Advice from the LPWS
Try to stay Squeaky Clean!

In the past, the over zealous officers of The Radiocommunications Agency vigorously pursued radio amateurs for minor infractions of the rules.
Since their work has been taken over by Ofcom, we have been able to welcome a more rational and even handed approach.

After all, the hobby has no serious use and basically is only a bunch of loonies talking futile and meaningless drivel to each other, a good example being that when contacting someone for the first time, the main content of the conversation seems to be what radio each side have, what antenna, and how many Watts they are using.
Translate that into the real world and on the telephone we would be exchanging handset details and what call charging plans we are using - but that never happens does it...........................

The work of the former Radiocommunications Agency is now carried out by Ofcom.

It is amazing to report that in 2015, the already relaxed rules were further relaxed to such an extent that it is now very difficult to to operate illegally, now you can play music - the former ban being lifted many years ago with no one actually noticing, probably even themselves!

Amongst the many changes are:-

1. the removal of the requirement to keep a log book
2. the removal of the need to say "mobile" when operating from a vehicle
3. the removal of the requirement to give the station location when not operating from the main station address
4. the removal of the requirement to give that call sign every 15 minutes
5. the removal of the ban on playing music
6. the removal of the ban on political comment
7. the removal of the ban on pecuniary interests

Add to this the fact that swearing is now also acceptable. Terms & Conditions specifically ban "Grossly Offensive" language, but require broadcasters to warn the public of swearing in radio and TV programmes - they describe the use of the word "fuck" as STRONG language, and on 15.05.2015 BBC1 transmitted the word "cunt" and the required warning spoke only of "very strong" language - not grossly offensive. Their rules and their interpretation changing the perceived meaning of our restrictions.

3rd October 2014 It seems as if their new light handed approach has cost the CEO his job!

Let’s face it, they don’t like us do they? If past experience is anything to go by, it is important to ensure that the relevant rules and regulations are strictly adhered to.

In reality, that is not that difficult now, as the former BR68 is now obsolete, and the new rules now come with your license and are headed Terms & Conditions and relax many of the previous draconian regulations. What has proved to be something of a problem is that no one has read them, including OFCOM Spectrum Engineering Officers, and they continue to try and enforce long obsolete regulations.

Many of the conventions are no longer required, and there is further relaxation of the rules on the way - soon there will be very little anyone can do to break what rules still apply.
No longer required are log books, suffixing your station's call sign with "Mobile", and the call sign is only required once every 15 minutes anyway, NOT at the end and beginning of every "over" as some people would have you believe.

One of the problems is that apart from nobody reading or following the new rules (including OFCOM Spectrum Engineering Officers) people who have come into the hobby via amateur radio clubs, have been brainwashed into believing bizarre practices, terminology and a peculiar vocabulary forms part of the required operating procedure, which it most definitely doesn't.

In September 2014, it was confirmed that a local radio club was still "teaching" outdated practices and operating procedures that bore no relationship to the licensing authority's requirements, would a driving school ignore the new continental style road signs, just because when the instructor learnt to drive in the 1950s, they were not in use?

Recent experience (2014) would show that OFCOM have still acted on complaints based on the obsolete rules.

Staying 'squeaky' clean means abiding by the WRITTEN rules, and not the perceived rules, or the "unwritten rules", so if OFCOM were to actually visit, you should easily be able to demonstrate, by reference to the Terms & Conditions, that although whatever it was they thought you were doing, it was in fact, not against the rules as they are written.

One of the past favourites of the DTI, was to prosecute for "Not giving the station's call sign at the commencement of transmission", and even though people had a current license, they would charge you with "Establishing a station without the benefit of a license". As this has been successful several times, it passes into law by the process of "Case Law".

Spectrum Engineering Officers. Please do not confuse them with either :-

OR

Station Identification

LPWS operating procedure requires you to have a low powered hand-held radio, select the lowest output possible with NO CTCSS tones.
Always use this to establish your station before using full power on your normal radio and antenna. The effect of this is to fulfil the requirements of the Terms & Conditions, but you will have appeared to have established your station without giving the call sign within the first 3 words. Only if OFCOM are monitoring locally, for instance, following a complaint, will anyone ever be aware of correct, proper and legal operating practice being adopted.

The LPWS have actual evidence of someone being accused of not establishing his station, during an OFCOM routine visit by a Spectrum Engineering Officer. The small Yaesu mobile that was in his radio room was shown to be not only switched on, but set to the repeater input frequency they were complaining about. Initially, the OFCOM officer demonstrated that he didn't understand the concept. The Terms & Conditions were produced and he was informed that nowhere does it say that the signal to establish the station must be at the same power level and come from the same antenna as the main station, just the same frequency has to be used (obviously), this was finally accepted but with reluctance on their part. The letter of the law, but maybe not the intension when OFCOM drafted the document.

