The Laughing Policeman Wireless Society
is the ALTERNATIVE Amateur Wireless Enthusiast's Club
for radio amateurs, wireless amateurs, short wave listeners, pirate broadcasters and fans of exquisite radio buffoonery.

Dedicated to advancing the hobby since 1978!

Thanks to BBC Manchester, Radio amateurs walk right into a trap and make themselves sound utterly ridiculous, in their own words!, no prompting whatsoever. When we were planning this programme, we couldn't have imagined how well this would work out, they talked themselves right up the creek with no paddle. There was great anticipation throughout the hobby that the BBC were doing a documentary on the hobby, that was until 23 minutes in! Initially we were not happy with the vast amount of time spent on amateur radio "in their own words", but upon refection, the producer was dead right and it worked better that we could have possibly imagined. Thanks BBC Manchester!

For reasons best known to themselves, since 2009 , the UK regulatory body, relaxed the rules governing the hobby on 1st. December 2006.
First by dropping of the log book requirement, then we noticed that the ban on transmitting music had been lifted, and now the 15 minute station identification requirement has gone too! It is now so difficult to break the rules as even swearing isn't against current Terms & Conditions. Instead of "winding up" the old duffers by ignoring the rules, we can now wind them right up by just adhering to the rules - what a bizarre turn of events.

This is quotation is not only 100% genuine, but supported by a press cutting. Mohan Dhamrait was a former Radiocommunications Agency officer and later an OFCOM Radio Spectrum Engineer, he was awarded an OBE upon retirement, so the rest of his work must have been of a higher standard than this ridiculous assumption:-

NOTE:-  We don't, didn't, and never have had an intelligence network, staying one step ahead of a DTI man didn't require any great skill and judgment!

On 8th July 2014 we negotiated with Mr. Kunt, front man of Kunt & The Gang, and we have his support and approval to retransmit any track from his album Kuntrarian by Little Kunt, absolutely copyright free.

Click the album cover   -   Great repeater songs!
All the tracks in mp3 in one Zip file are HERE for free download
COPYRIGHT FREE for transmission by LPWS members.   

Under current UK copyright law, the original recorded sound for a recording published prior to 1963 comes into the public domain after 50 years. However, the underlying published song lyrics and music remain in copyright for 70 years after the death of the author.

Talking about copyright:-

It has come to our attention that our theme tune, The Laughing Policeman (Billie Grey), sung by Charles Penrose, may be the subject of copyright infringement, and what may well be one of the earliest examples!
We have been sent a recording of The Laughing Song sung by George W Johnson (An American negro, self styled "Whistling Coon & Laughing Darkie") from a wax cylinder recorded between 1894 & 1898, which we believe predates The Laughing Policeman by some 25+ years!
Whilst not exactly the same song, it is remarkably similar to such an extent that it can barely be a coincidence.

The Loanaranger · George W Johnson (Circa.1898) - The Laughing Song

LPWS Membership is now FREE  This is open to anyone, in fact, you may already be a member and not know it. Contravene any of the current regulations, and you are automatically accepted. You may have said more that 8 syllables or three words before your call-sign, or followed the RSGB Limited advice and said "Is this frequency in use" without first giving the call-sign. The most usual method of acceptance is to respond in any way to an existing LPWS member and therefore be guilty of addressing remarks to other than the station of a licensed amateur, or simply key your mike to check a repeater is working - you have then established your station without giving the call sign at the commencement of transmission, welcome new member!

Since we changed the membership requirements to automatically include anyone breaking the rules, we probably had many more members than RSGB Limited have magazine subscribers! However this brainwave is no longer working since December 1st 2006 when all the rules were changed and breaking any of them made almost impossible.
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The LPWS Official G2 Moaning Stick

We are sorry to say that these are now completely out of stock, in 1992 a kind member from the Southern Branch, dropped off a box of 144 which have all been  distributed FREE, we are forever grateful to the (G7) donor! The one in the clubhouse must be 22 years old and still going strong!

Great for repeater work, we have attempted to buy some more, but the only ones we can find are a pale replica and barely make any noise at all, so upon the suggestion of a member, we have made a recording available on Soundcloud.

Also available as both iPhone and Android apps. Search for Groan Stick.

We think the moaning stick can be legitimately used on amateur radio as it is nothing more than an external tone generating device, if DTMF, CTCSS, SSTV, Packet, AMTOR, 1750KHz, analogue data, and Morse etc., are all OK, then why not the tones of a moaning stick? We will probably get someone to write in and ask, it would be very hard to ban a moaning stick and still allow the use of all the other various tones encountered.

The Loanaranger · G2 Moaning Stick

LPWS report in Shortwave America, G8ASO interview CLICK

Also in PDF HERE
 

LPWS Honourary Membership October 2012

Airline pilots, long regarded as sensible upstanding people, so much so that they get serious discounts on their car insurance etc. and are seemingly able to walk into high earning jobs, now proved to be not that sensible after all!

 

Expletive-ridden Insults

Airline pilots are being investigated after emergency radio channels were jammed with expletive-ridden insults.The abuse was aimed at the RAF’s Distress and Diversion (D&D) Unit, the ‘999 service’ for airmen which responds to mayday calls. The Civil Aviation Authority is attempting to identify the offending pilots.

"There have been comments with plenty of expletives," an RAF source said. "I’m sure these pilots wouldn’t want an emergency line tied up with that sort of infantile chat if they were trying to send a mayday message." "There have also been reports of music being played down the emergency channels."
Another RAF source added: "One German* pilot used to belch over the microphone every day at the same time, which he found amusing."
London-based Civil Aviation Authority is investigating pilots who block the UK's emergency airline "Using our equipment we tracked him and on the third day his transmission was met with the response: “This is London centre. If you continue to abuse this frequency in such a manner then you will be reported.”

The CAA said: "We are investigating allegations of the misuse of the frequency and if we can identify the planes involved we will contact the airline operators and ask them to take action."  An LPWS spokesman declined to comment.

* We are interested to know the difference between a German belch, and any other! Full story HERE

Please submit any press cuttings or audio clips, they will be added to our archive, email address rodgerdipole@gmail.com  editor.

Please note that since this website was designed many of the agencies and departments referred to have been replaced by .
Parts of the website remain as an historical record of what happened at the time.

The Laughing Policeman Wireless Society is a non-profit organisation for the furtherance of amateur radio.
With annual turnover of less then GBP £1000, LPWS qualifies for UK Charitable Status.
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