Ofcom has today (21st Feb 2024) announced the new licence conditions, and they take immediate effect.
The full details can be found in the announcement released by Ofcom today: Ofcom Statement 21 Feb 24.
Watch our video Summary of Feb 2024 changes: |
Document Links:
- Ofcom Announcement 21 Feb 24
- Notice to Vary 21 Feb 24(includes results of Dec-Jan challenges)
- Links to new licence document and guidance
Phase 1 Changes – Now in effect (as of 21st February 2024):
RSLs (Wales, Scotland, NI, etc) are now optional (Except for Intermediate 2x, where the letter is mandatory)- Those in England are now able to add an optional “E” to their callsign at Foundation and Full (e.g. ME7QQQ)
- Any suffix is now allowed after a callsign (e.g. “M7QQQ/Garden”)
- If a special prefix is allowed by Ofcom (as for Queen’s Jubilee), no need to apply for an NoV
- New applicants will only be allowed to hold one personal licence
- Power increases:
- Foundation: 25 watts (most bands) – the consultation was for 20 watts
- Intermediate: 100 watts (most bands)
- Full: 1,000 watts (primary bands)
- Airborne to be permitted to a maximum of 0.5 watts EIRP (primary bands)
- Supervision of unlicensed people at all 3 levels
- More flexibility for Beacons, Gateways and Repeaters
- Updates to remote and unattended operation
- New “Data Station” mode (mainly for machine-to-machine modes)
- Foundation licence holders can now build their own equipment/kits
- Foundation licence holders now have access to 2.4GHz and 5GHz (max 2 watts)
Ofcom will be issuing around 100,000 new licences, which will obviously take some time. The new rules come into effect today, but it may take until Autumn 2024 before all of the licences get reissued
Other changes have been announced, but these will coming in slightly later as they require updates to the Ofcom IT system. These are:
Phase 2 – Planned for “Later in 2024”
- Ofcom to cease issuing 2x Intermediate calls – to be replaced with M8 and M9
- Existing Intermediates will be encouraged (but not forced) to move to M8 / M9 callsigns
- Simplified rules for Special Event (e.g. GB) callsigns
- Restrictions to the number of callsigns held (one for personal use, up to 5 for clubs)
Phase 3 – Planned for before April 2025)
This is when a new licensing platform is in place.
- Revoking lower-class licences begins (one for personal use, up to 5 for clubs)
- Improved online validation
- The ability for amateurs to choose any available callsign
- The ability for amateurs to change their callsign once every 5 years
- Reissuing of old callsigns after a 5-year grace period
Note for students
Although the new rules are now in effect, the RSGB Exam teams have asked Ofcom for more time to prepare for these changes (even though these were hardly a surprise!). Accordingly, the OLD licence conditions will still be examinable for a while.
Exams covering the new conditions start on the 1st of September. See our Guidance for Foundation Students
What do you think of the changes? Have your say in the comments below!
There are some good changes here but one of them is absolutely stupid.
The changes related to the country identifier will mess up logbook software, award schemes, contests, online databases and countless other systems.
It won’t be long before GW, GM, GD, GI, etc etc are deleted from DXCC because it’s unmanageable and everyone is bundled under G.
RSLs aren’t being dropped – they just become optional, so I suspect contest / award stations will still use them, and and most websites and software will stay as-is, as the RSLs will still be in use and still be valid. Potentially, there’s a new one GE6NHU will be legal from today.
Ofcom’s given a fairly sane reason for this. Under the old licence, if someone in, say, Wales, forgot the “W”, it’d be a breach of the licence. Ofcom’s today said they aren’t interested in taking enforcement action, hence making it optional. It’s also been pointed out that only 0.8% of the 70,000 radio amateur community opposed this in the consultation.
Equally, there’s a G6NHU/outraged there along with ME0PSX/On_the_fence ;-)
Quoting 0.8% isn’t really that valid because the majority of radio amateurs almost certainly didn’t know about this consultation. There were only 1443 responses and regarding this particular subject, it was the closest of the lot.
I feel that Ofcom should have made the effort to actually contact everyone and tell them about it, rather than rely on magazines and the news sites. There should have been a blanket mailshot to every license holder. The first time many amateurs will hear about this is when the variation hits, either by email or post.
I have no option but to accept the changes have been made but that doesn’t mean I agree with them.
