came across this on the whatdotheyknow website https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/foi_ham_radio?nocache=incoming-1063811#incoming-1063811 Please find our responses to your FOI request below: 1 how many times has ofcom prosecuted amateur radio repeater abusers using hate crime legislation ie 'harassment without violence by a public communication network' since ofcom started in 2003 o None 2 how many times has ofcom prosecuted vhf/ uhf amateur radio repeater abusers since 2003 o None 3 how many times has ofcom changed an nov for an amateur radio repeater from analogue to digital in order to combat repeater abuse on a repeater suffering abuse o Ofcom would issue an NOV if requested by the repeater keeper - the amateur whose licence has been varied to allow the repeater. It would be for the repeater keeper to decide how to manage access or which mode (analogue or digital) to operate. If a repeater had been changed from analogue to digital, it would have been a matter for the licensee. The variation doesn’t specify digital or analogue; it allows either/both. 4 how many hours a year do ofcom enforcement staff spend monitoring the amateur radio bands o Ofcom does not monitor Amateur Bands. We do monitor bands that amateurs use, but not for amateur activity – we monitor for primary user use only. We also do not accept reports of interference from any secondary user. 5 how much money per year does ofcom spend on amateur radio o This information is not held. Further explanation follows under Q6. 6 how many field enforcement officers do ofcom employ and how has this figure changed year on year since 2003 o This information is not held and providing numbers of ‘Field Enforcement Officers’ only would not give a true and accurate picture of the numbers of Ofcom staff engaged in the protection of the airwaves; to provide an accurate picture of this would involve searching through electronic and paper archives and some archives have been destroyed due to standard information retention policies. 7 how many amateur radio repeaters has ofcom closed down temporarily due to abuse since 2003 o None. Ofcom has asked repeater keepers to consider switching off for a period of time, but has never instructed them to. Kind regards Jenny
