We understand from the RSGB that Ofcom has started sending out letters to all UK radio amateurs notifying them about the proposed licence changes. You should be getting your letter in the coming days, if you haven’t already. The letter gives notice of the proposed changes and the option to appeal the changes.
If you want to know what’s being changed, see our summary: Ofcom Licence Changes – Consultation Results
What’s being changed:
- Changes to how often a callsign has to be given
- 470kHz and 5MHz bands available to Full licence holders without the need for an NoV
- Changes to allow a club to keep its callsign if the licence-holder leaves that club
- Changes to licence revocation if the holder has been convicted of an offense under the WTA
- Allow encryption, if requested by a User Service or when assisting with communications at a time of emergency
- Some other minor wording changes
Update from RSGB
The following announcement has been circulated by Graham Coomber, the RSGB General Manager:
As you will be aware, Ofcom are required to give all licenced radio amateurs notice that they intend to vary licences in line with their decisions following last year’s consultation. That process has now begun and letters are being sent out.
It has been brought to our attention that some amateurs have received a letter suggesting that their callsign now includes the RSL “E”. Ofcom have confirmed that this is an error and not a change in policy. I am advised that Ofcom intend to publish an explanation on their website (which we will replicate on ours).
Got your letter? Add a comment below and let us know your thoughts…
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-2/amateur-radio-licence
The above document which in I received in an email a couple of days ago may be part of what this is all about.
I have just had to re-apply for my Nov as it was not issued by Ofcom, it was issued on their behalf by the RSGB some years ago.
I think it would have been nice to receive some explanation from the RSGB as I am a member of the organisation, before I contacted last them Sunday asking for an explanation of the full implications. RadCom comes to mind as a possible organ for diseminating the information.
I had, then discovered, that my NoV call had been removed from all the lists!
Ofcom are obliged to follow due process before they revoke a licence or change its conditions.
The WTA 2006 states that notification of any proposed change must be sent to the licence holder in writing – on paper – emails or posts on a website do not count.
Ofcom must send notification to the postal address they hold on record for that licence.
Once written notification has been sent licence holders have 1 month to appeal against the change. Only after the full appeal process is completed, which can take months, does the revocation or the new licence conditions come into effect. In the meantime the previous licence conditions continue to apply.
73 Trevor M5AKA
Regarding Duncan’s point about NoV’s it might appear that NoV’s issued by or on behalf of the Radio Communications Agency which did not have an expiry date on them remain valid forever unless of course the holders can be persuaded to voluntarily relinquish them or until Ofcom goes through a formal revocation procedure.
But Ofcom may have a problem with revoking Radio Communications Agency NoV’s – they may no longer have a record of them. When the responsibilities of the Radio Communications Agency were transferred to the newly created Ofcom in at the end of 2003 none of the old paperwork was transferred across. For example if you held an amateur licence in the 1990’s and let it expire Ofcom will have no record it ever existed, they will however, re-issue you with your old callsign if you can provide some documentary evidence you once had it – e.g. RSGB Yearbook listing.
The records for the then current annually renewed licences were transferred to Ofcom but I wouldn’t be so sure that NoV’s which had no renewal requirement made it across to the new organisation – I don’t think they did.
The RSGB carried out a similar exercise of disposing of piles of old records when they moved from Potter Bar to Bedford in 2008 so that only the bare minimum had to be moved to the new and much smaller offices.
73 Trevor M5AKA
The email I referred to in my previous comment came from a fellow amateur with an MB7 Nov like myself. They were, at the time of their introduction, supposed to be ‘for life’. I hadn’t been looking for, or expecting, changes!
Although I was asked, by RSGB, to provide a copy of the original document when making my new application on Sunday, I still retain it.
I wait with bated breath for the revocation of the original NoV issue to raise its head. Legally, it must at some point in time.