Remember: If you’re not on QRZ, MyFace, SpaceBook, X, or any other platform… you can’t be real!
Their empowerment (veiled by human vanity), is rather exciting. Living the dream. 
I use QRZ for logging and that’s about it. The idea of looking someone up whilst having a QSO with them seems to be daft because I can get to know them by actually speaking to them in the first place.
It’s good to speak to people - let’s not get lost in a world of databases.
I have been considering the changes occurring in our ‘progressive’ world. Nowadays the ability to distinguish between real people and bots, AI and information overload is becoming a growing universal issue and perhaps a real challenge to humanity in the future.
Gone are the early days of my amateur radio life when the only recourses available to me when in QSO with another amateur were the annual callsign book (luxury) and an atlas. Was it better? My ravenous appetite for information precludes that previous simplicity although the excitement of discovery is somewhat dissipated? I could switch my mobile phone, computer and other related devices off! It is tempting but feasible? I will continue to think about it…
I quite agree and one of the reason I enjoy using 2m fm is that I can hear people welll enough to feel I am really communicating - and sometimes making them smile or laugh (I hope). This was really one of the points that I was trying to make (many posts ago) the the West Midlands caller did hear me once, got the call sign right and was then flummoxed by my not appearing in QRZ . I felt that he then never actually heard me again (or bothered to listen??) as he then changed me to a MW7 and never heard/understood my explanations. Then he wanted others to give him MY callsign. Coming from a disability background, I felt we were in the 'Does he take sugar? scenario which I find deeply offensive. I started this, and I hope I shall be allowed to end the original part of the thread (the diversions from the topic, as ever, are so interesting they can run and run - and I’m about to introduce a futher ‘hare’…) I felt the problem finally boiled down to the fact that he couldn’t hear me well enough to get my callsign correctly - or give me his name as repeatedly requested. Under those circumstances, his QSO with me will not appear in my log. When I checked fairly soon after the contact, I was not in his log but he had already about 10 2m contacts for the day (he is no novice) so I may have scrolled of the bottom. END OF TOPIC pse
Now to a diversion - and a hare (or two). On our drive back down the lonely switchback road from the interesting parking at Beacon Hill, we had travelled about half a mile when a lone panting foxhound came towards us and trotted back up to the (by now empty, I believe) parking place. This was the only four footed evidence of the hunt we had seen (the lady in jodpurs driving the horsebox had only 2!) and we wished him luck in his effort to return home (wherever that might be).
Now to Pegwyn Hill and the friendly farmer (or is it farmers) that we all have been meeting. Well done Gerald for hitching a lift when (almost) forced to. We weren’t offered one as he was going down to the farm on his tractor to collect some more haylage to distribute to the hungry ewes. On probably our last visit we had met him coming up as we came down and he asked us not to latchthe gates but leave them just propped ;;;shut so he could nudge them open to drive through and then stop to shut them properly. He was apparently so delighted by our assistance that he was waiting around in the farmyard for our return (not realising how long we would be..) but on our approach he popped out and held the gate for us with some more fiendly words. I wish all farmers were like this!
Rod thought he had seen a hare in the far distance when we walked up but I could spot nothing but, not that far away from the car on the way down he found a much closer one which stopped amongst the gorse bushes on the left. After careful searching I found a pair of ears sticking up between the gorse and thought of trying to take a picture. Needless to say I made a slight noise and, not 1 but 2 hares shot up the bank and away. Long time since I’ve seen a hare fairly close too on the mainland but much more comoon in Northern Ireland. Anyone seen them there before?
On the hitching topic - my best hitched lift was on Cyrn y Brain GW/NW-043 in hosing rain when a telecoms engineer finished his work, started to drive off (dash.. I thought) and then stopped. The mast was down in a trice and I almost ran to his vehicle. We had a merry discussion on the way down from his ‘annual’ (phew) visit and I entered the Ponderosa by the back door. I paused only to radio M0JLA (who was eating ‘breakfast’) and say I was on my way down..) before walking through the door and sitting opposite him - but he once hitched a lift in a tourist coach through an Icelandic river I had just waded through so I have a lot of ground to make up..
Viki
Yes, I saw a pair of hares near the top in July last year. I managed this blurry photo of one of them before they noticed me and ran off…
Agreed - I’ve only used 2m this year so far, and it has been lovely. Fewer QSOs, but more relaxed…
Like having a cuppa with someone, as opposed to speed dating.
Not sometimes, but always!
There is a problem with RSLs. I understand them. I think most overseas radio amateurs understand them. However plenty of newbies here don’t understand them. And plenty of OT’s here don’t understand them. And plenty of staff members at Ofcom don’t even understand them!
It wasn’t until a 2023 reflector post about upcoming OFCOM changes, that I even knew about RSL - though in my defence I had only made 45 voice QSOs into the UK.
Which is odd because they are one of the first things in the foundation licence syllabus !
As a slight aside, since last years licence changes - a) it is no longer required to use an RSL at all and (b) you are free to use any suffix. Therefore I suppose one could use eg. M5RJC/GW ?
Rick
I’d say that was arguable. You are not supposed to use the new suffix freedom to convey misleading information. Now you could argue that you are away from home in Wales, so it is not misleading. But it could be argued that you are trying to make your suffix appear as a CEPT prefix - which may be construed as misleading.
An issue which I spotted: “For licensees using a ‘2’ format call sign, it will remain mandatory to insert an RSL”.
