Good afternoon Roger and all................
Your brief comments about licencing and the BBC brought to mind the
certification decals I've encountered on three of my early English
Crystal Sets. Each of the sets have not only the BBC decals, but the
serial numbers are "stamped" into the wooden cabinets. The sets were
truly "licensed" and registered when purchased. One of the crystal
sets had a nice surprise tucked neatly inside. It was a B.B.C.A.A.
(British Broadcasting Corporation Assurance Association) Wireless
Policy. An insurance policy that provided limited coverage for damages
incurred by lightning where an outside Aerial was deployed. This
particular policy was never completed by the owner and is intact. No
mention of the premium amount was given but it was for a period of six
months. Coverage was increased when a W.L.A. (Wavelength Lightning
Arrestor) was installed at the same time as the aerial. The address
for the BBCAA was 825/826 Salisbury House, London Wall, E.C. 2
A small, but fine book on early British Wireless design is "The Cat's
Whisker" by Jonathan Hill. Some very nice photos and a nice anthology
of wireless broadcasting in England. It even has the history of the
BBC stations beginning with London (2LO) on 361 metres and continuing
through THIRD PROGRAMME on 460 metres in 1946.
Thanks, Roger, for sharing your comments..........definitely not boring.
Best 73 de W4MIL
Chuck
-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Basford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: amradio@mailman.qth.net
Sent: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 4:37 am
Subject: [AMRadio] Re: Artificial Aerial Licence
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:45:36 -0500
From: "D. Chester" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [AMRadio] Re: Artificial Aerial Licence
To: <amradio@mailman.qth.net>
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
------------------------------
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"
<amradio@mailman.qth.net>
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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