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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:45:36 -0500
From: "D. Chester" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [AMRadio] Re: Artificial Aerial Licence
To: <[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original
I never could figure out why a licence was ever required to work a
transmitter into a non-radiating load.
Don k4kyv
Hi Don and Co,
Well, what you have to remember is that after the introduction of radio in
the early part of the 20th Century Britain and the US went completely
separate ways with control and legislation. In the US, cable and radio
companies were private concerns, profit-making. In the UK, all
communications by cable and post were under the control of the General Post
Office (GPO). When radio came along, the GPO took over the administration of
the new medium and issued licences to all services, including amateurs. The
whole ethos was of control, and not profit, from the outset, so it's not
suprising that the GPO required a licence to allow one to build and test a
transmitter, even into a dummy load.
Yes, there was a licence required for domestic radio reception; I can't
remember when it was revoked but certainly you needed one when I was a kid
and also, at one time, a separate one for a car radio! You must remember
that there were no large-scale commercial broadcasting in the UK until about
the 1970s; as a kid I listened to pop music on Radio Luxembourg on 208
metres, because the BBC stations didn't play pop in any quantity. The spur
to change all this came about in the mid 60s, when a bunch of pirate
stations sprang up from ships and abandoned anti-aircraft forts off the UK
coasts. These stations were a huge success and forced the BBC into launching
a modern mass-appeal radio service. There is still a requirement to have a
licence for TVs here; if you buy a TV in the local mall, the law requires
the seller to inform the authorities of your address. If no TV licence is
known at that address under your name, then expect postal harrassment and a
visit from the "Detector Van"! The licence is about $275/year and goes to
finance the BBC, even if you only watch non-BBC stations you still must have
a licence.
Having said all that, from a ham's point of view the situation has got much
easier in the 42 years I've been licenced. Things are lot more easy-going
and sensible changes to regulations are generally made without too much fuss
and hassle. The UK radio spectrum management in now done by an outfit called
OFCOM, having passed from the GPO, through the Home Office and The
Radiocommunications Agency "in my time".
Hope this isn't too boring!!
Roger/G3VKM
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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:59:03 -0400
From: "Ed Sieb" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: [AMRadio] Re: Artificial Aerial Licence
To: "Discussion of AM Radio in the Amateur Service"
<[email protected]>
Cc: Don Chester K4KYV <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
It's the UK Don. _Everything_ is regulated there.
Ed, VA3ES
------------------------------------------------------------------
Don k4kyv wrote:
I never could figure out why a licence was ever required
to work a transmitter into a non-radiating load.
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