Baffling email from OFCOM regarding Amateur Radio Licence.

[SiriusHardware]

Just received an email from Ofcom with a couple of attachments. The main email says something along the lines of 'the amendments you requested to your licence have been made' which set alarm bells ringing as I had made no such request.

One of the two PDFs is a 'covering letter' in which this is expanded upon:

You have been sent this license either:-

-In response to your recent request

-As a result of an Ofcom variation to your licence.

Of course it is the second case which is true, with the recent changes now coming into effect. I wish Ofcom could be a bit more careful with the wording of their communications (something they ought to be better at).

[Dave Moll]

Are you sure it's genuine? An immediate red flag to me would be the inconsistent spelling of "licence"/"license" (the latter is a verb in British English).

[davidw]

What was the sender email address? It often gives a clue as to validity of said email.

[Station X]

I received one to a few weeks back and thought nothing of it. Seemed genuine to me, but badly worded.

[Malcolm G6ANZ]

I've had an email from Ofcom, it's the same as Sirius. I don't think it's a scam as its not asking for bank details or personal information and it's in French and German. It's a notice of variation of the armature licence allowing 1kW power.

Malcolm G8KGH

[SiriusHardware]

the inconsistent spelling of "licence"/"license"

Actually, that's down to me, I can never remember which way to spell it.

[Phil__G]

Aide-mémoire - a Policeman says "can I 'C' your licence" the noun has the C

[SiriusHardware]

Good one, I'll remember that, thanks.

[kalee20]

For me it's the same as advice / advise (which are pronounced differently).

And it also helps with practice / practise (which aren't).

[SiriusHardware]

Thinking about it, I think that at some point I adopted a deliberate policy of using both spellings in one text so that I could always claim that whichever one was wrong was just a 'typo'.

Anyway - rest assured that that particular error was mine, not Ofcom's. The irony, when I was using that post to complain about Ofcom's apparent inability to communicate clearly, is not lost on me.

[Station X]

Let's have no more discussion about spelling please. Such discussions have a habit of turning very nasty.

[dsergeant]

This email is related to the recent changes to the amateur licences, widely discussed on here and elsewhere. The attachments are your updated licence and a covering letter. They are genuine, I got it a couple of weeks ago and they are sending them to all amateur licencees.

If you were not aware of these changes to our licences see:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre...om-to-innovate

73 Dave G3YMC

[SiriusHardware]

I understood that eventually Dave, it's just that at first glance the email had the look of a classic scam 'hook', informing me that something had been altered at my request when I had made no such request.

It is genuine, just clumsily worded.

[Station X]

I think this is a suitable point to close this thread.