Amateur licence cost over 25 years

[HamishBoxer]

Of course each time you login to your account it does re validate it.

[David G4EBT]

I'm not too sure about that.

Earlier today when I logged on, under 'Personal details' it states:

Quote:

"You can manage all your personal and account details from here including resetting your password.
Note: updating your personal details will update the following personal licence":

Amateur Full Radio Licence.

I duly clicked on 'update or verify your details' yet my personal dashboard' still states:

Quote:

'You last updated or verified your personal details on:10/04/2017 15:26
Please check and update or confirm your details'.

End quote.

It's like a 'Groundhog Day' loop but I'm not bothered about it.

They have a chatline but it wouldn't be fair to foist myself on them as I'm the sort of guy I least like to be cooped up in a railway carriage with.

[HamishBoxer]

If I ever go on a train I will heed the warning!

PS The helpful lady did say it updates each time,though I must make sure.Having said that, she said I had updated prior to today on the 9th February

[Nuvistor]

Logged yesterday and the date was changed to Feb 2025, was Feb 2021, thought I may as well check with this thread reminding me.
I had to renew my login account, the old one wasn’t accepted but making a new account brought up all the correct details.

[SiriusHardware]

I renew mine a bit more often, maybe every two or three years, in case it goes out of my head if I leave it any longer. Originally when they went to this system there was just a 'revalidate' button once you were logged into the Radio Communication Agency's website, very straightforward.

When Ofcom took it over and redid the website we had, for a time, the daft situation where the only way you could renew / revalidate was by changing one of your details to provoke a refresh, and then changing it back. I dropped them an email to complain about it at the time and got the response 'we aren't going to change it'. My response: 'Yes, you are'. And so they did, eventually.

Getting back to the original question about the cost of being an amateur, the cost of the ticket must be dwarfed by the sheer cost of commercially made amateur radio equipment. I started off (wisely, I feel) on a £20 ex-PMR radio from a rally but a year or so in I found myself buying a full featured Icom dual band handheld (£500+, if you included costly specific accessories like fast chargers and extra batteries) and an FT290R2 + clip-on Linear. And that was just the start. I've never bought an HF rig new, I just make do with my old Kenwood TS-50 bought second hand at a rally - mercifully only the one fault and easily fixed - and that's that. I bet some rather more well heeled amateurs have gone well into the tens of thousands for equipment.

[G6Tanuki]

It's worth keeping your details up-to-date, specially if you're a 5MHz operator - where you have to provide a valid phone-contact number in case the primary-user ever needs to tell you to close down.

[Rowbank]

My initial posting was to enquire about the cost of an amateur licence in 1946 over some 25 years .

The RSGB Bulletin for April 1946 supplied the answer for the initial post war cost:

10 watts licence was 10 shillings initial charge, then £1 annually
25 watts licence was a £1 initial charge, then £1 - 10 shillings annually
Over 25 watts licence was £1 initial charge, then £2 annually
A transfer charge of 10 shillings applied to those with a 10 watt licence to change to a higher power.

An inflation calculator implies that £1 in 1946 is represented by around £42. Assuming the licence fee remained at £2 (which it didn’t) for 25 years gives a very rough figure of around £1300 which satisfied the nephews’ curiosity.

Bruce. GM4BDJ

[Steve G4WCS]

Originally Posted by HamishBoxer

In a world where they are too many complainers,I have to say first class to Ofcom.

Misplaced or so I thought the other day of my licence details (login) and then created another account that showed no licence!

Quick call this morning as I found original details and all sorted.I have found them excellent in the past as I have the DVLA with queries.

As an RSGB 160m reader,I cannot be found to be out of order.

I've just tried to login with no avail, created a new account and as above- no licence shown.

I have just rung them and the office is currently closed but the man in the echo chamber recording did say that they have a new online system so all old accounts have been deleted and you will need to re-register. now, lets hope they don't wish to see my City and Guilds certificate from 1983

[Jon_G4MDC]

I did the reregistration a week or two ago.
Once I had entered my name, address & postcode it had the details of my licence.
Easy.