Yes, only about 2% of the community bothered replying – but of those who did, 56% (vs 43.6%) supported making RSLs optional. When this decision was announced in December, there was a 28 day period for challenges, and they only received 91 about the entire proposal. People only tend to bother responding about things they have strong feelings about, I guess.
I honestly think it will be “business as usual” – people will continue to use them much as before, so no-one is actually losing out.
Section 2.20 of today’s announcement is worth a read – Ofcom’s not interested in enforcing breaches. They also point out that RSLs aren’t relevant from a spectrum management perspective and has said RSLs are not intended as statements of “cultural identity”. There was an approach to have a mandatory “K” for Cornwall… that’s also been rejected (Cornwall as a DXCC?)
Valid point that it seems quite a few amateurs aren’t interested in keeping up with the latest news. I opted in to the Ofcom mailing list some time back because I want to get notification, so I’m notified of any proposed changes quite early on. The consultation was pretty widely promoted for about 6 months in both magazines, all over social media, in emails from Ofcom and RSGB and in many club newsletters (including ours). The announcement was in Radcom, which is received by around 20,000 amateurs, so 1,443 responses (7% of Radcom) is still a pretty low turnout. I assume that groups focussed on contests and awards tried to rally support, but couldn’t get enough interest in a response?
As for Ofcom contacting everyone about consultations – I don’t think that’s something they ever do, is it? Those who bothered to sign up to their mailing list were notified more than once. Today’s announcement indicates the admin hassles in contacting everyone. They don’t have valid email addresses for quite a few people, and are having to contact people by post. They’re estimating “autumn” before they’ll get to all 100,000 licences.
I suspect it’ll be “business as usual” for RSLs, plus maybe some increased activity and interest in “collecting” GE and ME callsigns.
The DXCC problem isn’t new. GB* special callsigns and most of the various special RSLs available through NoVs in the past have all broken the clear callsign-to-DXCC connection. The problem’s just a bit more widespread now. However, we’re already seeing phrases like “Callsign used must match the single DXCC from which the entrant is operating” in contest and award scheme rules, so whilst Ofcom are saying the RSLs are optional, it seems amateur radio organisations will probably say “Use them to make your DXCC clear”. I dare say the rule writers may be a bit busy figuring out good unambiguous rule phrasing, though.
RSGB HF Contest Committee has opted for :
“1. UK&CD entrants are required to use a Regional Secondary Locator (RSL) where it is necessary to clarify the entity from which they are operating. From 21 February 2024, stations operating from England may optionally use the RSL “E”. If no RSL is used e.g. M0HDG, G6XX or GB4ABC, the station will be assumed to be in England. The use of a misleading RSL will disqualify the entry.
“2. UK&CD entrants may append their call sign with one of the following: /A (Alternative Address), /P (Temporary Location), /M (Mobile) or /MM (Maritime Mobile) and this will comprise part of the call with which they enter. Other suffixes used by UK&CD stations, whether or not they are entrants, will be removed in adjudication and need not be logged.”
UK&CD is “United Kingdom and Crown Dependencies”, the Crown Dependencies being Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
This means that RSGB HFCC requires stations to follow the pre-21 February 2024 licence rules other than allowing G and M stations in England to use the E RSL if they wish. They will only recognise the pre-21 February 2024 suffixes (and /A); if you use something else, they will ignore it for adjudication purposes.
I expect other contest organisers to make similar rulings.
As someone who is an intermediate licence holder in scotland and does a lot of cw, (and is uninterested in contesting), the change to an M8xxx callsign is bliss, much easier to send and no more being mistaken for a japanese station (JM). Bring it on. I’ll generally use MM8xxx for inter G and just M8xxx otherwise. The punters can look me up on qrz. Result.
Any change in going MM at present you need a full license, during the consultation it was being looked to scrap that so any license can go MM ?? Any news on it either way
Yes Rob – some good news there. Take a look at Condition 4 (on page 3) in the new licence document for the new wording!
I didn’t agree with that change, but I don’t think there will be a huge amount of contesters dropping it. I don’t want an E either but its there now, sure some will like the option.
Opening up air ops is exciting for a lot of us as is 2.4GHz use. 25W… not going to say no but only do HF QRP digi and a bit of Morse and they keep me more than busy enough if and when I get time to play radio!
Overall least their moving the hobby forward and embracing newer comms technology.
A late change Ofcom added to the new licence was to permit Foundation and Intermedite holders to operate their station on a UK or Crown Dependency registered ship in International Waters.
