The Licenced Law Breakers

What a lot of our critics do not seem to realise is that licenced amateurs, who believe themselves to be operating completely within the law, quite often are not.
Sometimes the breaking of rules is quite flagrantly accepted on many different fronts, as detailed below. This lawlessness is compounded by R.S.G.B. Ltd. publications on operating practice actually suggesting operating procedures that are illegal (that is to say, contrary to the current BR68).
The DTI/RA practice of only prosecuting where "malicious intent" is involved, leads to a situation where law-breaking by one operator is accepted, and another will be taken to court for doing the very same thing, not a healthy situation to operate in.

[It should be noted that all operations of the former Radiocommunications Agency are now handled by Ofcom]

Repeaters

The basic and most obvious example of law breaking is when an LPWS member, or anyone for that matter, either plays music on a repeater or starts to generally "muck about". The so-called "sensible" operators usually key their mikes to obliterate the offending signal, doing this is ILLEGAL, as they commit the following 3 offences:-

	They cause deliberate interference.
	They establish their station without transmitting the call-sign.
	They fail to complete the station log. (As doing so would catalogue an illegal transmission)

A second example of their law-breaking is when they try to engage the abuser in conversation, or direct remarks towards them. It is also ILLEGAL to do so without first exchanging call signs. Any station doing this is "established without the benefit of a licence issued on behalf of the Secretary of State". Case law is now in place in the UK that the call-sign MUST be given within the first 8 syllables, penalty £500.00. Hereford Crown Court 1991.

 

Here is a good example, this dozy old wassock has summoned together what little brain power he has left to ascertain that the other character has no licence, he then contravenes his own licence conditions by directing remarks to an unlicensed station! We imagine he has no idea what he has done wrong!

Cornflakes by Grunt Futtock

This proves that you should never challenge someone to a battle of wits when you are only half prepared!

Traffic Reports

You would think that it would be a service to others, to report traffic accidents and road congestion, but this is a very common source of illegal transmissions on repeaters up and down the country. How often have you heard something like this "anyone travelling on the M5 southbound, there is an accident just past junction 7"

Sorry, ILLEGAL, it is an offence to make a general transmission that isn't a "CQ" call, it is also illegal to transmit without first giving the station call sign. Any station doing this is "established without the benefit of a licence issued on behalf of the Secretary of State".

Pecuniary Interest

It is an offence to have a "pecuniary Interest" (direct or indirect) in any operation conducted under your licence, what does this mean? Quite simple really, Pecuniary:-of money:. So, no selling of equipment, advice on prices etc.

An example heard on a local repeater.    A radio amateur was being given a lift home after dropping his car off at a garage for servicing, on the way home he discovered he had left his house keys on the key ring with the car. It was 17.45 and the garage was closing in 15 minutes and he could not get back in time. He desperately called on the repeater to find someone closer to the garage, who could go there and recover his keys for him. Luckily, he was able to arrange this, and in the conversation that followed, told his colleague what a service he had done for him, as without his house keys he would have had to stay in a hotel as he couldn't get in his house. Sorry, ILLEGAL, by soliciting help from a fellow radio amateur, he gained a pecuniary advantage by not having to pay for a hotel room for the night. Read the BR68 for confirmation!

Some movement on this now, with equipment for sale being allowed on Packet Radio bulletin boards, if anyone still bothers with such a slow and tedious method of communication.

HF operators

Have you ever monitored HF? The usual practice is to tune up your linear prior to sending a "CQ" call. Quite often the operator will whistle down the microphone whilst setting the ATU/SWR, sometimes this goes on for well over a minute! It is ILLEGAL to do this as the offence here is that the call sign of the station was not sent at the commencement of transmission. LPWS members have been successfully prosecuted for uttering a mere 3 words, just 8 syllables, without prefixing the station call-sign! Penalty, £500.00.

ALSO, when monitoring HF, you will quite often witness what is referred to as a "Pile Up". This is a situation that arises when several stations try to respond at the same time. It is a fact that just these situations, albeit on VHF, have been described in court cases against LPWS members.
When this situation has been described to magistrates by RIS investigators, it has been invariable described as "deliberate interference". On HF it is regarded as the norm. Another case of one rule for one, and another rule for others.

Packet Radio

Many Packet Radio operators disable the Morse ID on the TNC, as a service to others and to free up the congested packet frequencies. ILLEGAL, station ID is required at no less than 30 minute intervals.

Packet Mobile

Many packet radio enthusiasts operate from alternate locations from time to time, and there are TNCs specifically made for mobile operation as well as links to the GPS network to show user's locations. Basically, this is quite acceptable practice, but as the packet radio network is pretty crude, it is impossible to use many nodes and access a BBS with the required /M suffix that must be applied to the station's call sign if established away from the main station address.
If you add the /M, to signify mobile use, you will find that some software programs will not accept this number of call-sign characters, especially if you have already had the requirement for a country prefix as well, as in GM or GW for example. If you manage to find a program that will accept all the characters to legally establish the station, you will find that your call-sign is not recognised by your home BBS, and you cannot recover your mail. Therefore, mobile packet operators ignore the legislation and almost 100% of packet mobile operations are ILLEGAL as the station is not correctly identified as being mobile.

Mobile Operation with 2 or more amateurs

One of the most common mistakes made by radio amateurs in the UK is to assume that they "are" the call sign. For example, people will say "I saw G8ASO the other day", when in fact all they saw was Brian Jones and NOT his amateur radio station!

This misconception leads to the illegal use of radio in the following way :-

Heard on local repeaters are amateurs sharing cars on the way to and from  work etc. It is a regular occurrence that these people pass the microphone between themselves and operate as completely different stations identifying themselves by their own station's call-sign, before handing the mike back and then having the other person use his station's call-sign again.

Why is this illegal?

Firstly, the car becomes the station once it is "established" and the call-sign MUST remain the same irrespective of whoever uses the microphone, unless the station is closed down and "re-established" using the other person's station call-sign. To carry on using their respective call-signs these amateurs are committing several offences.

Any questions? Read the BR68, it's all in there!

These examples may seem petty, but rules are rules, and all the regulations have equal standing, we are unfortunately not in a position to pick and choose which of the BR68 conditions we comply with, and which we ignore.

Contraventions reported with no action

In the 1990s. LPWS members reported many infractions of the rules to the RIS, some of the very offences for which we ourselves have been prosecuted! In all cases, no action of any kind followed.

Below are a few examples of the reported offences where the RIS chose NOT to investigate let alone prosecute anyone. In all the examples below, full supporting evidence was supplied.

	False call-signs when establishing a packet station.
	Advertising. (now semi legal)
	Obtaining pecuniary interest.
	Attempting to obtain a pecuniary interest.
	Establishing a station without the benefit of a licence.
	Using a reciprocal licence in the UK without the G/ prefix.
	Allowing unlicenced people to transmit messages. (legislation now changed)
	Directing remarks to other than licenced amateurs.
	Repeater Group transmitting music ID on GB3CF.
	Remote repeater shutdown without the station identification of the shut down station.
	No Morse ID on packet radio stations.
	Operating in Wales or Scotland without identifying the station as GW or GM.
	Operating away from the main station without a /M suffix.
	Operating a mobile Packet Radio Station without the /M suffix.

The Radiocommunications Agency will vigorously pursue "some" people for offences whilst completely ignoring the self same offences when committed by others. They seem to adopt the practice of not proceeding where they assume that "no malice" was intended. It's a great pity that there isn't a level playing field, and infringements of the BR68 rules for which LPWS members have been prosecuted, are ignored when committed by others.

The LPWS suggest that it is not too much to expect that the same rules should apply equally to all.