[amsat-bb] Re: Ham Radio in UK?

[Gordon JC Pearce]

On 11/01/13 21:15, Joe Leikhim wrote:
> Thanks; For some reason, I thought 70CM Repeaters were unavailable in
> UK, and my W32A might be "contraband". Yes the W32A can work 420-450

Incidentally, in the UK you are allowed to have any kind of transmitter 
for any band you like, whether you are licensed or not.  You're not 
allowed to transmit with it, though.

You're also allowed to receive anything, but under the WT Act you may 
not be able to act on or pass on any information that you receive.  So, 
sitting in the house listening to the last few remaining FM fire brigade 
radios is fine, phoning the local paper or hopping in the car to go for 
a look is right out ;-)

There's another interesting aspect of this that pops up on aviation 
enthusiast mailing lists and forums, where you get people posting stuff 
along the lines of "ZOMG THE UK HAS DRACONIAN LAWS AND IT'S A POLICE 
STATE BECAUSE YOU CAN'T STREAM SCANNERS LISTENING TO AIR TRAFFIC 
CONTROL!!11!!!!11111"

Well, the law says you can't pass on any information without permission, 
which suggests to me that if you obtain permission from NATS to stream 
local ATC chatter, then it will be fine.  I asked NATS about that at a 
visit to their control centre near me, and they said that in principle 
they don't really care what you do, to satisfy the letter of the law 
you'd need to ask permission, and no-one has ever contacted them to ask 
permission to stream ATC traffic.

So there you go - you don't ask, you don't get.

-- 
Gordonjcp MM0YEQ