I attended the Norbreck Amateur Radio Exhibition in Blackpool earlier today as an exhibitor and I am constantly amazed at how many G callsign holders seem to think they are immune from having to move to a working frequency whilst they have a chat. I lost count the number of times calls were issued, and then conversations held, on the 2m calling frequency. Just because you’re at a rally doesn’t mean you don’t have to adhere to the very rules that you would crucify a newly licensed foundation Amateur Radio operator for not upholding every other day of the year.

I know several of my recently successful foundation candidates were at the exhibition purchasing their first pieces of equipment. What must they think after I drilled home that you must follow the rules – what an example to be set by those more experienced Radio Amateurs that should know better.

Maybe some of our more experienced Amateur Radio operators should go back to school and resit a Foundation course – I wonder how many of them would pass?

These stations will be operating for all, or part, of the week as sponsored stations raising money for a most worth charity, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

If you are a Radio Amateur and would like to become part of this fun fundraising week, please visit the SOS Radio Week web site.

The reason I raise this is because I’ve finally got my on-line license printed off and, as I usually do, read it from cover to cover. And there, bold as brass were two mentions to operating from an alternative address. I discussed this with a good friend of mine and he remembers it being in the BR68 during the seventies and eighties but thought it had been scrapped during the nineties some time.

Well any of you out there able to put us right and tell us when operating ‘/a’ was reintroduced, or whether it did, in fact, ever go away we’d be really grateful.