When were UK hams first licensed?

[m0lsx]

Another Southgate ARC find. This has some interesting answers. Look at the full licences shown in red & now look at the old Class B licences, marked in errrr. There are none, as they are listed among the full licences.
Although now the old class B licence is regarded as a full licence, it never use to be, as the B licensees did not hold a Morse code pass & thus could not legally use HF, so clearly they were not a full a licensee, or not as full as the old A class licensees who could use HF & had passed an extra & mandatory test to use HF.
It also shows how Ofcom can & does only act on the Wireless Telegraphy Act as & when it suits them. As they are not revoking any unvalidated licences despite the WTA saying they should.

Following a Freedom of Information request Ofcom revealed some statistics about current amateur radio licence holders

Among the information supplied by Ofcom were several licence charts included in a Power Point from a presentation given at the meeting with the RSGB on February 23, 2017.

These charts were:
• Live Licences by issue date (up until January 30,2017)
• How many years holders of Live Licences have held them
• Licence volume 2010-2017 showing numbers of Foundation, Intermediate, Full, Club and Reciprocal

The Live Licences by issue date chart shows two very prominent peaks around 1977 and 1981. The reason for these peaks could be because:
• The mid-1970's saw a surge of interest in 27 MHz AM/SSB CB radio. Radio amateurs were actively involved in the campaign for legalisation most notably James Bryant G4CLF who became President of the newly formed UK Citizens Band Association in 1976.

The licence volume chart shows that Ofcom had not revoked some 15,000 licences identified as Unvalidated back in May 2013. Figures released subsequently confirm that these licences, which have not been validated since 2007, remain Live Licences to this day.

In December 2015 Ofcom did Revoke a small test batch of some 529 unvalidated licences, this exercise told them how expensive the long revocation procedure (mandated by WTA 2006) was. They seem not to have repeated the exercise.

[G4RMT]

isn't it strange that a movie is responsible for such a spurt in people gaining ham licences. Rubber Duck, Good Buddy and Pedal to the Metal suddenly became everyday words and the interest in something better than CB (in terms of potential) really did encourage. That's my starting point in the 70s - tried CB for a while, then met the local radio club and became a ham - with the B class peak and the A class peak corresponding almost exactly to the dates I did my two exams.

[m0lsx]

isn't it strange that a movie is responsible for such a spurt in people gaining ham licences........That's my starting point in the 70s - tried CB for a while, then met the local radio club and became a ham - with the B class peak and the A class peak corresponding almost exactly to the dates I did my two exams.

It was all those wonderful place names on the dials of the old domestic radios that drew me in. I spent hours trying to find all of those foreign stations before I discovered it was a hobby whilst doing the electronics lessons on a day release course at collage whilst in my last year at school.
Electronics was taught by a radio amateur & he not only told me, that MW DX'ing & Short Wave Listening was a proper hobby. But he also let me pass a greetings message to a maritime mobile station in the Atlantic & he gave me a old copy of PW.
I was hooked & on Echo Charlie & broadcasting with a few months.