The Dirty Tricks Brigade

Please note that the Radiocommunications Agency no longer exists, its activities are now carried out by Ofcom. This page is retained to illustrate how the agency used to behave towards, not only LPWS members, but radio amateurs in general.

The Radiocommunications Agency is an executive agency of the DTI, The Department of Trade & Industry of the UK Government. This is the same department that was involved in questionable transactions over Westland Helicopters, that resulted in the resignation of a cabinet Minister, and the very same department involved in questionable activities over the "Iraqi Super Gun" export licences episode, and countless further incidents.
Bear these facts in mind before assuming we are making this up, WE ARE NOT!

NOTE Many, if not all, Radio Amateurs in the UK regard themselves as a "cut above" their fellow citizens by the mere fact that they have some kind of qualification. The more demented section of these misguided simpletons take a further step towards stupidity, and buy an old ambulance, a Dayglo tabbard, and join an organisation called Raynet. Much criticised during the Lockerbie disaster, Raynet members prance about at public events, trying to look important, whilst brandishing all manner of outdated radio equipment, which is the core requirement.
Sadly, this organisation attracts the dregs of the amateur community, which (in the UK at least), appears to be made up, almost entirely, of people too stupid to be a Traffic Warden, a Special Constable or Trading Standards Officer.

Over the years, some unusual and questionable practices have been employed to discredit the LPWS and its members!

Hardly Surprising

It's hardly surprising when you consider that an anagram of
RADIO INVESTIGATION SERVICE is:-
EVIDENCE ORIGINATORS - A VISIT!

AND

Radiocommunications Agency is:-
Imaginary Document Occasion

The Usual

In the past, the usual tactic has been to suggest to both Magistrates and Judges that the activities of those prosecuted could have repercussions for the radio communications of the emergency services. This is a particular tactic when dealing with UBRs when it is many years since all Police, Fire, and Ambulance services vacated the 88-108MHz broadcast band. Sadly, this is still suggested as a possible consequence of unlicenced broadcasting, when quite the reverse is the case, and it is vitally important to find a clear slot to get your signal out! This completely false claim of interference with emergency services still persists into 2003!

Tampering With The Evidence

As detailed in one of our magazines, either the RIS or the prosecuting counsel's staff deliberately obscured the LPWS office address from the top of a Penrose Gazette which was produced in court as evidence against G1MTT. It was alleged that G1MTT was the publisher of the magazine and not the LPWS, when G1MTT pointed out that the publisher's office address was clearly printed on the magazine cover, the Judge stopped the proceedings as it had been obliterated from his copy. It transpired that all the copies produced in court and those given to the jurors as part of the evidence, were tampered with. The copy G1MTT was using was sent to him in a bundle of evidence, and was a copy of the original BEFORE the dirty tricks brigade got hold of it and obliterated the address.
The judge halted the proceedings whilst court staff duplicated copies of George's original magazine for distribution to the jury and court officials.

The Great LPWS Post Theft

Another strange but true story! At the height of the LPWS popularity, we had a whip-round at one of our meetings and placed a small advertisement in a weekly local magazine. The advert invited people to contact us, and gave a box number. Imagine our surprise, when we went to collect our post, we were told that it had been "confiscated" by a police officer. We made enquiries, and the local police knew nothing of it, one LPWS member was a shareholder in Goodhead Publishing Plc. the magazine company, and wrote to them demanding an explanation. In the meantime, a complaint was made to The Post Office National Users Council, but as the post had "been delivered as addressed" they were unable to help.

Eventually, the publishers told us the officer's name, and we were able to make an official complaint regarding the theft of our post. It transpired that this was the same officer who had already "threatened violence" towards an LPWS member within earshot of his solicitor. This officer later visited an LPWS member to ask, or indeed. plead that we drop the complaint as he feared for the loss of his pension as he was due to retire. (Surprisingly, this wasn't our old friend Sgt. 3116 Bodwen, but an officer from a different force, West Mercia Constabulary, and NOT a radio amateur)

Not being inclined to drop the case, we were warned by our solicitors of police persecution to other parties who had the audacity to make justified complaints, and after a visit from the Complaints and Discipline Department of The West Mercia Police, we decided to let the silly old sod retire in relative peace. What a nice bunch of people we are!

Laughing Policeman Could Kill Hundreds

This was the heading on a 2 page feature in the Sun newspaper, it seems that Manchester Airport was suffering from a fake air traffic controller, and the authorities had suggested that the LPWS were involved. We were not, in fact the only involvement anyone had with this person was that an LPWS sympathiser tracked him down and gave him a cassette of the Laughing Policeman Song to play, quite an achievement really as the RIS never did find him!

LPWS damage RIS Property?

Again, a story put out to discredit the club, was that our members were in the habit of damaging the cars of RIS staff, apparently all over the United Kingdom! 

Is it not more probable that the operators of many of the pirate broadcast stations (UBRs) that suffer repeated visits from the RIS, usually at a cost of several thousand Pounds in seized records and equipment, would be more likely to vent their anger in this way? Just check out the statistics for visits to pirate broadcasters against those to radio amateurs and make up your own minds.

I suppose as we are "visible" targets, it's easier for the RIS to blame us rather than the real culprits.

The Aylesbury Repeater Bomb [GB3VA]

Again, we were blamed for this daft incident, and far from being a "Booby Trapped Bomb", I have it on good authority that the device in question was either a theatrical smoke effect or a marine distress flare. The constructors of this device were concerned that their previous effort had been stolen by cretins from the local repeater group, and it seems that the only intention of the so called "bomb" was to deter more thieves. The device was not constructed by LPWS members and although along similar lines, had nothing whatsoever to do with the club, but as usual, the LPWS got the blame again in the press reports. Listen to the TV news report HERE