For those of you who don't receive the RADCOM magazine sent to members of the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) I have reproduced an article which appeared in the February 2012 issue. This article addresses special call signs that will be offered to UK radio amateurs to use on various occasions during 2012. This includes the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympic Games
The article reads:
The Radio Society of Great Britain and Ofcom have reached agreement on the optional use of special call signs for two significant events during 2012.
For the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, all UK amateur radio stations will have the option of applying for a variation of their licence., If they wish, to use a special prefix for a five-week period. This will add or substitute the letter "Q" in place of the regional identifier in the callsign.
For the period of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, a similar facility will exist for a seven-week period, using the letter "O".
Both the above facilities will also be available to amateur club licences.
Furthermore, calls in the series GB2012aaa will be available for special event stations relating to the Olympics and licences will be issued for four "flagship" stations using the prefix 2012a where'O' is the letter O and a is a single letter relating to the location of the station.
Further details of these arrangements are on the summary, and administrator details will be issued by Ofcom and the RSGB shortly.
The following facilities will be available to holders of the following licences: amateur Foundation, Intermediate and Full; amateur Full (club), amateur full (reciprocal) and amateur Full (temporary reciprocal).
Queen's Diamond Jubilee:
Period: 0000 BST May 5, 2012 to 2359 BST June 10, 2012
Authorisation: To Conform to the Requirements of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006, each licensee must obtain a Notice of Variation. This is an online process and will be available from March 1, 2012.
Callsign: the letter Q will be added to calls, or replace the regional identifier. For example (where 'aaa' represents the final alpha block of the callsign):
M3aaa becomes MQ3aaa
G3aaa becomes GQ3aaa
GM3aaa becomes GQ3aaa
2E0aaa becomes 2Q0aaa
2M0aaa becomes 2Q0aaa
GX3aaa becomes GQ3aaa
London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games:
Period: 000 BST July 21, 2012, to 2359 BST September 9, 2012.
Authorisation: To conform to the requirements of the Wireless telegraphy act 2006, each licensee must obtain a Notice of Variation. This is an online process and will be available from March 1, 2012
Callsign: the letter O will be added to the calls, or replace the regional identifier. For example (where 'aaa' represents the final alpha block of the callsign);
M3aaa becomes MO3aaa
G3aaa becomes GO3aaa
GM3aaa becomes GO3aaa
2E0aaa becomes 2O0aaa
2M0aaa becomes 2O0aaa
GX3aaa becomes GO3aaa
I think that the Olympic special event callsign may cause a little confusion for some foreigners as when those of us who have a zero in our call will be calling Golf Oscar Zero Victor Quebec Yankee. I've lost count of the times that foreigners confuse a zero with an Oscar (O), I really hope that it doesn't cause too much confusion.
