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Old 16th Oct 2018, 9:41 am   #221
G4CMY_Tony
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

It was announced yesterday at my local Amateur Radio club that Ofcomm have started issuing Foundation licences in the range M7xxx.


There was also mention of some M5 two letter calls being issued but nobody knew what they were for.
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Old 16th Oct 2018, 11:03 am   #222
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

Thanks for that - the combination of letters in the M7 call mentioned made me think it was highly likely to be a made up call, so it's nice to have confirmation that these calls are legitimate.

To be fair I, as one of the first M0 calls issued, had no end of trouble initially with foreign stations who, on querying my callsign several times, simply said 'no' and stopped working me. It took a while for word to get around.

M5 two letter - Full licence, possibly? I don't know where they were with M0 and M1 callsigns, how many were left in those sequences?
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Old 16th Oct 2018, 11:45 am   #223
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

Yes M7 is being used.
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Old 16th Oct 2018, 2:10 pm   #224
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

Quote:
Originally Posted by SiriusHardware View Post

M5 two letter - Full licence, possibly? I don't know where they were with M0 and M1 callsigns, how many were left in those sequences?
It was confirmed by the licencee himself, John, yesterday, in uk.radio.amateur.moderated
<quote>
It's not a vanity callsign, or indeed an 'additional' callsign. I passed my exam, submitted an application for a callsign, and was granted it.
I have one, and only one, full licence callsign. It is M5ET.


The consensus is it may be a mistake, when other anomalies have occurred OFCOM have not withdrawn the callsign. Time will tell if other M5+2's are issued.

Many congratulations to John, but it saddens me to see OFCOM, the RSGB and the Amateur fraternity at large, unable to communicate.
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Old 16th Oct 2018, 3:28 pm   #225
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Originally Posted by rambo1152 View Post
The consensus is it may be a mistake, when other anomalies have occurred OFCOM have not withdrawn the callsign. Time will tell if other M5+2's are issued.
If they really are now issuing M5 + 2 letter for full licence callsigns, they clearly aren't expecting many more people to apply for them. 26 * 26, minus any which (in two letters?) might be deemed to be an offensive combination. Less than 700 altogether.
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Old 16th Oct 2018, 3:55 pm   #226
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

Somewhere in the back of my mind there was a memory that there have been M5 + three letter callsigns in the recent past, and so there were. They were the original UK 'intermediate' callsigns, or class AB. This page summarises it quite well.

http://www.m5txj.net/m5%20thing.htm

So there's a problem with issuing M5XXX for a full licence, but not really, since all M5 holders were offered an 'upgrade' to M0 after the 12wpm morse requirement was ended.

Therefore original M5s (who had passed the full RAE) and 'new' full licence holders given M5XXX would, for all intents and purposes, be equal. I can't see why new full licence holders could not be issued with M5XXX, apart from the fact that the original M5 calls will lose their exclusive / rare status.

Last edited by SiriusHardware; 16th Oct 2018 at 4:21 pm.
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Old 16th Oct 2018, 4:13 pm   #227
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

At the same time those would had passed the full RAE and had also passed the PMG
morse test as marine radio officers were no longer required to take the morse test again
to gain a "Class A" call sign.
When M0 calls run out I think M4 will be the next series.
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Old 16th Oct 2018, 6:38 pm   #228
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

I'm waiting for my M2+2, it could be a long wait.
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Old 16th Oct 2018, 6:45 pm   #229
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

M2+2 was used by the emergency services in the days before Airwave... see http://www.ringbell.co.uk/ukwmo/Page248.htm

though the base-stations never used the M2 bit, just the last 2 characters. I have memories of listening to 'YK' back in the days when West Mercia Police had base-stations around 99-101MHz.
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Old 16th Oct 2018, 7:05 pm   #230
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

That is why it will be a long wait!!

Plz Mr Ofcom, have they finished with M2MP yet? I think it could up my contest scores...

Ah and I forgot to add - the intermod from many M2 headquarters were definitely users of the 2m amateur band
so not so far off topic. The 146 MHz links and their mixes were audible for quite a long way pre-WARC changes.
After that they had discovered the magic of ferrite isolators and filters. Along with Hanna special bird cages on the sites.

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Old 16th Oct 2018, 7:35 pm   #231
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon_G4MDC View Post
That is why it will be a long wait!!

