Isle of Man Amateur Radio Society
Advancing Amateur Radio On The Isle of Man
It is with regret that Brian King’s talk on the Mary Rose next week 12th September has been postponed due to unexpected events beyond our control. We will advise when the talk will be re-scheduled. It is not certain that there will be a meeting at all at Tromode.
The Committee
With the practicals being dropped recently just wanted to clarify the position on allowing foundation candidates to use an Advanced license call sign and equipment. This statement has been released by the RSGB to clarify Supervised operation of Foundation candidatesCommunications Manager | October 29, 2021We wish to retain the possibility for Foundation candidates to receive practical on-air training, under supervision, to illustrate the operating and licensing parts of the syllabus, although there is now no necessity to formally assess this.Before any Foundation student is allowed to operate a station under supervision, in accordance with Licence clause 3(3)(a), they must be registered on a recognised Foundation Licence Training Course, with a planned exam date.Licence clause 17 (dd) defines what a recognised Foundation course is i.e.“Recognised Foundation Training Course” means a training course which, if successfully completed, will lead to the person attending the course being issued with a Radio Amateurs’ Examination Pass Certificate which confirms that that person has achieved the level of competence required by Ofcom to be issued with a Foundation Licence;”Ofcom’s “Amateur Radio Licence – guidance” document in clause 2.50 further states:“If the Licence is an Amateur Radio (Full) or a Full (Club) Licence, a person on a Recognised Foundation Training Course as defined in clause 17(dd) of the licence, may use the station. This relates to the period of formal instruction. It is not intended to cover a licensee who decides to allow an unqualified person to use the station at any other time that they may choose.”It will be the responsibility each licensee (club or individual) to satisfy themselves that the supervised operation complies with the terms and conditions of the licence. Examples of how they might do this are to see evidence of a confirmed exam booking or evidence (e.g. an email from the course organiser) that the candidate is registered on a recognised training course as defined above.Tony Kent, G8PBHChair, Examination Standards CommitteeBasically nothing has changed and if a candidate is on a registered course with an exam date set then he/she can operate a radio under supervision.
The RSGB has announced the abolishment of the requirement of Practical Exams for the Foundation Exam this will now be a exam based license only. For further information please follow the link below.
https://rsgb.services/public/publications/exams/211001_foundation_practical_assessments_esc_announcement.pdf
In the same press release they also announced that the resumption of Face to Face exams . The Society also stated that it expected to phase out paper based exams in favour of Online based exams either at home or at clubs. For more information on this please follow the link below
https://rsgb.services/public/publications/exams/211001_resumption_of_face_to_face_exams_esc_announcement_v2.pdf
All the committee have the following request from Heather
“Hi, Please excuse my “cold calling” you, I got your email address from the IOMARS website. I have recently become keen on RTTY and have been trying to get the EU-RTTY award for contacting 50 EU entities. I have currently got 48 QSLed so I am sooooo close but am finding it very hard to work the smaller “countries” including, of course, Isle Of Man. Do you know of anyone on the Island who would be able to have a quick QSO with me on RTTY? Any leads would be greatly appreciated! Once again sorry for “cold calling”Kind Regards and 73Heather M0HMO “
I wonder if anyone is in a position to help Heather if so drop us an email and I will forward her contact details .
Thanks
Nigel
Thanks to Dave GD4HOZ we now have another APRS node covering Ramsey and the North of the Island.
More on linking.If you wish to set up a link, P-L-E-A-S-E state your callsign when you do so. I ask for this simple courtesy so that it is clear who set up the link. It helps, when deciding to close down a link that is clearly not being used by local stations, if it is known who the link “belongs” to.Thank you for your co-operation[GD4HOZ]
We have been regularly linking with the FreeStar network for almost a month and it’s been a Marmite experience from what I can gather; some like it, some don’t.Personally, I approached it with caution and, in my conversations with the FreeStar admin who reached out to us, I made that known. However, I felt that we at least should give it a fair shot.After a number of conversations in various quarters, and seeing my fears of users de-camping to simplex frequencies being realised, I have come to the conclusion that we are better served with an “Opt-In” link to off-island networks.I have asked the FreeStar admin to change the connection schedule such that we are linked to the network overnight, between 10pm and 7am.Hopefully that will give the “night owls” someone to talk to and it will keep the local network clear during the day.Again, I draw your attention to the linking guidelines on the main website.[GD4HOZ]
As an update there are now 3 APRS receiving station based on the Island. Thanks to Matty Cunningham we now have one at Carnane MD0MAN-10, One at Glen Vine kindly hosted By Gavin Wilby 2D0PEY-10 and one in Ballasalla GD6AFB-10 hosted by Nigel Bazley. If you would like to host one or get involved please get in touch and we will be happy to help.
A copy of the IOMARS Club Constitution can be found here.
This should be read and understood by all current and potential club members.