RIS in action!

The majority of this page is no longer applicable in the 21st Century, but left on the site as a reminder of what we had to endure in the 80s & 90s.

As Seen At Elvaston Castle Rally 1999

Here is something from the uk.radio.amateur news group. It demonstrates the principle of RIS bias, quite dramatically. As you can see from this independent eye witness report, the RIS are indeed biased in certain directions.

It is a fact that these radios were illegal to own or use, and as they are, they are not licensable, but as the author so correctly notes, the same goes for the majority of ex PMR equipment on sale at the same rally. So why were the CB radios seized, and the equally illegal ex PMR radios left for sale? Would this be the case if the RIS were not radio amateurs?

Your guess is a good as mine!

 

Hi... 

I thought you might like to hear about something I saw at Elvaston today... on the first swing around I spotted a whole box of 'historically interesting' CB radios dating from around the late seventies... I had a look through and some of them were in fairly nice cosmetic condition, maybe even collector's items... nonetheless, I moved on and on the next time around, was fairly bemused to see a gentleman squatting on the ground, flanked by two bored looking uniformed policemen and filling in a form on an RA pad headed 'Notice Of Seizure'. Needless to say, the radios were no longer in the box.

At the same time there were hundreds of ex-PMR radios on show, most undoubtedly still crystalled for frequencies that their owners could not legally use them on, but these did not appear to excite any interest whatsoever. I don't understand the logic behind the turn of the decade decision to completely outlaw non - UK 11m radios even for legitimate, converted use on 10m. If people are caught using them on 11m, then fair enough, treat them as you would treat someone using a VHF PMR transceiver for unlicenced (or unlicensable) operation, but I see no problem with a set sitting in a box waiting to be converted, or simply not being used. I strongly suspect that the decision was made because the RA didn't want to spend any more time certifying converted radios. The fact is that they should never have been required to do that in the first place. It should have been left up to us to ensure compliance and to demonstrate it when required as it is with all the other kit that we move from other bands to our frequencies.

The ironic thing is that the multimode sets in particular are much easier to convert to 10m by virtue of their having unrestricted PLL ICs - and much more useful to us by virtue of the fact that they -are- multimodes - and if we were still allowed to use them there would be a lot more of them taken out of circulation from 11m and put to legitimate use on 10m. The first Amateur HF set I ever owned was a converted UK FM CB and it got me my first HF contact (with HB9IAM, I have the card on the wall in front of me) but, Oh, how much better it would have been if it had been a multimode.

Regards... Graham, M0ADR.

The Driller Killer IncidentWhere were the R.I.S. when this was going on?

This is just the sort of problem that the RIS are supposed to sort out on our behalf, where were they in this case? It seems the system has totally collapsed and this Christopher Everix of 1 Grange Road Bearley Stratford CV37 0SE, [Tel. 01789 731779]  could not have complied with the terms of his licence; Specifically BR68 4 (1) & (2) & (3) & (4). I wonder what measures they are taking with regard to this obvious breach of the terms & conditions. Here is a copy of the story from the newspaper:- 

Man drilled through wall in TV fuzz row

A Midland man became so frustrated at interference with his TV picture caused by a neighbour's amateur radio that he poured methylated spirits through a hole he had drilled in the adjoining wall, a court heard. Graham Stanley (41), of Grange Road, Bearley, near Stratford, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to damaging a wall and carpet belonging to his neighbour Christopher Everix.

Stanley has been put on probation for 18 months with a condition that he receives psychiatric treatment. He had denied two more serious charges of attempted arson, the first alleging he intended to endanger Mr Everix's life and the second that he was reckless whether his neighbours life was endangered.

Interfering

And on the day he was due to stand trial Mr Makhan Shoker, prosecuting, said he would offer no evidence on those charges and Stanley was formally found not guilty. Mr Shoker told the court there had been a problem between the two men because amateur radio enthusiast Mr Everix's aerial was interfering with the picture on Stanley's television.

Over the course of a number of weeks earlier this year Stanley drilled a hole through the wall between his bedroom and Mr Everix’s bedroom and in April, using a funnel and a length of pipe, he poured meths through the hole on to the carpet.

But Mr Everix called the police after he noticed the smell and found the hole in the wall.

Birmingham Post & Mail 19.11.97

Click on this thumbnail image to read the original article.