I challenged Ofcom and won!

[TheBoatman]

Tonight armed wiv me buzz words & passwords I successfully licenced a ships radio and after a bit of bovver managed to print it off.

OK it was a new boat but I got it to licence a standard VHF/DSC plus a handheld and it even gave me a MMSI number!

Am I the first?

That site is not easy to use.

Peter.

 

[peterb26]

Nah - I got mine 6 months ago..................!

But........

A month later they wrote to be (by snail mail?) and said "Sorry our system gave you the wrong call sign - try this one instead"

So keep a watchful eye on your post. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[tangofour]

[ QUOTE ]
Am I the first?

That site is not easy to use.

Peter.

[/ QUOTE ]

1 - Not by a very long margin!

2 - Their site usability is one of the worst I have come across in 30 years of IT and about 15 years of developing web based solutions.

 

[ferrispeterchris]

Speaking of callsigns I was given a four letter one but whilst checking out other boats of the same name as mine (can't remember the website) I noticed they were all four letters followed by a number.Should I (try to)contact Ofcom about this? Peter.

 

[Woodentop]

[ QUOTE ]
Speaking of callsigns I was given a four letter one but whilst checking out other boats of the same name as mine (can't remember the website) I noticed they were all four letters followed by a number.Should I (try to)contact Ofcom about this? Peter.

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe that the UK had so many callsigns that they had to start adding a number to them (a bit like the history of car number plate changes).
What you probably have is a "recycled" out of use original callsign.

If you search on the ITU site for the callsign MAEF, (for example) web site at;

http://www.itu.int/cgi-bin/htsh/mars/ship_search.sh#start

You will find;
MAEF, MAEF6,MAEF7,MAEF8,and MAEF9. All valid callsigns.

Same results for MATQ, MAFT, MABX, MAVH if you want further examples.

The ones without a following number have a certain "snob" value. Enjoy it.

 

[peterb26]

Sounds odd to me? If they got mine wrong I'd guess it wasnt the only one. (Albeit the wrong one did have 5 letters)

 

[ferrispeterchris]

That was the website I'd forgotten, thanks.Entered my callsign and up it came along with the others with numbers after the letters,as you say mine must have been re-cycled. Peter.

 

[SimbaDog]

[ QUOTE ]
Tonight armed wiv me buzz words & passwords I successfully licenced a ships radio and after a bit of bovver managed to print it off.

OK it was a new boat but I got it to licence a standard VHF/DSC plus a handheld and it even gave me a MMSI number!

Am I the first?

That site is not easy to use.

Peter.

[/ QUOTE ]

I managed it yesterday, only took 3 days !
Gave up emailing or phoning & finally just clicked everything I could find !

Basically the site is bleedin useless /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Bergman]

"Their site usability is one of the worst I have come across in 30 years of IT and about 15 years of developing web based solutions. "

Nah

Its not that good.

 

[Matrosen]

OK. I need a challenge. After sailing for, maybe , thirty years, I have decided to apply for a vhf licence. Can someone give me the ofcom website address please?

Also, can I get one now that I'm no longer resident in the UK, but my boat is UK registered?

 

[BrendanS]

This is where you apply. No idea about residency conditions tho

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/licensing/olc/

 

[Matrosen]

So I brought up the site, filled in the details, got to the address page and it wouldn't accept any input! Tried variations, but still nothing happens. What do I try next?

 

[TheBoatman]

Being an instant expert on this site that's one of the problems I had to solve. When you get to select address click on the post code - then enter yours - next you should get a page(s) displayed with all the address's for that code - select your house number and click it, then when you go back your address is in the required fields!!!

Why the hell they just didn't let you enter your address is beyond me but hey the site is government run and developed ~ what would you expect?

Just a warning when you get to select your password it HAS to have upper case, lower case and at least one number all with no gaps.

Best of luck

Peter.

 

[canalcruiser]

can anyone download a call?I never paid for one before so do i qualify now?