Hmmmm, How Many Radio Amateurs will be Legal in 2013?

[Yorkie]

I've mentioned before that all radio amateurs are required to re-validate their licence with Ofcom, which was supposed to be within five years, which would have meant some time in 2012, but was extended for a year due to Ofcom's workload with the Olympic Games. To quote from Ofcom's website:

Quote:

Amateur licensees are reminded that their licence (now "lifetime") must be validated at least once every 5 years in accordance with the terms, conditions and limitations of their licence.

Due to the anticipated workload at the time of the London Olympic and Parlaympic Games in 2012, exceptionally, Ofcom has automatically validated Amateur licences which were issued from November 2006 to August 2007, extending by one year the latest date that these particular licences would need their first validation - i.e. November 2012 to August 2013 or 6 years from their respective dates of issue.

Licences issued after August 2007 will need validation as usual in the normal way - at least once every 5 years.

Validate your Amateur Radio Licence online

Please note: If you have not yet registered to use the Ofcom Online Licensing Service you will need to do so in order to access your licence online. When registering for the first time you will need to have details of your lifetime licence number.

Source: http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radiocommu...te-online/

My G4EBT licence re-validation date was 25 Feb 2013, so I've just re-validated it until Dec 2017 - not that I have any intention of going on air, but I could if I wished to.

Anyone who doesn't revalidate their licence must of necessity be in breach of the licence terms and conditions, but I've no idea what if anything, Ofcom will do about that. I do know that in the case of those who have more than one licence (eg, Foundation, and Intermediate as well as Advanced), the lower two will be deleted if not re-validated. It's bizarre that Ofcom don't cancel the lower licence when the higher one is attained - it's a bit like letting you keep your provisional driving licence when you pass your full driving test, but there you go - that's amateur radio all over. Yes, thousands of amateurs retain and use their lower licences and callsigns, even though it restricts the level of power they can use. (Not that anyone is checking). They walk among us.

As a result of this multiple licence malarkey, (which flies in the face of Ofocm's stated aim of reducing bureaucracy), no-one - not even Ofcom - actually know how many radio amateurs there are in the UK - they only know how many licences have been issued.

I wonder how many thousands of amateurs will soon be 'pirates' by default, but not know it, until at some point they do remember to look at the Ofcom Online Licensing pages and find in red upper case letters: 'Licence has lapsed - no longer valid'. That would be fun - make 'em resit the assessments and re-apply I say!

[John M0GLN]

Thanks for the reminder David, I must admit that I didn't know or had forgotten that it had to be re-validated, I've just done it now.

John

[Yorkie]

Qute frankly John, I think it will fall by the wayside by default. There are some 70,000+ licences on issue, many amateurs are no longer active and probably haven't registered on Ofcom's website as they were instructed to do so when their new licence was issued early in 2007. It is a mandatory requirment of the licence which states:

6 (3): By not later than five years after the date of issue the Licensee must confirm to Ofcom that the details set out in Section 1 remain current and accurate. Failure to so so may lead to the revocation of the licence in accordance with Clause 4(5).

Clause 4(5) states:

Quote:

Ofcom may automatically revoke this licence five years after the later of:

a) The date on which the licensee last confirms to Ofcom that the details in Section 1 of the Licence are still valid.

b) The date on which the licensee last gave notice to Ofcom of any changes to the Licence details

End quote.

Every amateur was supplied with a letter setting out how to register their licence and were supplied with a hard copy. It's also viewable on-line.

It could be argued that if they haven't done so within 3 months of the expiry of the five year deadline, Ofcom should write to the last known address to inform the licensee that their licence is revoked forthwith, but can be renewed on payment of £100 admin fee. I don't see why the public purse should underpin Ofcom's operating costs for nurse-maiding slapdash amateurs behaving in an amteurish way and failing to comply with their licence.

Ofcom only introduced the five-yearly re-validation due to RSGB's representations.

RSGB was fiercely opposed to any form of de-regulation and confused 'a free licence' with 'licence free'. The former General Manager had made some odd claims to underpin the case for re-validation, such as 'if amateurs didn't re-validate their licence it pose a terrorist risk'. I'm not sure how RSGB reached that bizarre conclusion.

Imagine the rigmarole if you had to renew your passport every five years instread of ten, or your driving licence. My driving licence lasted from age 20 to 70. After age 70, we have to renew every three years to self certify that we are still fit to drive (in our own opinion). Once an amateur radio licence is issued, the only thing that should be required (as it is, and always was,) is to notify Ofcom of any change of address, or when the amateur concerned goes to 'the shack in the sky' someone should notify Ofcom to cancel the licence.

Some older amateurs aren't even on internet, so would have to get someone else who is, to do the re-validation for them.

I think in time, that commonsense will prevail, and RSGB will come to its sense and concede to Ofcom that this requirement should be scrapped, because as things stand, by having pressed for this five-year re-validation, it wouldn't surprise me if many thousands of RSGB members (and the 70% or so of UK licencees who aren't members, but whose interests RSGB claims to represent), end up contravening their licence terms through negligence and lethargy.

Maybe I'm wrong, and in fact 99% of amateurs are alert to their statutory obligations and will re-validate within the timescale? It only takes a few minutes, but almost every amateur I've spoken to has said: 'Oh dear, I'd quite forgotten about that'. I dare say that many wrongly assume that Ofcom will send a reminder. (Why should they?)

Not really an issue which needs to concern me or thee John!

Pedantically pontificated Yorkie, on his soapbox.

[Andy M0FYA]

I revalidated mine a couple of weeks ago in a telephone call to Ofcom, having failed to log on to their website. I only have the word of the gentleman I spoke to that it is now revalidated, I have nothing in writing to prove it!
I also don't use my licence actively.
Andy

[Yorkie]

Were you already a registered user Andy, or have you never logged on before?

You should be able to log on once you've registered as a new individual user Andy, but I guess you've tried that.

Registration is here: Ofcom Online Licensing Services: https://services.ofcom.org.uk/register

Quote:


Registration for new individual users:

Your details:

Fields marked with * are required

Title*
First Name*
Please ensure you enter your name in full
Middle name
Surname*
Contact email address*
Note: only one user account may be registered to a given email address.

Confirm email address*

Contact telephone number*

Choose password* Passwords must be 7 - 14 characters, including upper case, lower case and numeric characters.

Confirm password*

Challenge question*

This will be used if you forget your password - this should be a one-word answer to make it easier to remember. Please select:
Place of Birth,
Name of First Pet
First Car
Mother's Maiden Name
First Street Lived in

Answer to challenge question*

If you are an existing licence holder, please enter your licence number here: (Existing licence number).



End quote.

If you did register, all you should need to do is to either enter youe e-mail address or USER ID which came with your licence. If you can't remember your password, and click 'forgot password' it will ask your challenge question, then reveal your password. Might be worth giving it another try, then you can print off your re-validation record with the new re-validation date. (I doubt it's keeping you awake at night!).