History
I (Andrew Holland) took the RAE in 1969 aged 16 and passed. I was tutored by Neville Ramsden G3RHE because a friend at school said “Neville would only tutor him (Malcolm Monro G8DLL) if he found someone else to do the RAE”. So off we went to Neville’s house once a week for about 6 weeks with our copies of the RAE book which we were expected to have read. The main gap in my knowledge was in the maths to using “powers of 10” Neville assumed we did this at school and because I was B stream I hadn’t, Malcolm who was A stream had. The result a 10pf * 10uH tuned circuit looks like this.
F = 1 / 2 * 3.14 * SQRT (0.00000000001 * 0.00001)
miss count the number of zeros and you are in trouble !
Malcolm got a license straight away and I thought I would do the Morse. So having no structure and a lot of patience from John Colbook (G3BJD) once a week I got nowhere and went off bell ringing, a loss to radio ? I continued with the electronic building at work for the Post Office (Telephones) and at home.
The next contact (1976) with Amateur Radio was in Kenya where I went to work for the Flying Doctor Service as a Volunteer (VSO) where I took over from Mike Franklin (G3VYI & 5Z4NX) looking after about 80 HF ground stations in Kenya and Tanzania. PYE SSB125T and SSB130 kit. Mike could whistle the Morse so no key was required to deal with another user who tried to borrow our frequency. I just left the situation alone and the Flying Doctor Radio operator for that frequency seemed to like knowing about what was happening in the Kenya Prison service.
So a few years later (1981) I was now working at the Post Office Central Training School at Stone, Staffs and I meet up with Dave Powis (G4HUP) who was after operators for the club contest station. So no kit required, which was good news with mortgage rates at 15%, I finally get my license (G6CBX). The club used Dave’s Call for VHF contests which were good fun.
Back to the Morse, this was with Dave in a very different manner, it was half an hour every lunch time at 16WPM then off to Cullercoats Radio (http://www.coastalradio.org.uk/ukstations/cullercoats/cullercoats.html) to do the Morse test followed by an upgrade to G4VFL. So after about 2 years G6CBX which had little use in its own name went QRT.
G4VFL has had its ups and downs but less of that.
The re-issue of G6CBX
Clement had taken an interest in things technical so I suggested that he could get a license thinking it would be a process similar to when I got mine. Not so, so Clement has worked his way through the Foundation and Intermediate followed by the Advanced. I think the process has been good for Clement. I do have some issues with it as the only solution to getting a license, but this is not the place to air those views.
So as Clement approached the Advanced exam I though about the call sign, he really hated the 2E0 so it was an M0 or could he get a G call sign ?
The International agreement says call signs are not normally reissued however there are exceptional circumstances.
There are two documents on the Ofcom website:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/ra/publication/ra_info/ra190/ra190.htm (dated 2002)
Can a call sign be passed on to another amateur?
We are aware of some instances of unwelcome approaches to the families of deceased amateurs, seeking their call sign. Whilst it is usually the case that such approaches are due to an over enthusiastic reaction to obtain an attractive call sign the only way to avoid problems of this nature is to restrict the type of requests for transfers that we would consider. Furthermore, transferring call signs puts quite an administrative burden on the RLC and the Agency at the expense of other licensees.
Requests of this kind will only be considered on a discretionary basis e.g. where the request comes from a member of the "immediate family" of the deceased. In addition, the Agency will consider requests made in a will. We may also consider cases where the "immediate" member of a family becomes a Class B licensee and wishes to adopt the original Class B call sign once held by another member of the family who now holds a Class A Licence.
Also this document that doesn’t appear to be linked but I located on search.
http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/spectrum/amateur-radio/guidance-for-licensees/amateur-radio-call-signs/transfercallsigns.pdf
General call sign allocation policy
1.1 This document describes the circumstances under which Ofcom will consider transferring a call sign from one radio amateur to another.
1.2 According to ITU Regulations “All stations open to international public correspondence, all amateur stations, and other stations which are capable of causing harmful interference beyond the boundaries of the territory or geographical area in which they are located, shall have call signs from the international series allocated to its administration as given in the Table of Allocation of International Call Sign Series.”
1.3 Within the hierarchical structure of call sign allocations granted by the ITU, the UK allocates blocks of these call signs to the various radio services (including the amateur radio service) in accordance with formats specified in the ITU Radio regulations.
1.4 Once issued, the amateur radio call sign is permanently associated with the individual concerned and is not re-issued. An individual’s call sign will only be changed under exceptional circumstances. Similarly, the transfer of a call sign from one radio amateur to another is not normally permitted except under exceptional circumstances.
1.5 Should a radio amateur allow their licence to lapse, their call sign will be re-instated if they subsequently choose to renew their licence.
1.6 Call signs are a finite resource and remain the property of Ofcom.
Section 2
Transfer of amateur radio call signs
Consent to transfer the call sign
2.1 Ofcom will transfer a call sign from one radio amateur to another radio amateur providing that the call sign holder consents to the transfer.
2.2 Ofcom will require a letter of instruction from the call sign holder as evidence of consent.
2.3 Ofcom will also transfer a call sign from a deceased radio amateur to another radio amateur.
2.4 Ofcom will require a letter of instruction from the call sign holder’s executor (or administrator) as evidence of consent.
Other requirements
2.5 Ofcom will only transfer the call sign if the recipient is entitled to hold a licence of an equal class or of a higher class to the donor.
So with this we sent a manual application form for a license to Ofcom.
I annotated the policy document as follows:
1.4 Exceptional circumstances being a son of an Amateur that has a class B in the past and upgraded to a class A and the son was still interested in Amateur Radio.
1.5 The call sign had lapsed because of the issue of a class A call sign G4VLF and would not be required to be reissued to me at any time, because I have call sign G4VFL.
1.6 This reissue would save the issue of a new call sign thus conserving the stock of call signs.
2.1 Consent provided
2.2 Letter provided, I included in the letter the details of the old G6CBX call sign and its station address with a copy of the log book to illustrate it has not been heavily used in the 2 years it had been open for operations.
Allocation of call sign G6CBX to a new holder
Dear Sir
Would it be possible to allocate my old Class B call sign (G6CBX) to my son ? He has just passed his Full License exam. This call was only used for a short period before I obtained a Class A call G4VFL and the G6CBX license handed in to obtain the upgrade. The station address at the time was 67 Meadow Way, Stone, Staffordshire, ST15 0JW. A full log of the contacts with the call is attached, as you see it was not extensively used and it is approaching 30 years since it was used so there should be no overlap confusion in operations with the call sign.
My son currently holds the 2E0CEZ call sign, it would be nice for him to hold a “G” call sign.
I have separated the payments for the Call sign transfer and the license issue.
Yours sincerely
Andrew J Holland
G4VFL
We submitted a manual application for a license with two payments, one for the license transfer (£15) and one for the manual issue of a license (£20). A week or so later the license was issued with no reference back to us.
I hope this note may be of help and can add to the knowledge base.
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