[UK-CONTEST] set top box

Fri May 25 13:23:16 EDT 2007

Thank you Colin for a most informative e-mail - this is exactly the sort 
of information that should be in Radcom on a regular basis so that the 
membership can appreciate what they are getting for their money and that 
something is being done!

I am pleased that the current issue of Radcom carries a small article 
saying that members of RSGB staff will attend Club Meetings to find out 
what the RSGB can do for its members! This was a suggestion (one of 
many) that I made to Peter Kirby earlier in the year and its nice to see 
something come to fruition at last. (Of course the RSGB should always 
know and have known what they could and should be doing for its members 
but that's another issue!) My one suggestion is the provision of 
information - I don't care about an obscure American comedian or 
whatever he was in an issue a while back - what I want is clear 
information as to what the Society is doing to secure the future of this 
hobby!

If these exchange of postings have made _just one_ person think about 
the future and perhaps start to ask the right questions of the right 
people, then “job done”!

Whilst I agree about your comparison of the UK and US licence situation, 
the one big difference is the standing that the amateur community has 
there, something which we really need to attain ourselves.

Certainly no offence (earlier) intended and hopefully none taken - you 
have probably surmised that I am extremely passionate about this hobby 
and being a US resident (ex-pat, although back here for an unknown 
amount of time due to family health issues), I have seen the way it 
works there and although its far from perfect, its streets ahead of us!

'nuff said on all counts methinks! Back to the contesting!

73's

David
M0ZLB/KG4ZLB

Colin wrote:
> David,
>
> As it appears the debate is continuing on this reflector let me clear up 
> the Dayton "jolly".   Normally 3 members of HQ staff attend the Dayton 
> Hamvention - the General Manager, the Commercial Manager who is 
> responsible for the stand and the associated logistics, plus Sylvia 
> Manco who looks after the Amateur Radio department at HQ.   In addition 
> the President attends as the show is a useful opportunity to network 
> with officials from other National Societies.   In between he also works 
> on the stand.
>
> This year because of a death in the family the General Manager was 
> unable to attend and I was asked to attend at short notice.   This meant 
> there were two paid members of staff and two volunteers, myself and the 
> President.   In addition Martin G3ZAY and Dominic M0BLF were present to 
> promote IOTA.   This was at no cost to the Society.
>
> A 9 hour stint on an exhibition stand is no "jolly" whether it be a 
> commercial or amateur show and at Dayton you need 2 or 3 people on the 
> stand at any one time.   Believe me I've been there, done that and got 
> some tee shirts to prove it!
>
> More importantly for the Society it is a success both in financial and 
> membership terms.   We sold all (bar 6) books so nothing needed to be 
> shipped back and we took a record number of new memberships and renewals 
> from last year.   Even more importanly we flew the UK flag (albeit 
> upside down) and a lot of visitors appreciated that.
>
> Getting back to the crux of the debate I have been a member of the 
> Society for 49 years and I know that during that time it has been very 
> active liaisng with the various changing administrations whether it was 
> the Home Office, Postmaster General, Ministry of Post and 
> Telecommunications, Radiocommunications Agency or Ofcom.   The current 
> administration is tasked by the Government to gain as much income as 
> possible to benefit UK PLC and lets face it the money to fight the Iraq 
> war has to come from somewhere!   If the Government is going to ignore 
> 1.8M signatories to the road charging petition what chance have the 
> active UK radio amateurs have?   We have a lot more spectrum than we had 
> 40 years ago and the HF spectrum is a lot quieter than it used to be.   
> Who remembers Radio Cairo on 7050, Radio Iran on 7075 and Radio Peking 
> on 7090 etc etc, all at the same time - and you think 40 metres is 
> crowded now!
>
> PLT is currently not an issue in the UK, those providers that have tried 
> it quickly came to the conclusion that it was not economically viable.   
> The RSGB maintains a listening watch though because someone will try and 
> reinvent the wheel.   The main concern at the moment is the homeplug 
> issue and as a result of approaches by the RSGB, Ofcom have gone back to 
> BNetzA the German administration to retest some of these models for CE 
> certification.   The problem with Directive 2004/108/EC (a copy of which 
> is available from me on request) is that it is largely re-active.   It 
> states what should happen but it isn't until complaints about a product 
> are logged that anything can be done questioning the validity of the CE 
> marking.   It is then that Ofcom are duty bound to investigate and they 
> are already doing this with a number of products.   The Amateur Radio 
> Service now has the same level of priority as any other user, apart from 
> the Safety of Life services.   A Memorandum of Understanding is 
> currently being drawn up between the Society and Ofcom as well as Levels 
> of Services agreements.
>
> The Society is doing their bit, what p.ss.es me off are the people who 
> shoot their mouth off without establishing the true facts.
>
> The EMC Committee by the way has some very proficient engineers and ex 
> Ofcom investigating staff on board who are very pro-active with their work.
>
> Incidentally David the free UK 5 year 'licence for life' closely follows 
> the free US 10 year 'license for life' which has been in existance for 
> quite a few years, and I obtained my US license in one sitting Novice 
> through to Extra at a rally in Harrogate about 17 years ago.
>
> 73
>
> Colin, G3PSM/AD4UC 
>
>
>
> David - M0ZLB wrote:
>   
>> What is disgusting is the fact that hardly anything has been done to 
>> protect the Amateur Radio Service over the past forty or so years, we 
>> now have a regulator which is hell bent on selling off every available 
>> piece of spectrum to the highest bidder, we have no decent controls to 
>> stop pieces of electronic kit (like baby minders) polluting our spectrum 
>> and we have been sold the mother of all dummies with the licence for 
>> life concept.
>>
>> And on top of that we have people who “tut-tut” this and “tut-tut” that 
>> who will then wonder why they cant use HF any more because BPL/PLT has 
>> killed it off!
>>
>> Very British “head in the sand” attitude!
>>
>>
>>
>>   
>>     
>
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