September, we welcome Chris Darlington – M0DOL, to our club. Chris will be speaking to us about the CASHOTA (Castles And Stately Homes On The Air) award scheme and his portable operating techniques and equipment. Chris is heavily involved in the CASHOTA scheme and I am sure many of us will have spoken to him on air whilst he has been operating one of his Special Event Stations.

CASHOTA encourages operators to operate portable from many Castles and Stately Homes here in the UK and abroad, with awards available for both activating and chasing. Locally, Barbury Castle, Liddington Castle (as Hill Forts) and Lydiard Park would all be eligible for activating once permission was gained.

Chris, a Taxi Driver from Northampton, has made a phenomenal amount of world-wide contacts whilst operating /P and he is hoping to drive down in his ‘Radiomobile’ – a vehicle he has kitted out and keeps specially for his portable operations.
Please join us on Thursday 18th September at Pine Trees from 7pm to meet Chris and see what is sure to be an entertaining presentation.

This week at Pine Trees we will be holding a members equipment sale – a kind of Spring clear out! This is the ideal place to find that Ham Radio bargain or sought-after part for your next project.

Bring along any Amateur Radio related items you wish to sell or just browse & buy what others have for sale.

All welcome. Visitors £1, Tables £3, Refreshments £1 . Members entry & tables – Free. On-site parking available.

This week, we will be joined at Pine Trees by Ray Goff, G4FON, who will give us a presentation about Bletchley Park.

Ray’s interest in radio began at the age of 8, building a Crystal set with his cousin whilst staying with him for a weekend. This early interest in radio developed into a lucrative business by his late teens, repairing TVs and Radios in his neighbourhood.

Ray became interested in SWLing and joined the Farnborough DARS in the 1960’s and by 1970, Ray had passed the RAE exam. He was determined to hold out for the 12wpm Morse test and the full licence though and began studying for that. However, during his time at university, he decided to apply for the VHF only B licence and received the call G8HMH.

Ray finally passed the Morse test in November 1976 and gained his now familiar G4FON call and the A class licence.

Many will be familiar with Ray’s excellent Morse training program, which can be downloaded free from his website and Ray’s other interests include Home brewing and QRP operation.

Ray is an official guide at Bletchley Park, so is well qualified to speak about this most fascinating of wartime subjects.

Please join us from 7pm on Thursday 20th March at Pine Trees to meet Ray and hear his presentation, which is sure to be enthralling.

This week at Pine Trees, we will joined by a person who’s name will be very familiar to anyone who has undertaken Amateur Radio training over the last 20 odd years.

Steve Hartley, G0FUW, came to Amateur Radio from the CB boom of the 1980’s. By 1986, he had passed the 12wpm CW test and gained his now familiar G0FUW call.

Steve has delivered training since 1990 and is the organiser of the succesful ‘Bath Distance Learning Course’. Steve is also the editor of the Intermediate and Advanced training publications, which are such a valuable resource to those taking the associated courses and exams.

Alongside the training courses, Steve also organises the ‘Bath Buildathon’ every January, which encourages Radio Amateurs to try their hand at construction, whilst under supervision. It is also the ideal opportunity for those undertaking Intermediate training to build that all import construction project needed to pass the exam.

Another of Steve’s passions is constructing and operating QRP equipment and it is this subject which forms the basis of Steve’s presentation to us on Thursday evening.

So please join us at Pine Trees from 7pm on Thursday 20th February for what is sure to be a very interesting and informative talk.

This week’s speaker at the club needs no introduction, being our very own Dennis Goacher, G3LLZ. I am sure we are all aware of Dennis’ vast, in-depth knowledge in the world of electronics and his willingness to offer help and advice when asked.

Dennis has kindly agreed to share some of his knowledge with us this week on the subject of PAT (Portable Appliance Testing) and the pitfalls associated with it. This is a subject most of us would have heard of through our work, but perhaps know little about. Dennis will no doubt deliver an excellent presentation on this subject, perhaps with a few horror stories from some of the more dubious appliances he has encountered during his career.

Please join us at Pine Trees on Thursday 23rd January from 7pm to listen to what is sure to be a very informative talk.

This week at the club we will be showing a DVD entitled ‘QRT 500 kc/s wireless telegraphy 1901-1997: The final WT transmissions from UK Coast Stations’. This DVD covers the final transmissions made by the maritime radio stations at Portpatrick, Wick, Cullercoats and Lands End on 31 December 1997 23:48 GMT after many years of service to shipping.

The DVD gives a brief history of the development of the maritime distress and communications service on 500 kc/s which is followed by live recordings made at the time from the 4 stations mentioned above. The live recordings are entirely in Morse Code and a transcript of these messages will be provided for those not proficient in Morse to follow during the DVD.

Please join us at Pine Trees from 7pm on Thursday 9th January to watch the DVD.

You can buy this DVD from Great Britain Online

The annual Fun Quiz will be held at the SDARC clubroom at the Pine Trees Community Centre, The Circle, Pinehurst, Swindon on Thursday 19th December.

In addition to the usual tea and coffee, there will be free mince pies. In this Quiz, the members form small teams to enter the quiz and give a team answer to a question. So, even if you do not know the answer to a question, hopefully, somebody else in your team will know the answer. There will be rounds of both amateur radio and general knowledge questions.

No access to the Internet will be allowed and the questionmaster’s decision on each answer will be final!