Further clarification:
"We will cease issuing the ‘2’ series of call signs for Intermediate licensees and will instead issue ‘M8’ and ‘M9’ call signs.
Existing holders of ‘2’ series call signs will be able to transfer their call sign to the new M8 and M9 format at the same time. Although we will encourage this, this will be voluntary.
For those who continue using a ‘2’ format call sign, you will have to continue to input an RSL into your call sign".
They are a bit behind on the M8 and M9 call signs roll out, so there’s no option but to continue to use an RSL until then.
RESULT! Or maybe he just needed a good gate opener…
Years ago, I spent a couple of cold wintry nights at Culra bothy with two pals. We didn’t have bikes, so had endured a long walk in with winter mountaineering packs, plus food, sleeping bags etc. We did some nice winter scrambling on Ben Alder and a few other bits. None of us were looking forward to the long walk out.
Enter a gamekeeper is an old battered Hi-Lux, complete with dead stag in the back. “Want a lift?”
We didn’t need to be asked twice, even though we all had to share the load bed with the stag!
This comparison made me smile 
or is that a grimace…
Tell them what they want to hear (59). Exchange call signs. Onto to the next one.
The term RSL is a relatively recent one, invented by OfCom, who would dearly like to do away with them altogether, as no other UK radio licence type has them.
We, as radio amateurs know about countries, or Entities, as they are now called in the DXCC programme. I think everyone knows that G, GW, GM, etc. are separate Entities but they may not realise that OfCom’s method of implementation is the RSL. And it seems that some folk don’t realise that G3WGV can become GM3WGV by just driving a bit further north!
As for operating M5RJC/GW, I think that is not permitted. You can be M5RJC operating in Wales and needlessly confusing everyone, or you can be MW5RJC.
Just because OfCom says that RSLs are optional doesn’t mean that we should treat them as such.
The hardest thing about them is writing software that handles all of them correctly and that’s not hard TBH.
It boils down to you need to know which constituent country of the UK are you operating from and insert the corresponding letter into the call. The gotchas being the letter for England is dropped unless you have an intermediate licence when it isn’t *. What’s that, 35 words or so and two sentences describe the process.
It’s hardly rocket science. People are not being asked to build and operate a nuclear fusion torus. Or produce a more faithful and beautiful translation of Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu into English. Or even summarise it in only 15 seconds.
I can understand overseas hams being confused at first as the UK is the only place this is done. But the use of the RSL is important as it clearly identifies which DXCC the UK station is in and new hams who decide to drop it may come rue that decision when overseas DX doesn’t know they are in GD/GJ/GU and not one of the millions of plain G stations and thus a little exotic.
You have been licenced somewhat longer that me John and may not have been in your original documents, but I’m fairly sure it was in documents from Ofcom’s predecessor when I was first licenced in 1990.
* So difficult is the handling of the dropped / not dropped letter for England, you can now leave it in. Whilst it does have a pleasing symmetry it makes you stand out.
This is because the ITU regulations, which OfCom operates within, state that where the national identifier starts with a number the next character must be a letter. The UK is unique in having an entire number allocated to it but we still have to abide by the following letter rule, so OfCom made that letter the RSL.
I always thought it rather odd that OfCom decided to issue 2*n callsigns for Amateur Radio. There were plenty of spare number sequences in the G and M series.
To be clear, this was a “thought experiment”. I have never yet used the new rules to either avoid using an RSL where needed, or added random suffixes.
On the other hand, OfCom’s guidance makes it clear to me that this would be permitted (my italics)
Identification
21. The licensee that shall ensure that: a) the station is clearly identifiable at all times; b) the call sign is transmitted as frequently as is practicable during transmissions; and c) the Call sign is given in voice or other appropriate format consistent with the mode of operation.
22. Unless the Licence is an Intermediate Licence with a call sign beginning with a 2, a ‘Regional Secondary Locator’ (‘RSL’) may be inserted into the transmitted call sign, as a new, additional, second character.
23. If the Licence is an Intermediate Licence with a call sign beginning with a 2, a RSL must be inserted into the transmitted call sign, as a new, additional, second character.
24. Where an RSL is used, it must be one of the following: (list omitted)
25. The Licensee may, if notified by Ofcom, insert into the transmitted call sign any additional character, in place of an RSL, as specified by Ofcom.
26. Any suffix, following the ‘slash’ symbol (‘/’) may be added to the transmitted call sign.
And show me a seasoned UK SOTA operator who has NEVER made a mistake with using the correct RSL under field conditions …
Rick
All the time. 99.9% operating in GM means I say MM0 without thinking then have to correct myself. At least for the first or second summit. On my QCX radios there are enough CW memories I have most combinations programmed up, in fact there’s probably a “CT7/M0FMF/P” programmed still. The KX2 only having 3 CW memories is more of a challenge as I have to remember to reprogramme the callsigns before going on expeditions.
Been there, done that. It’s not hard until the licensing authorities start issuing callsigns that do not conform to the DXCC allocations. We do this in the UK, with GB callsigns that can be in any one of the seven entities. The French and Americans in particular, do it when issuing DXpedition licenses for their various islands around the world. The result is an “exceptions” database of, last time I looked, over 30,000 calls that aren’t where their callsigns suggest they are!
Yes, I think the term RSL started with the RadioCommunications Agency which was the predecessor to OfCom. My licence in 1967, a ten page affair bander-copied onto foolscap paper with handwritten details, made no reference to RSLs but required me to use the appropriate country letter when operating therein.