Quote:
Originally Posted by crestavega
Does supervision mean in the literal sense for the purposes of legality? what if I am in the next room with no clear line of sight?
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My interpretation as a fellow amateur would be 'In a position to monitor, and to intervene directly if necessary'. So basically, either in the same room or at least within physical earshot and able to reach the operator and station in very short order. It would be interesting to know what the official definition of 'supervision' is.
Interestingly, if you can remember back to the original time of legal CB radio in the UK when a licence was required, the licence covered up to five sets and whoever was using them, with the licence holder nominally responsible for their conduct. That is more or less the system you would like to see working on amateur radio.
I know Orkney quite well, having visited a number of times over the years. The mainland isn't very big and I would have thought you could easily cover it with CB, which is licence-free and very quiet these days especially up there - at least until you get everyone organised for amateur radio?
It actually wasn't so long ago that the facility for unlicenced operators to operate an amateur station in a more relaxed / spontaneous way under supervision was introduced. Before that, unlicenced operators were limited to sending pre-prepared messages under the direct supervision of an operator. As limited as the current situation seems, it was much more limited before.