Tag Archives: United Kingdom

Document radio interference via the Ofcom Spectrum Management Survey

PLT devices can produce broad spectrum noise on the shortwave/amateur radio HF bands

PLT devices can produce broad spectrum noise on the shortwave/amateur radio HF bands

Nige (G7CNF) recently contacted me regarding a survey he has created to help document and fight radio interference from power line technology and other sources.

If you live in the UK and can create an Ofcom case reference number, please consider contributing.

Nige writes:

I have created a new forum (or rather relaunched my old one but with some rebranding) […] dedicated to discussing and curing [radio] interference.

I was contacted recently on one of my PLT YT videos by a SWL who was suffering PLT interference and it reminded me that since 2010, SWLs have had no ‘right to complain’ in the UK after Ofcom delegated domestic broadcast interference to the BBC. Frankly I think that is unacceptable and I want to address that imbalance.

I have created a new survey, the ‘Ofcom Spectrum Management Survey.’ Unlike the previous incarnation which was aimed at radio amateurs alone, this time I have opened it up to all radio users, regardless of type; the only qualification needed to fill this survey is an Ofcom case reference number. […]

Like the RSGB noise floor monitoring campaign which has just been stepped up to incorporate the use of the Cross-Country-Wireless Sentinel SDR noise monitor, I believe that my Ofcom survey will offer insights into the regulator’s performance over over time – and highlight its deficiencies by placing Ofcom spectrum abuse cases in the public domain.

The survey can be found here:
http://interference.org.uk/survey/index.php/955793

The forum, here:
http://interference.org.uk

Many thanks for your time and the best of luck with the hobby.

Nige.G7CNF
http://interference.org.uk

Nige, thank you for organizing this survey and campaign–best of luck moving forward!

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Radio Caroline seeks a spot on the British AM dial

Radio Caroline circa 1960's.

(Source: NY Times)

“Since first taking to the air from a makeshift studio on an offshore ship in 1964, Radio Caroline has endured government raids, shipwrecks and a decade of radio silence before finding a land-based studio in the southeastern county of Kent. From there, a cast of volunteer disc jockeys has transmitted album-oriented rock to a global audience over satellite radio and the Internet since 1999.

But to station management, that global reach isn’t enough. In an age when many prefer to listen to music over the Web or by satellite, Radio Caroline would like to be rewarded for its contribution to British popular culture in the most modest of ways: an AM radio designation in the southeast of England, where it was conceived.”

Read full article at the NY Times.

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