Paul Jarvis, Ofcom, addressed the National Hamfest on 27^th September and the RSGB Convention with their thinking for the Licence Review. In the presentation he covered the reasons why the review was being undertaken and emphasised that it was not intended to be a radical change, but that the Licence Review was geared to be more explicit with regard to the wording of some of the existing clauses, on operational practice and to help extend the services available to  Amateur Radio to encourage development of modern technologies.  He went on to explain that whilst he was keen to hear views from those present, his workload and staffing meant that he would not be able to enter into general discussions on the likely topics prior to the consultation.  He did though stress that Ofcom were working with the RSGB as part of the pre-consultation preparation, and invited the RSGB to feedback general comments on the topics that he raised.

Ofcom announced areas where they were considering improving the clarity of the current licence and changes to improve both their management of amateur licensing as well as progression through the licence structure.  To assist Ofcom prepare for their consultation the Society is to run several Litmus Tests over the next few months to provide feedback to Ofcom prior to their setting up of their consultation questions.  The following Litmus Tests are currently available

• Embedding the Progressive Licence concept
• Airborne Use
• Remote operating
• Single call sign per station
• Regional Secondary Locator
• Suggestions for additional topics

Opinions and views will no doubt vary, but the Litmus Test process may be able to identify a consensus on each of the subjects under discussion, and this will be captured by updating the discussion document.  At the end of this process this final draft will be passed to Ofcom as a pre-consultation input from the RSGB to help Ofcom frame their consultation approach.

The Litmus Test can be found by following this link