IARU Questionnaire on enforcement of amateur radio regulations

A survey was recently carried out on the enforcement of Amateur Radio regulations by CEPT countries.

13 responses were submitted to the European Radiocommunications Office (ERO) by these CEPT countries: Czech Republic, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The following are among the responses provided by the United Kingdom:

Question: What enforcement actions can your Administration take in the situation when a transmission can cause offence to other radio amateurs and spectrum users?

Answer: "The UK can notify the offender of the offence or interference they are causing. But should the issue persist we can send warning letters, shutdown the Amateur repeaters they are using to transmit, revoke their licence and prosecute the licensee."

Question: What kind of evidence is considered sufficient in your Administration to prove that licence conditions have been breached? Would this evidence be admissible if provided from outside the country?

Answer: "This evidence is very subjective and hard to prove. In the UK the courts take the view that if it is language that can be heard on the street, then it is not sufficient to prosecute. However if it is persistent and unrelenting the continued action may prove it to be abusive and warrant prosecution. Threatening harmful actions such as bodily harm, harm to ones family or murder are sufficient to warrant action if proven. In these cases the evidence and case notes will be passed on the police to effect a prosecution."

Question: Does your Administration have any experience with license revocation in cases of deliberate interference, abusive-, offensive- or anti-social behaviour?

Answer: "We have previously tried to revoke an abusive licensee unsuccessfully. The case was withdrawn before court action could be taken. We are currently trying to revoke another amateur licensee by building a case, recording the abusive transmissions and direction finding the suspect."

The full results of the survey can be downloaded from the ERO website by using the following procedure:

1) Go to http://www.ero.dk/
2) From the "ECC Activities" drop-down menu select "Meetings Documents"
3) Ignore the Username/Password fields they are not required
4) In the field "Select Group" choose "RA Working Group"
5) In the field "Select Year" choose "2008"
6) Click on "13th Basel"
7) Click on "Meeting Documents"
8) Select the tick box for "RA1(07)49_annex 6_WGRA response to IARU questionnaire"
9) Click the "Download Selected" button at the top of the page

European Radiocommunications Office (ERO) http://www.ero.dk/