Previously Foundation and Intermediate had been only been able to operate their station when sailing in UK and Crown Dependency Territorial Seas.
Condition 4 – Geographical Boundaries
1. The Licensee is authorised to:
a) establish, install and use the Radio Equipment in and over the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man in each case including their territorial sea; and
b) use the Radio Equipment aboard any ship or aircraft registered in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man in international waters or airspace.
The new will mean that irrespective of where the ship is registered Foundation and Full will have Identical operating privileges when sailing in International Waters.
I think this is where confusion over the registration of the ship will come in. As I read it, a U.K. registered vessel is considered U.K. territory on the high seas, so we can’t operate from any vessel irrespective of where it is registered. A Spanish registered ferry for example outside U.K. waters is Spanish territory, and therefore presumably you would have to be under a Spanish reciprocal license
Ofcom can only legislate for the UK, so the licence is silent on operating from areas outside of UK jurisdiction.
Section 7.2.2 of the Guidance doc states: “If the ship or aircraft is not UK registered, you can only operate in international waters or airspace if authorised by the country where the ship or aircraft is registered. This would be the same as operating overseas as a UK amateur and is only available to holders of a Full Licence. If authorised, you would have to adhere to the terms and conditions set out by the administration of the country of registration.”
So if I put a radio on my boat and I am in the Severn estuary ( Cardiff/Weston super mare etc) I can use it on a intermediate?? Should do my full really been intermediate for 20 yrs lol :) cheers guys, now what antenna to put on a boat , mmmm
Yes, both Foundation and Intermediate been able to operate while sailing from Cardiff to Weston Super Mare for the past 18 years. What the new licence does is extend operating to International Waters as well
Excellant, time to install my spare radio on board now :) Need to research an antenna though, dont want to use the rigging!!!!
There are some notes about how to install HF antennas on a boat in section 21.4 of the ARRL Antenna Book (25th edition). You can get access to this for just over £8 by buying volume 3 of the book on Kindle – there’s no need to pay Amazon around £65 for the whole thing in paperback.
Regarding operating from International Waters the new licence guidance document 7.2.2 indicates that when operating from a foreign registered vessel in International Waters the amateur needs to obtain the permission of the licensing authority for that country. This in turn suggests if that country’s authority gives permission then inevitably you’d have to use that country’s Prefix in front of your own call.
I’m not aware that Full holders ever did this in the past, anyone know differently? As far as I know they simply got permission of the Captain or person in charge of the ship and continued using their own UK callsign without an additional prefix.
Be interested to hear how others interpret the words of the Guidance
Radio licensing for ships in international waters and aircraft in international airspace has always been based on the country of registration of the vessel/aircraft. The previous wording of the UK amateur licence did not clearly state that Ofcom (and its predecessors) could only authorise operation for ships registered in the UK, Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.
As Pete points out in his comment, operating on a foreign-registered ship on the authority of a UK amateur licence either requires T/R 61-01 privileges or a reciprocal licence from the country of registration. T/R 61-01 is for Full licensees only, and reciprocal licences based on a UK licence are only normally available to Full licensees.
My reading of T/R 61-01 wording is that the 90-day reciprocal operating privilige only applies if the amateur is actually visiting that country, so I didn’t think it’s applicable to International Waters?
If I travel on a ship that happens to be registered in Panama I am not regarded as having visited Panama.
Regarding Foundation and Intermediate, in practice both those categories of licence can operate in many other countries simply by emailing the licensing authority and asking for permission. From that perpective New Zealand is possibly the best country to visit as there a UK Foundation holder can run 1 kW. NZ only has one licence class and they consider UK Foundation or more specifically ITU Recommendation M.1544 as being all that’s required for 90-day reciprocal operation
Thanks for your online training; I passed the foundation in January thanks to you.
I’m with a scout group and I’m keen to allow our members on the air under my call sign.
What I’ve not seen is any special adaption to my call sign to indicate it’s a non license holder using my call sign rather than me directly.
Have you any insight into what a directly supervised non license holder might say when saying my call sign?
The unlicenced person being supervisor doesn’t have to say anything special niether do you. Situation is exactly the same as it used to be under the old licence when a Foundation or Intermediate holder was using a Full or Club holders station under supervision.
The licence T&C mean they can call CQ and have QSO’s just like you do. They use your callsign as is without any adaptation. The unlicenced person may chose to mention in the QSO that they are using your station but that’s up to them there is no requirement to do so