Today Europe lost an Amateur Radio Band to "licence-excempt"
time-limited use by automotive short range radar equipment.
see:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/24ghz/
(have your say before 23rd May !!!!!!!!!)

It's the first nail in the coffin for the UK Amateur Radio. The Funeral
is now set for 26th May 2005 when a consultaion on the future of UK
amateur radio licensing is published which will contain the question on
fully deregulating amateur radio in the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland (UK):

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/i...ur/forthcoming


or ( http://tinyurl.com/8pvxw )

"..For the avoidance of doubt, whilst the formal public consultation
will put forward a number of other options for the future, those
options are explicitly not recommended by Ofcom. Specifically, Ofcom
will not recommend any options to make the amateur radio service WT Act
licence-exempt; however, for transparency and completeness, this will
be put forward as an option in the public consultation in order to
gather the community's views ....."

Looks like 100 years plus of amateur radio history in the UK could soon
go the same way as the 24GHz band i.e. licence excempt - no exams, no
callsigns, just CB!


--73deG1LVN
www.dutchhousemob.co.uk

G1LVN wrote:

Looks like 100 years plus of amateur radio history in the UK could
soon
go the same way as the 24GHz band i.e. licence excempt - no exams, no
callsigns, just CB!


--73deG1LVN
www.dutchhousemob.co.uk

24GHz, huh? What's that?

"bb" wrote in message
ups.com...


24GHz, huh? What's that?


The 1.2cm band --- see 97.301(a).

73, de Hans, K0HB

"bb" wrote in message
ups.com...

G1LVN wrote:

Looks like 100 years plus of amateur radio history in the UK could
soon
go the same way as the 24GHz band i.e. licence excempt - no exams, no
callsigns, just CB!


--73deG1LVN
www.dutchhousemob.co.uk

24GHz, huh? What's that?

The thin end of the wedge my boy, thats what it is.
Brian

Brian wrote:
"bb" wrote in message
ups.com...

G1LVN wrote:

Looks like 100 years plus of amateur radio history in the UK
could
soon
go the same way as the 24GHz band i.e. licence excempt - no
exams, no
callsigns, just CB!


--73deG1LVN
www.dutchhousemob.co.uk

24GHz, huh? What's that?

The thin end of the wedge my boy, thats what it is.

That it is, Sir, that it is...However it's a rusty wedge, becasue
that's been the history of the Amateur Service (at least here in the
Colonies) since the inception of Radio.

Everytime it's been in the best COMMERCIAL interests to do so,
Amateurs were moverd higher and higher up the spectrum until those very
same commercial interests decided they were ready to populate those
same higher bands.

And truth be said, just how much use are we (Amateurs) making of
those bands? There's probably not even 100 guys here in the States
that make use of those bands, and even if the number is 10 times that,
it still doesn't warrant holding them back for development.

Oh, I certainly believe we need to hold some slices open for
Amateur and experimentals, but the bottom line is that it's unrealistic
to expect that that amount of "radio real estate" would be held for our
exclusive use.

73

Steve, K4YZ


Brian

You'll be saying we have to give back the internet 44.x.x.x IP address
range next, OM. We could probably get $billions for a Class A
allocation like that. Yet we don't do we?

G1LVN wrote:
You'll be saying we have to give back the internet 44.x.x.x IP
address
range next, OM. We could probably get $billions for a Class A
allocation like that. Yet we don't do we?

I'm not sure if that was meant for me (no attributes), but no Sir,
we certainly don't have to surrender an internet address....We can
create new addresses as the circumstances and technology allow.

The electromagnetic spectrum is a very finite resource, however,
and we'll be hard pressed to defend some of our allocations with as
little use as they are getting.

I can't speak for you fellows on that side of the Atlantic,
however I know that any use of the bands above 2.3Ghz on this side is
very rare. I think we will be lucky to maintain even sharing
arangements in the future, let alone keep exclusive allocations.

73

Steve, K4YZ
Winchester, TN

G1LVN wrote:
You'll be saying we have to give back the internet 44.x.x.x IP
address
range next, OM. We could probably get $billions for a Class A
allocation like that. Yet we don't do we?

Are you active on 24GHz?

"K4YZ" wrote in message
ups.com...

Brian wrote:
"bb" wrote in message
ups.com...

G1LVN wrote:

Looks like 100 years plus of amateur radio history in the UK
could
soon
go the same way as the 24GHz band i.e. licence excempt - no
exams, no
callsigns, just CB!


--73deG1LVN
www.dutchhousemob.co.uk

24GHz, huh? What's that?

The thin end of the wedge my boy, thats what it is.

That it is, Sir, that it is...However it's a rusty wedge, becasue
that's been the history of the Amateur Service (at least here in the
Colonies) since the inception of Radio.

Everytime it's been in the best COMMERCIAL interests to do so,
Amateurs were moverd higher and higher up the spectrum until those very
same commercial interests decided they were ready to populate those
same higher bands.

And truth be said, just how much use are we (Amateurs) making of
those bands? There's probably not even 100 guys here in the States
that make use of those bands, and even if the number is 10 times that,
it still doesn't warrant holding them back for development.

Oh, I certainly believe we need to hold some slices open for
Amateur and experimentals, but the bottom line is that it's unrealistic
to expect that that amount of "radio real estate" would be held for our
exclusive use.

73

Steve, K4YZ


Well history has revealed that radio amateurs were pushed further up the
frequency scale simply because they (the authorities) thought it was of no
use commercially. Look at Short Wave, it was the radio amateurs who
discovered that one could work the world on short waves. Radio amateurs who
discovered (or was it invented) SSB. Now of course there are fewer things
for us radio amateurs to give the world (for free of course) so our
existance is tolerated. However it looks like that tolerance (at least in
the UK) is about to be curtailed.
Brian

Well history has revealed that radio amateurs were pushed further up
the
frequency scale simply because they (the authorities) thought it was
of no
use commercially. Look at Short Wave, it was the radio amateurs who
discovered that one could work the world on short waves. Radio
amateurs who
discovered (or was it invented) SSB.

I don't know who invented SSB but it was in use for a number of years
commercially before it first appeared in the amateur bands.

Now of course there are fewer things
for us radio amateurs to give the world (for free of course) so our
existance is tolerated. However it looks like that tolerance (at
least in
the UK) is about to be curtailed.
Brian

There's an old adage out there which applies here, "Use it or lose it".
There's no point to complaining about losing allocations if we don't
use them. Which is the case with 24Ghz and we did it to ourselves.

w3rv