Amateur-radio-general-notice-decision

[mickm3for]

Hi today Ofcom published the general notice to vary amateur radio licence https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/asse...e-decision.pdf Mick

[David G4EBT]

A couple of snippets about the issue of updated licence worth noting are:

Quote:

2.47: We will shortly commence writing to licensees to provide them with their new licence document. We will contact licensees by email or post depending on their preferred method of communication. There are approximately 100,000 amateur licences currently issued, therefore the process of reissuing such a large number of licences will take some time. We expect to have completed this process by autumn 2024.

End quote.

Given that some amateurs have hung onto their Foundation and Intermediate Licence, ate the end of the exercise, it will be interesting how many licenced amateur there are, rather than how many pieces of paper.

For those who haven't opted to be kept up to date by email, it might be worth registering:

Quote:

2.48: In order to allow us to contact you more quickly, if you have opted to receive documents via the post, it is recommended that you provide an up-to-date email address, and we will send your new Amateur Radio Licence, as well as any future correspondence by email. Please send an email by 31 March 2024 to:

amateur.radio.review@ofcom.org.uk, and include the following information:

Subject: Email communication – YES!
• Your full name
• Your Callsign or customer reference number
2.49 In the meantime, licensees can access the Amateur Radio Wireless Telegraphy Licence Conditions Booklet from our website and can print or download it. If a licensee requires the Booklet in an alternative format (e.g., PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille), they can send an email to spectrum.licensing@ofcom.org.uk, letting us know what information is required and in what format. We will consider the request and respond within 21 days.

End quote.

In the consultation process, Ofcom received 91 representations from 'stakeholders' which it took account of, and comments on in the document.

From page 17 onwards, Ofcom has really gone to town with highlighting text in yellow, green, turquoise, bold, italics and underlined. A labour of love for someone, and a joy for anyone deprived of crayons as a child!

[G6Tanuki]

Interesting to see that we can now operate personal beacons... That's going to be useful for some of my antenna experiments.

And us 'full' licence holders can now run what my US friends call 'the full gallon' -- 1KW -- on HF (apart for bits of 1.8MHz and all of our 5MHz bandlets) subject to a bit of spreadsheetery to demonstrate no hazard to the general public as far as field strength is concerned).

[m0cemdave]

I hope nobody tries running a kilowatt in a built-up area. Given the complete incompatabilty of cheap modern household electronics with HF radio, I can imagine a lot of trouble with the neighbours, bad publicity for the hobby, and Ofcom being flooded with complaints...

[trh01uk]

Originally Posted by m0cemdave

I hope nobody tries running a kilowatt in a built-up area. Given the complete incompatabilty of cheap modern household electronics with HF radio, I can imagine a lot of trouble with the neighbours, bad publicity for the hobby, and Ofcom being flooded with complaints...

Decent electronic products, conforming to the EU's EMC Directive (which as far as I know is still in force in the UK), will be tested for susceptibility to radiated RF fields and conducted RF voltages. So I would expect that sort of equipment to work OK - provided that the amateur operator doesn't do something very stupid, like running his aerial near to a neighbour's mains, phone or TV cables.

The trouble comes of course with "cheap imports" mostly from China, which have long been recognised as totally failing all EMC tests, despite having conformity labelling often moulded into their cheap plastic cases!

Richard

[David G4EBT]

Originally Posted by m0cemdave

I hope nobody tries running a kilowatt in a built-up area. Given the complete incompatibility of cheap modern household electronics with HF radio, I can imagine a lot of trouble with the neighbours, bad publicity for the hobby, and Ofcom being flooded with complaints...

I can't imagine many doing that.

Back in the 1960s, linear amplifiers such as the 'KW 1000' had 1,200 Watts PEP output, but only serious DXers with towers and tri-band beams tended to buy them (and of course, limit their output to 400Watts PEP).

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK...SWM-1967-11.pd

In the early 70s, along came transceivers such as the FTDX400:

AM: ~60 W (125 W input)
SSB (PEP): ~250 W (500-560 W input)
CW: ~200 W (440-500 W input)

https://www.rigpix.com/yaesu/ftdx400.htm

Down the years, even when PA stages were valved, most popular transceivers only poked out 100 Watts PEP.

Typically from the 70s, the FT101 and later its variants:

RF output power:

Max pwr
AM: +40 W
SSB (PEP):+100 W
CW: +100 W

https://www.rigpix.com/yaesu/ft101.htm

Then the 1980s, TRIO/Kenwood TS830:

RF output power:

SSB (PEP): ~100 W (220 W input)
CW (DC): ~100 W (180 W input)

https://www.rigpix.com/kenwood/ts830s.htm

(I has a TS830 from 1985 - 2005 and 100W was more than adequate for me to work all continents - Oz, NZ, Japan, Brazil, Africa, North America etc, plus lots of other countries).

Then along came transceivers using solid state PAs, almost all of which I believe are typically 100 Watts into a 1:1 SWR, but if there's a mismatch, will wind back to power so as to not destroy the output stage. And how much if that 100 Watts gets to the feed point of whatever antenna we can get away with in out 'pocket handkerchief' suburban back gardens is anyone's guess.

So if few amateurs who - for decades on the HF bands - could be poking out 400 Watts SSB, yet have been content with 100 Watts, I can't imagine many other than contest stations sticking a 'louden-boomer' between their rig and antenna taking advantage of a kilowatt.

Doubtless some will, and may already be doing the sums.

In the event that they make a nuisance of themselves, (I don't think they will), that's a matter for Ofcom, who won't have granted this without serious consideration. From what I've seen, more amateurs have been wound-up about callsigns than most other aspects of the revision.

Just my thoughts - other may disagree, which is fine.

[AnalogueMan]

I'm with you on that. I got my DXCC last year running only 100w and sometimes less, I'm surrounded by houses and the garden is just big enough for an end-fed half wave. Even if I didn't make myself very unpopular with the neighbours by running a kilowatt there's no way I could comply with the EMF requirements as I just don't physically have the space. I suspect only those with large gardens and tall towers will actually be able to take advantage of it