A.R.O.S

Amateur Radio Observation Service

Formerly run by walnut impersonator, Geoff Griffiths G4STG, thankfully, the vile old bigot is no longer with us.

AROS were/are a bunch of loonies loosely operating on behalf of magazine and book publishers, RSGB Limited.

Long thought to have been disbanded, however there is a page on the current RSGB Ltd. website you can take a look at HERE

So it would appear that either AROS has been resurrected, or that it never went away. This is just the job for your general radio loony, and attracts the people who are too stupid to wear a tabard and join RAYNET, a sorry bunch of social inadequates, and no mistake.

Just what has anything going on in the hobby have to do with RSGB Ltd.?

You may well ask, some people think the company is a real radio club and their "subscription" pays for club membership - in fact it is nothing more than a subscription for their magazine Radiocommunications. In fact on more than one company information website RSGB Limited say one of their objectives is the sale of Radiocommunications, which looks to the uninitiated like a sensible pursuit until you discover it is a small volume magazine circulated only by subscription within amateur radio circles.

Basically these people of AROS have set themselves up as unofficial policemen of the airwaves - to understand their position, imagine the AA or the RAC getting involved, via a volunteer force, who would go about privately advising people about speeding, parking, and other motoring offences, and threatening them that if they don't do as they're told, they will gather a bunch of witnesses together and urge the authorities to prosecute. But it doesn't actually end there, LPWS members have had their lives threatened on several occasions, once in writing to a Police Station - believe it or not. Threats have been made to vandalise and steal cars, damage property, break fingers, force cars off the road, and arson. One member actually had a lit marine distress flare thrown through his window!

You can easily see the preposterous nature of this group when you further consider that this company (RSGB Ltd) make their entire income from within the hobby, and as such, should really have an "arms length" relationship with such matters. It appears to us that this type of behaviour is nothing more than an exercise to protect their income.

Reproduced below is a letter from RSGB Ltd. which may or may not be genuine. It was supplied by a well known LPWS member and is on what appears to be genuine RSGB Limited headed paper, where they admit their Limited Company status in the small print at the bottom. RSGB Ltd's registered office is in Bedford, but the envelope was postmarked Nottingham Mail Centre, quite a considerable distance away.

Here is a copy of the letter, click on it for a larger image.

Update, we have now been forwarded a second letter, worded almost exactly the same as the one above.
The mystery deepens as this second letter was also postmarked Nottingham Mail Centre, rather a long way to go to post a letter purporting to come from a company with its registered office in Bedford.

If you have had a similar letter, please scan it and let us have a copy, we will forward them all to the Police and start a case against this twat Mark Jones under section 2 of The Protection From Harassment Act 1997.
One of his letters has already caused considerably fear and anguish to a blind, disabled, and housebound licensed amateur.

There is no justification whatsoever for RSGB Limited to employ vigilantes in an attempt to intimidate people by quoting obsolete, false, and non existent legislation. This seems to be nothing more than "bully boy" tactics to preserve their dwindling customer base, relying as they do, on radio amateurs for almost the entire company's income.

Both letters refer to "foul Language" and "threats" being "associated" with specific call signs, which is preposterous as if any LPWS member was to do this, they certainly wouldn't be using a call sign, and if they did, it wouldn't be their own. More likely there is a bit of mischief making going on. If any threats are made, invariably it is towards LPWS members and not the other way round.

The so called "foul Language" is a little contentious now as OFCOM's own documents tell us that it has to be proven that language used in any alleged offence is worse than that encountered in everyday life.

When public domain television broadcast a film or a TV show, the only warning about the swearing is that "The following programme contains strong language", never "grossly offensive" language, which is the only thing we are not licensed to transmit, but we don't know what it is.
Unless there are some new swearwords we are unfamiliar with, every swearword we can think of is regularly in use in the street, in the pub, at school, and on TV. Cunt* is still not widely used on TV shows, but has certainly been regularly broadcast, and encountered in everyday life.

Much more on swearing can be found HERE.

The playing of music has been quite legal on amateur radio for many years now, the ban was removed when the new Terms & Conditions were published. Dipstick Jones G0MGX would be well advised to actually familiarise himself with the rules he and his band of vigilantes are trying to enforce.

It is more likely than not that any transmissions being attributed to LPWS members are either edited recordings or made by some of the many impersonators out there, G1XYU and G1MTT are regularly imitated and often third party recordings of both stations can be heard. This has been the case since at least 1990.

(* Editors note, the use of the word cunt is in no way associated with Mark Jones G0MGX, we would like to apologise for any confusion this may have caused)

UPDATE July 2014, nothing more heard from Dipstick Mark Jones G0MGX, maybe he has now read the new rules and realised what a twat he has made of himself!

UPDATE August 2014, we have been informed that Mark Jones G0MGX has had an arsehole transplant, but complications have set in when the arsehole rejected him.

You will see that the letter is signed by a character called Mark Jones who seems constrained to add his station's call sign G0MGX for some reason, he used to be about radio rallies in short trousers, but now has covered himself up a bit.

The Nottingham postcode on the envelope may be explained by the fact that Jones lives in Belper, in fact he lives at 8 Stanton Avenue, Belper, DE56 1EE, pictured below, so it makes sense that mail from his work in Derby, or home, Belper, would pass through Nottingham.

This is him here on the left, apparently not a shirt-lifter as he appears, surprisingly he is married! We are unsure as to whether his threatening letters were sent personally or not, but remember we have a history with this company, RSGB Limited, making false allegations and defamatory statements. It cost them "an undisclosed sum" in out of court payments. Maybe payday number 2 is on the horizon.

Click on the picture to read all about him, see his house, dog, and 2 cats - strangely there are even pictures of his wife on his blog!

"Aerial" view!

It seems a shame he bought the house at the bottom of the incline, higher up the road would have significant propagation benefits for radio use.

It would seem that RSGB Limited have a short memory, the last time they made defamatory remarks and spread malicious falsehoods about an LPWS member, they ended up paying a substantial sum in an out of court settlement. Embarking again on a similar course of action would seem to be, at best, rather unwise for the company and its shareholders:-

"In our bulletin for Sunday the 4th of July, we ran a story concerning George Hitchcock, G1MTT, who had been fined for a number of radio-related offences. We stated incorrectly that the offences were related to the transmission of abuse and obscenities. We unreservedly apologise to Mr. Hitchcock for this and regret any embarrassment this may have caused him. Mr. Hitchcock has asked us to point out that the charges were as follows: eight counts of using apparatus for wireless telegraphy without a licence and two counts of unlawful broadcasting. Four charges were withdrawn, one was returned not guilty by direction of the Judge and of the five counts on which he was found guilty, four charges related to the playing of music and one related to not using a callsign (sic) at the commencement of transmission. In all cases it was alleged the same frequency was used, namely 145.025MHz, the input frequency of the Malvern Hills repeater GB3MH. No charges were brought concerning abuse or obscenities or the use of any other repeater or frequency. The Society has agreed to pay Mr. Hitchcock his legal costs and damages."