If you use over 10W, the new OFCOM rules on EMF may apply to you, especially if you are investigated over complaints by neighbours. As a QRP man, I am not bothered!
If you have a big tower, beam and full power you may have issues. You have to show that people can't be harmed by excessive EMF. If I had my way, all UK licencees would be limited to 100W, or even 10W!
See the OFCOM website for more details.
I quite like the Eire approach. In Eire, amateurs have access to much of the Band 1 spectrum. Why not grant all UK radio amateurs access to big chunks of spectrum at, say, 100mW ERP on a strictly non-interference basis? If you cause interference you get closed down, otherwise carry on. Oh silly me, this requires people with brains!!
Personally, I'd like access to some VLF spectrum and 40MHz. I guess the main issue is military access. I still don't understand why so much UK spectrum is reserved for the military when most is unused for most of the time. Views?
1 comment:
Actually the 10 watts is an eirp limit, which means just over 6 watts out of the transmitter.
I read the latest Ofcom release and will have to re-read it to determine where the commonly-accepted QRP limits apply. One interpretation suggested that you would need to determine compliance if your rig is CAPABLE of more than 6 watts, even if you only use it at QRP levels; for example, a station using a Yaesu FT-991 at 5 watts would need to demonstrate compliance whereas one using an FT-817 wouldn’t because the 817 only runs 5 watts max.
The other rather irksome matter is that an amateur running 12 watts pep SSB would need to show compliance, whereas a CB’er running the same power doesn’t - and don’t even mention CB’ers running 100 watt linears!
Regards,
Keith G0RQQ
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