Roger G3XBM's (Mainly) Amateur Radio Blog: RSGB

21 Nov 2014

RSGB

I have been a member of the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) for 52 years now. When I first joined I was an SWL associate member - A3554 - as a young teenager. In those days you had to be proposed and seconded. Joining is much easier today. When I started there was just one licence. I took my RAE exam in 1966. It was on Friday 13th May as I recall. I attended RAE classes at Plymouth Tech every Monday night, catching the bus to Plymouth after school. Long gone days!

Over the years I have not always agreed with the RSGB's decisions. In fact, quite recently, I did not like the decision worked up with OFCOM to allocate the 146-147MHz band to some UK amateurs by NoV. I think the RSGB could have got a much better deal for UK amateurs, but that is my personal view.

Despite this, the RSGB is our national society and deserves our support. Over the years they have supported UK amateurs very well and have a much better relationship with OFCOM than the ARRL has with the FCC in the USA where bands we have had access to for years are still not available! The monthly RadCom magazine is a good read with a mix of technical and non-technical articles.

So, if you are not an RSGB member and you live in the UK, may I encourage you to join?

See www.rsgb.org .

9 comments:

G0FTD said...: What point did proposing and seconding
serve ?; Sat Nov 22, 03:01:00 am GMT
G1KQH said...: It was the oldboys way of proving who you were.

73 Steve; Sat Nov 22, 09:50:00 am GMT
Todd Dugdale said...: If the ARRL is the bar that other Societies need to clear, then that bar is set low enough for a toddler to step over. I'm not a member, nor will I ever be.

The ARRL fought *against* "no code" licences for decades, then reluctantly merely ceased opposition to them. Later, when it became obvious that this action had saved the hobby, they took credit for making it happen.

Likewise with Chinese HTs and EchoLink. They are consistently on the retrograde end of every issue, wait until the bitter end to fold, and then talk up the benefits to the hobby and pretend that they always favoured it.

The ARRL is little more than a rubber stamp for contest results and a mail-forwarding service.; Sat Nov 22, 03:50:00 pm GMT
G0FTD said...: >It was the oldboys way of proving who you were.

Surely you could have shown them your ration book back then ? ;-); Sat Nov 22, 07:44:00 pm GMT
G1KQH said...: The RSGB was in Doughty St, London when I joined , not a unit on some industrial est. It felt like I was joing the Lodge at the time. I remember having my application rejected because I didn't have someone to second it, I had to run it around some local Hams QTH to get it all signed. He said to me, " Your not doing anything illegal are you"? Meaning: Playing with 27MHz AM!

73 Steve; Sat Nov 22, 08:58:00 pm GMT
Roger G3XBM said...: I joined in 1962 when it felt more like a gentleman's club. How times have changed and for the better.; Sat Nov 22, 09:11:00 pm GMT
Roger G3XBM said...: BTW, I joined the ARRL last year and I shall NOT be renewing.; Sat Nov 22, 09:12:00 pm GMT
G1KQH said...: I just renewed my ARRL membership for another 3 yrs, what didn't you like about it then Roger?

73 Steve; Sat Nov 22, 10:08:00 pm GMT
Unknown said...: Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. See the link below for more info.

#despite
www.ufgop.org; Mon Nov 24, 06:05:00 am GMT