This keeps you 100% legal, and if it attracts the notice of anyone, and OFCOM investigate, they will find that you are indeed establishing your station to the letter of the law which is all that is required. That is to say, you are complying with the licensing authority's rules and ignoring third party (RSGB Limited for example) irrelevant and in some cases illegal suggested "operating procedures".

Watch This Space for the possible relaxation of the 15 minute call sign rule - that, coupled with the fact that you no longer have to keep a log book and subsequently don't have to log a station closedown, will leave us with a situation where the station can be established continuously, with NO periodic transmission of call signs being legally required.

YES! From April 2015, the call sign every 15 minutes rule had been scrapped, now the requirement is to give the call sign "As often as practicable" - one of our members has suggested once every 25 years would be sufficient!

Practicable means capable of being put into practice.

Remember when identifying your station that the NATO Phonetic Alphabet is no longer mandatory, and that the LPWS one is now just as acceptable, take a look at it HERE.

Spend some time reading the new rules, there are loads of possibilities! Read the rules and work out the possibilities that will allow unconventional operating, but remain perfectly legal.

Logbooks   no longer required

This is one of the best things about the new relaxed rules, you could have been shut down because of log book inaccuracies, but no longer. PLUS you don't have to work out the transmitted power used in dBW to correctly complete your entries.

For those of you who want to work it out anyway, or who have no idea what we are on about, here is how you calculate dBW:-

In Windows, any version, select the calculator and set it for scientific functions (VIEW > SCIENTIFIC) Enter the output power of your radio and press the log button, then multiply the answer by 10. That's the power output in dBW.

Try this test, 20 Watts > log = 1.301 X 10 = approx. 13dBW. Because this is a non-linear, logarithmic calculation, it has to be done for every output power as 40 Watts is not double 13dBW it’s actually 16.02dBW.

Take our word for it, there are a lot of the opposition that can't work this out!

Tone and Inflection of Voice

It seems to be universally accepted, even by some OFCOM officials that you shouldn't talk in what they describe as a "silly voice", however, no legislation exists in this respect and this fact was specifically remarked upon by Assistant Recorder MF Coates at Hereford Crown Court in 1992 (Crown Vs George) where the court was told that there was no legislation on tone and inflection of voice.
If any practical proof of this was required, you only have to listen to your average Welshman, or one of those characters with throat cancer that use the Dalek voice vibrator things.

Mr Coates went on to instruct the court and the jury that there was no reason why anyone should or should not be a member of The Laughing Policeman Wireless Society, and that there was nothing "sinister" about ownership of club magazines.

It is important however, not to allow your real voice to be recognised, in recent years, a successful prosecution was brought against a prominent LPWS member with voice recognition used and accepted, evidence being given by a so called "expert witness".

Advice

When you are messing about on repeaters, it is quite important to ensure that if you must do it from home, you do so infrequently, and not operate to a pattern. For example, every morning when you get up, or every evening when you get in from work - adopt a random pattern and leave the odd week completely transmission free.

If at all possible, go mobile, it's virtually impossible to track down a moving vehicle. This is what the RSGB Ltd. tell the opposition :-

"It can, for instance, result in the culprit becoming mobile, which can greatly increase the difficulty of evidence collection."

So now we know!

No secret is made of the procedure your fellow radio enthusiasts employ to gather evidence, and the company RSGB Limited publish documents to give guidelines to vigilantes, on what to do. Read the document below as an insight into what the opposition are looking for. It may well prove invaluable!

Possibly the most important part of this document is this :- "Sadly, offensive language is more commonplace these days and courts need evidence that the language used in the alleged offences is worse than that encountered in everyday life."
Which would appear to leave you open to use the most objectionable language without fear of any prosecution whatsoever!

This is virtually word for word what the opposition are told when collecting evidence on behalf of RSGB Limited.
We have always wondered why a commercial limited company seeks to become so closely involved in our hobby. We assume that the main reason must be MONEY, the more mucking about on repeaters, the lower the estimation of amateur radio as a hobby, and consequently, fewer customers for the R.S.G.B.Ltd. products.

The fact that this company is allowed, even encouraged to act in this way is highly questionable, imagine the outcry if either The Automobile Association or The R.A.C. became involved in motoring prosecutions. But, never forget, this is the "twilight world" of amateur radio where normal things don't happen, normally!