Callsigns

An interesting (well, actually rather dull, but you know what I mean!) debate broke out the other day, concerning what a UK issued callsign actually is.

This started when a station - I'll anonymise it by using my own call - EA1/MW1CFN  - was transmitting that callsign from Spain.

Most people today would accept that the actual callsign that should be used when not within the UK and in EA1 would be EA1/M1CFN, not EA1/MW1CFN, because we're not actually in Wales at the time.  When I operated from Iceland last year, I used TF1/M1CFN. 

If we apply for a temporary change of licence conditions to allow the use of a special callsign, we receive the following document, indicating clearly that our allocated callsign does not actually contain a regional secondary locator as an integral part of the call, but is 'hashed', to show that use in the UK requires the use of the correct RSL (but, always confusingly, not  in England, unless it's a Intermediate licence(!))

But, if we look at the parent licence document issued when we apply (or renew, as in the document below), then we get something that includes the RSL.  This seems to mean that the callsign issued to the operator is MW1CFN in my case, not M1CFN, which doesn't appear in hashed form anywhere at all in this, 23-page document.  If I never applied for a variation to my licence, I would presumably never actually know about this hashed version!

Yet, because section 2(2) of the licence issue document is clear that the RSL must be changed when moving location, it's also clear that the MW1CFN callsign can't actually be the callsign issued!  They have the opportunity to issue M#1CFN as the callsign in the licence document, but don't!

I've asked OFCOM, the regulator in the UK, to clarify this confusing situation.  Their response was as follows, confirming that the British station operating in Spain who was of the defiant opinion he was right to include a British RSL in his call when located there was, in fact, completely wrong:

"Thank you for your enquiry about including Regional Secondary Locators (‘RSL’) in the call sign of an amateur radio station.  You are correct that callsigns are effectively issued RSL-free, and that the operator must insert the correct RSL, according to area of operation."

Clearly, that means no RSL is to be used when we are not in any of those UK areas.  Not that this official confirmation has changed the mind of the real operator in Spain, who continues to merrily use his secondary UK locator.  Another example of fixed old men's minds...