Ofcom announces UK licence changes.
Looks like what they originally proposed they have pretty-much implemented. Not much point in having a consultation exerciseā¦!
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yes they will implement what they proposed in June over the next two years starting in February 2024.
73 Ed.
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Well if you ask people if they want what was being proposed and you donāt get a massive push back then itās not rocket science to see the proposals getting approved and implemented.
EDIT: Was there something in the changes you specifically objected to?
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I cannot believe that it is been agreed for RSLās to become optional because these are really important to determine which UK DXCC you are working and which UK DXCC you are operating from. Looks like those who collecting DXCCās which now need to research what location in the UK that the UK station is working from in order to claim DXCC which could prove difficult is a station is portable without saying what location they are in and also not all UK radio amateurs are on QRZ.com. Looks like either Ofcom have either ignored our objections for this or have unfortunately had a lot of support for RSLs to become optional. That being said though, I think I will start using the optional E RSL for when I am operating in England and also update my callsign from M0HGY to ME0HGY. Sadly it seems the UK in terms of amateur radio has become āAmericanisedā, apologies to any radio amateurs in the USA reading this post and I hope I have not caused any offence.
Jimmy M0HGY
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Amongst other observations, the use of RSLs becoming optional. That has unwelcome implications for SOTA in my opinion. Itās a change for the benefit of OFCOM admin, not for the benefit of radio amateurs.
But, hey, the sun will still come up tomorrow, the world will still rotate and worse things happen at seaā¦! 
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According to Ofcom, there are about 100,000 amateur radio licences in UK, and about 2000 of us responded to the consultation, so hardly a compelling push back - even if all 2000 expressed the same concernsā¦
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Some of us have 3 licences though (for now) so that bumps it up a bit 
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I donāt think thereās room for reasoned sentiment like this in such discussions Adrian
There may be 100000 licences but there are significantly fewer licenseesā¦ I have 4 licences (soon to be 3).
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I am not a fan of being able to change your call sign every 5 years, or with older calls being released 5 years after the original holder gives up his license or becomes SK.
āAs a licensee, in the future you will be able to change your call sign periodically. This will be limited to once every 5 yearsā etc, etc.
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I objected to RSLs being optional but I note that 348 people objected but 468 approved, so I canāt complain. I also notice from the comments that many people didnāt grasp that you can continue to use an RSL if you want.
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Not surprising. There are a significant number who donāt understand how they work any way and some of those people have held a licence for a long, long time. I donāt think RSL use will change much,many people who live where they are/were compulsory see them as a badge of honour in support of their national identities. Theyāll not be dropping them anytime soon. It probably makes things simpler for people, mainly from England, who forget to use them when they move about the UK because theyāre not used to them.
Iām just considering whether to give up my old āBā licence now or make it into a club licence. I canāt recall using it since 2007 so if it went Iād not really be missing anything.
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How will it affect SOTA? The only thing that matters is the summit reference.
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Plus the silent keys whoās family and friends havenāt notified Ofcom they have passed away. Having registered an SK with Ofcom recently they need a copy of a death certificate or they wonāt strike out the callsign.
73 Phil
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Fair point, Richard, but I think there are many chasers who enjoy the RSL as an initial indication of the country they are trying to contact. Itās a personal thing of course, and perhaps more prevalent among those who have had long-standing RSLs in their country unlike, as in England, where - for some strange reason - it was never implemented.
And, ironically, UK SOTA summits are identified by, yes, an RSLā¦!
But, as I say, it isnāt going to stop the world spinningā¦
73 Mike (MM7MWL aka M7MWL)
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One advantage of being allowed to change calls is for those who have an awkward callsign with a Q or a Z in it and who wanted to buy a UK number plate to match their callsign, could change their callsign and choose one where a car registation number was available from DVLA. Iāve never liked having a callsign ending in K but I will continue to live with it, luckily for me I was able to get the matching number plate when the RSGB told DVLA that some of us wanted to buy them. GI stations could always keep using the RSL (I hope they do) and get a GI4 REG, but the GM/GW etc stations could always stop using the RSL if they felt it was important (I hope none do, but its up to them) and buy the matching ānone RSLā car registration to suite their callsign without the RSL designator.
73 G4OBK
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I found it was cheaper to change my name to S627ANM rather than buy a plate showing my name or callsign!
Your point is valid though Phil having a 0 call makes having a matching car plate difficult.
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ā¦now I can run my JUMA-1000 amp at full throttle.
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As your QSL manager, please can I urge you to do no such thing!
Not possible. Your callsign remains M0HGY. The E is an optional RSL. You can use it on air should you wish but your actual callsign under which you are licensed does not change.
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Not so ! You can use 2W for the 2.4GHz band, the original proposal was 1W. This makes access to QO-100 a whole lot easier for foundation licenses.
73 de
G4VFL
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