[David G4EBT]

I have no problems in getting into my account at Ofcom Online Licensing Services, but as I said in post #23, if I click on 'verify my details', which should update the licence for five years, then log out and log back in, it still says: 'You last updated or verified your personal details on:10/04/2017 15:26 - please check and update or confirm your details'.

So, noticing that my details didn't have my county shown nor a mobile phone number, I updated my details to include the county and mobile phone No. Logged out, logged back in again, and it still says 'you updated your personal details on 10/04/2017'. It does not show the updated information of county/mobile phone number so hasn't updated.

My 'new' licence was issued on 26/02/2007. I re-validated it on 08/12/2012 till 07/12/2017, I then revalidated it on 10/04/2017. Hence, the deadline for re-validation isn't until 09/04/2022, so it's still valid. In any event, as I've not been on air for fifteen years and have no intention of ever doing so again, it's academic. I retain my licence purely for sentimental reasons from a bygone age, when the hobby was a very different one from what it has morphed into, and is at odds with my interests in homebrew.

I've only gone through this rigmarole to see if the system does update, and certainly in my case, it does not. In any event, from the outset the system did not conform to Ofcom's statutory duty to minimise its administration by cutting out needless red tape. I should really only be necessary to update when a change of address or other personal details are required, or when the licence holder is deceased.

[Dave757]

Originally Posted by David G4EBT

. I should really only be necessary to update when a change of address or other personal details are required, or when the licence holder is deceased.

Hi David,

I think this last point is the reason for the update, - when you die the
chances are that nobody, especially if your family don't share the interest,
will notify Ofcom of your passing.
At least when you had to pay a licence fee, they knew by non payment
that the licence was no longer required and automatically amended their records.
Out of interest, in a similar vein, I checked the QRZ record for an old
friend who died some time ago, and he is still there, although there is
another Amateur in the family!

Kind regards
Dave

What are the chances of being caught using your call sign properly without re-registering? Probably next to nothing.

[David G4EBT]

Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell

What are the chances of being caught using your call sign properly without re-registering? Probably next to nothing.

About the same chance as an imposter using my callsign purporting to be me being caught I guess!

Hard to get caught when there is no regulatory activity.

Ofcom didn't want this re-validation nonsense anyway - the licences were issued as 'Licence for Life'. It wouldn't surprise me if a high proportion of amateurs - especially those who don't go on air, have never re-validated since 2007 and wouldn't know how to. As stated on the Essexham site back in 2015 in the link at post #10: "According to Ofcom, a staggering 47% of licences hadn’t been validated at the end of 2013". It can only have worsened since then.

Imagine the administrative chaos that would reign if drivers had to re-validate their driving licence every five years with the DVLA, rather than when their circumstances change. Admittedly they have to self-certify every three years from age 70, (which is very lax, but better than nothing).

Many amateurs who've gone through the route of Foundation, Intermediate and Full, have taken out a licence at each stage, none of which are cancelled by Ofcom - only by the licensees, so some amateurs have three licences and three callsigns. Hence, the number of licences and callsigns issued bears little relationship to the actual number of amateurs in existence, not that it really matters.

[G6Tanuki]

Regarding the "revalidation" thing, I realised today that the email address I'd registered with OFCOM when the Lifetime Licence thing came into being was one that - since I quit work - I no longer have access to.

And that was coming up to five years ago.

A quick email interchange with Kyle at OFCOM got my details ported to my new email-address. PDFs of my licence, my notice-of-variation, and confirmation that I was legal for the next five years arrived within an hour.

I'm rather happy with the lifetime-licence and nothing-to-pay approach!

[Uncle Bulgaria]

DavidG4EBT - what was your reason for falling out of love with the hobby? As someone who has never attempted radio communication beyond calling harbours on VHF, what was the original appeal of the activity and why could I have liked it then and not now? I'm curious as I'm interested in listening to the radio, but have a complete lack of experience in the transmission and don't even know if I'd find it enjoyable!

[Jon_G4MDC]

A discussion about that would be seriously off topic. I could start but I won't.

[AC/HL]

As the question has been answered to the OP's satisfaction, and the thread is starting to wander somewhat, it's time to close.