Plz Mr Ofcom, have they finished with M2MP yet? I think it could up my contest scores...
I think that M2MP is in use, although what it actually refers to in the Airwave/Tetra world I couldn't say.

I am pretty sure I heard someone refer to "CK" on one of those police camera programmes filmed up here.
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Old 16th Oct 2018, 10:19 pm   #232
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

I can remember listening to the local fire brigade in the 1960's when they were still using the top half of the VHF broadcast band. The controller normally identified the station with the full callsign, "M2FO".

Some stations just used the last two letters, with the "M2" being assumed. The police base station was "CH".

And of course the West Lancs police callsign "BD" (on Billinge Hill) which became well known after its use in the TV drama series "Z-cars".

There are callsign and frequency lists here, follow the links:
http://radiohistory.uk/emergencyservices.html

Last edited by m0cemdave; 16th Oct 2018 at 10:28 pm.
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Old 16th Oct 2018, 10:22 pm   #233
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon_G4MDC View Post
I'm waiting for my M2+2, it could be a long wait.
I might have been the last person to use an M2+2 on air... a good few years ago when I inadverntantly signed as M2RX on 2m one evening (it was our service centers call, as far as I know there was only me ever bothered to use it for on air tests, and i'd been testing with HMYOI Thorpe Arch that day!)
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Old 17th Oct 2018, 6:26 pm   #234
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

Mistakes happen.
There is something satisfying about pressing the button and knowing that maybe 8 to 10
T300AMs are clicking their relays and dipping the mains Voltage on mod peaks.
M2LB for me.

Last edited by Jon_G4MDC; 17th Oct 2018 at 6:32 pm.
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Old 18th Oct 2018, 9:44 pm   #235
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

Just to confuse us even more! See:-

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/201...m#.W8jwK8RReM8

73

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Old 18th Oct 2018, 11:23 pm   #236
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

I remember M2BB, M2BC for Police and Fire AM systems in the eighties. (The old school radio techs will be able to work out from that which region I was looking after.) Warming pies on the cooling fans on F300AM main Txs. A brace of 4CX250's in the RFPA chimney and another pair of QY3-125's in the modulator used to throw some heat out! Not sure whether they still use the M2 prefix but I doubt it very much. It all went with the advent of Tetra I suspect. Bah humbug. Strangely enough I never heard mention of M2 used with the Ambulance Service but I think they started off being Council run as opposed to the Home Office. Haven't heard any M7's on the air yet.
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Old 19th Oct 2018, 10:59 am   #237
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

There were three QSO's going on 2m yesterday morning when I turned the radio on, two on repeaters and one one S20 - all in French.

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Old 19th Oct 2018, 1:05 pm   #238
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The perils of living on the south coast! Along with the added danger that you might find your mobile accidentally roaming on a French cell. I get down that way relatively rarely but next time I am down there I will take a 2m handheld with me up onto Golden Cap, a potentially excellent take-off spot. Nice views too, as I found earlier this year.
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Old 19th Oct 2018, 6:12 pm   #239
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

Quote:
Originally Posted by G3VKM_Roger View Post
Just to confuse us even more! See:-

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/201...m#.W8jwK8RReM8

73

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At that link, I'm baffled by the statement:

"Short callsigns are greatly prized by radio amateurs..."

Errm, why?

...and it is thought this move could lead to many more people taking the Intermediate and Advanced exams".

Really?

That's just an unattributed statement. "It is thought" by whom?

Surely Foundation Licence holders who are minded to gain an intermediate and Full licence do so for the additional benefits that accords them - not because of the callsign that's allocated, or is the hobby now that shallow and vain that a callsign really would be spur and would/will be 'greatly prized'? If so, it brings to mind the quote by Henri Bergson:

"The only cure for vanity is laughter and the only fault that is laughable is vanity".

Examples of the sort of callsigns that really do mean/have meant something in the hobby are G2DAF, G5RV, G2BCX, G3OGR, G3VA, G3PDM, G3RJV, G3TSO, G6XN, G4DMP - not because of the callsigns per se, but because of the contribution to the hobby by the men to whom the callsigns were allocated.

Or so it seems to me.

Ho hum - see you further down the log!
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Old 20th Oct 2018, 6:47 am   #240
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Default Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?

I'd add G3PLX to your list, David. Otherwise, good points, well stated.

73

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