Thank you for a balanced reply, and thanks for the information on licence retrieval. Since I don't however, plan to return to amateur radio, I won't be seeking to get my licence back. Although the gear is now quite a lot cheaper in the UK than it was when I started 27 years ago, there is still the elitist element in amateur radio that I can't stomach. Some older amateurs wouldn't even talk to you unless the second character in the licence was a 3. I met lots of good friends too, and I keep in contact with most of them, and most of them aren't active now either.

I just wanted to reply to your post in particular to let you know that you are not alone.

I left for EXACTLY the same reasons and I have never renewed my licence or thought about it since.

I used to be in the Royal Signals, for five years and naturally I wanted to keep going to a certain extent when I left to join the Police, so I got my civvie Licence and carried on, and as you quite rightly point out, it was expensive in those days ! This was back in the early 80's and I had a room entirely for my kit in my flat at the top of a block of flats over the ice rink on the Queensway in Bayswater, London. I kept it up for about 18 months before giving up because of the very people you mention! Even though I was technically about 6 or 7 years into it, because I had only just got my civvie licence I was still a newbie ! ! ! !

But I know EXACTLY what you mean !

Yes, amateur radio does have that sort of tendency, and I suspect will eventually cause the death of the pursuit, assuming that people with a more forward-thinking mindset are not able to rescue things before that happens.

I've found amateur radio quite friendly. I suspect it all depends on which club and who you meet. I've heard stories of people being shunned in the past. Maybe things have changed. I've been on air with an M6 callsign (entry level licence, very new) and very basic setup and had help and helpful comments from others. For me it's a good way of using and keeping some of the skills I studied in my engineering degree, even though I went into computing instead, so for me it is a technical hobby as well as a social hobby.

Some points on the main subject:

28dB above the limit - that's a factor of 630 for those who don't think in dB.

The regulators must look at a technology in terms of its percieved benefit as well as its cost. The cost with this technology is that it intereferes with radio. As the bandwidth increases the amount of radio services it intereferes with also increases. Newer advances will start hitting broadcast FM radio, maybe even police and other services radio. Then more people are going to start noticing. I note that the device manufacturers reduce their signal strength in these areas, but it will still effect people in places with not so strong reception.

What of the benefit? For some it may be easier than WiFi or wired networking, but for many the existing technology should work well. WiFi occupies its allocated space in the radio spectrum. It has a new higher speed. Wired networks work so well. Some people install the cabling as they decorate. We just ran it under the carpet around the edge of the room until we moved to wireless. Is this technology really important to "Broadband Britain"?

Another aspect is that this is your data that is being broadcast. I don't know whether the technology encrypts it or not. The signal is likely to be carried along the mains wiring to your house as well as through the air, so is there an increased chance of mutual interference between users if more and more people start using this?

Nothing like digging up an 18 month old thread.

I'll have to remember why I searched for it now. Some recent news on the subject I think.

Well 18 months has indeed passed... But BT are still pushing these things, the interference complaints continue, and some of the original people who have got Ofcom to investigate cases have still not had them resolved. Ofcom continue to insist the problem does not exist and refuse to act despite a recent very critical independent report commissioned by them. The only change is that we now have Gigabit PLT devices which block out band 2 FM and DAB radio as well as the shortwave bands.

But I appreciate this topic is not considered for discussion on these forums.

I make quite heavy use of 2m, as part of a local repeater group and part of RAYNET. RAYNET tends to be weaker signals as control is about 30 miles North from me and I currently live in a dip.

I'm currently listening to another control station about 20 miles South talking about an event at the weekend in which it seems lots of charity walkers did a serious hike not prepared for the bad weather that came in. Hills can be dangerous. Without mobile phone coverage, amateur radio is very good for providing safety communications on these events.

Last weekend I was involved with an event around town for which we used lower power walkie talkies. Increasing interference would be a problem in that situation too. One of our people lost contact when they moved too close to a certain white goods store for example. Of course we're not the only people in town using 2m walkie talkie. There are a fair few shops and security firms on these frequencies.

I think a few people would start noticing DAB failing and lots would notice FM. DAB is weak here. I've helped some people with antennas because those that came with the radio didn't work. Would people know to blame these devices though, or just blame DAB? The local FM station is very strong. National stations are comparably weaker.

The EMC laws do exist for a reason. It is bad that corporate interests are being allowed to ride roughshod over them.