"Q" RSL to Celebrate The Queen's Platinum Jubilee

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"Q" RSL to Celebrate The Queen's Platinum Jubilee

Holders of a UK Foundation, Intermediate or Full Amateur Radio licence can apply online for a Notice of Variation (NoV) to use the "Q" RSL in their callsign during the month of June

We’ve recently played a part in helping the UK’s passionate amateur radio community to celebrate Her Majesty The Queen’s forthcoming Platinum Jubilee – and it all comes down to one letter of the alphabet.

Every amateur radio user in the UK needs a licence from Ofcom, and under their licences we assign each user a unique identity, known as a call sign. We also have to keep an eye on how these call signs are formatted, to make sure they meet global rules on how radio is used.

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23cm Band and Sat-Nav Coexistence: ITU-R WP4C Studies

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23cm Band and Sat-Nav Coexistence: ITU-R WP4C Studies

The Chair of IARU Region 1 Spectrum Affairs, Barry Lewis G4SJH, reports on the work being done in defending the interests of the Amateur Services in the 1240-1300 MHz band

During the period 4-10 May 2022, the IARU continued to engage in the preparatory work for WRC-23 agenda item 9.1b in ITU‑R Working Party 4C (WP4C).

Work continued to develop the coexistence studies between the amateur services in the 23cm band and the radio-navigation satellite services (RNSS) operating across the band. New studies were submitted by France, China and the Russian Federation.

The scale of the problem for the amateur services is becoming clear. For example, the studies predict that even a 10W 23cm band station could cause interference to RNSS receivers at up to 30km on the antenna main beam heading. Although the level of amateur activity and the density of users is quite low (compared to other more popular bands) the issue remains that from a regulatory perspective the amateur services are required to not cause harmful interference to RNSS services.

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Aligning Spectrum Licence Terms in the 3.4-3.8 GHz Band

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Ofcom is proposing to align the terms of licences in the 3.4-3.6 GHz and 3.6-3.8 GHz bands, to reduce potential barriers to spectrum trading between mobile network operators

Spectrum in the 3.4-3.8 GHz band is being used by the four UK mobile operators to deliver 5G services.

When this spectrum was awarded to operators through auctions in 2018 and 2021, some of it was already licensed to UK Broadband Limited.

Currently, UK Broadband’s spectrum licences in this band are subject to different terms than the other licences in the same band.

We consider that aligning licence terms and removing the disparity between UK Broadband’s licences and the auctioned licences could lead to more efficient use of spectrum.

The consultation closes on 5 July 2022, and we plan to publish our decision in September 2022 - https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-2/aligning-licence-terms-in-the-3.4-3.8-ghz-band