There was an issue with my allocation of M5TEA online - on the callsign modification page it said it had been allocated and I couldn’t make any changes but it wasn’t reflected on the main page or license.
I phoned during their lunch hour today and requested a callback which I received 10 minutes later then it was all sorted in a couple of minutes with the accompanying emails containing an indication of surrender for my previous callsigns and the new license certificate.
Very impressed with the service, so credit where credit is due.
Looking back, I note that G4GET, its past-tense cousin G4GOT, and the probably-innocuous-at-the-time G4GIT were all issued.
Today, those seeking M8GIT or M9GIT may merely be seeking an affiliation with software repositories. Equally, they may just be feeling a trifle rebellious
Perhaps you know someone deserving of such, or similar, calls …
If Ofcom do not know it is issued and they do not know it’s been revoked or handed back then it is easiest not to list it as in use or available. From when Part 2/3 of the updates was enacted (a week or so back) the validate your licence every 5 years comes into force. If your old call isn’t validated by 2030 then they know it’s not in use and can into the pool. Validating a licence not on the DB may be “challenging” but if the owner has evidence to show it was issued and is in use then it can back on the database.
But essentially anything not validated will get reaped and made available again. So whilst it takes time, by 2030 they’ll have a more accurate database and a huge number of callsigns such that the UK won’t run out.
Ofcom should know what has been issued and what has been handed back/revoked. Basically, before you could choose a call, everything in the appropriate call sequences had been issued e.g. all of the eligible callsigns in G4AAA to G4ZZZ etc. So why are some G6 and G4 calls not listed? I’m sure there are others but those are the calls I’m familiar with
Well people make mistakes. The system has gone from manual to computerised and many iterations of different systems as it was handled by the GPO, then the RA then Ofcom. There is a concerted effort to fix this now.
Sure. My point was that all of those callsigns were issued. They may have incomplete records about revocation but they do know what was issued up to the point you could choose a callsign out of sequence. I.e. all of G3, G8, G4, G6, probably all of G0, G1 and G7 too. They may not know who they were issued to but they were issued in sequence so must have been issued.
There is a new email address, andy.gm4lld AT gmail.com but the older one, andy.mm0fmf AT gmail.com, will be in use for some time to come. The SMS faq needs updating as does some other stuff but I haven’t got round to it yet.
Some G6 calls were issued before the advent of the “B” licence, they were issued for television licences (/T) so G6Axx may be on its third issuing…just to complicate matters!
