As some may know or may have guessed from certain previous articles on the subject of dodgy Islamic community radio stations, that I have an interest in radio of both the broadcast and hobbyist type. It’s an interest I gained as a child from long hours playing with an old valve short wave receiver that lived, mostly unloved, due to more modern equipment being purchased, behind an armchair in my aunties house in Essex.
Because of that early experience playing around with radio, I became interested in how radio worked and have dabbled around the area for a number of years on and off. I’ve done a bit of shortwave listening which taught me a lot about different nations perspective on the world. I’ve also been involved in VHF and UHF stuff as a licensed radio amateur, been involved in various CB radio networks (which sometimes spawned some really good parties LOL) along with other radio related stuff. I’ve been blessed to met all sorts of people through being involved with radio, some of them are decent individuals and some have been complete arseholes, some have been incredibly technically knowledgable and others who really can’t tell the difference between an antenna and a piece of wet string. I’ve met and sometimes learned a lot from those whose activity on the various bands is precise and ‘by the book’ and would never ever dream of breaching their licence conditions, and others whose attitude is ‘licence, licence, I don’ t need no stinking licence’. Although I appreciate the reasons why there is a need to manage the RF spectrum, the vast majority of the ‘pirates’ I encountered in the past were not causing anything like the disruption that some said they were. Despite claims from government agencies over the years that unlicensed FM broadcasts caused ‘problems with aircraft and emergency radio traffic’ I don’t think many of these claims have been actually proven.
One of the more anarchistic and indeed funny groups of radio enthusiasts I’ve encountered in my ‘radio life’ is a group called The Laughing Policeman Wireless Society. This group of radio fans are what could be the polar opposite in both attitude and practise, of the main organisation for radio hobbyists, the Radio Society of Great Britain.
LPWS started out as a club for like minded radio enthusiasts that put out newsletters and fanzines (some hilariously scurilous) related to their particular rather unserious take on hobby radio in 1978. Later on the LPWS built a very entertaining website based on the history of the LPWS along with stuff that this sort of radio enthusiast may find interesting.
I thought the LPWS had long since disbanded but I was delighted to see that the LPWS or rather their website and archive, is still up and running and their site makes for sometimes hilarious reading. I had to laugh at the statement on the Home Page that ‘those who contravene current amateur radio regulations are automatically admitted to the LPWS as members’ which certainly shows their sense of fun as well as their disregard for established procedure. I also had to smile at some of the downright mad radio related stories the LPWS publish, such as the story of the ‘self destructing Repeater Jammer’. It should be noted at this point that the LPWS deny any connection with any illegal activity either with the self destructing repeater jammer or any related illegal activity despite what may have been suggested by some of the mainstream media journalists who are quoted on the LPWS site. I myself would never condone or encourage law breaking on the RF spectrum either.
The LPWS also carries a good archive of court cases where people have been nicked for illegal radios, illegal power levels, ‘grossly offensive’ language on the air and pirate broadcasting. This section has not been updated all that recently as Ofcom are apparently not putting out court case press releases as much as the old Radiocommunications Agency did. However it’s a good archive none the less.
If you have an interest in radio and you want to see a point of view that you may not approve of, but is to say the least ‘different’, then you may want to give the LPWS a few clicks. Finding that the LPWS is still going after all these years, their fanzine archive goes back to the early 1990’s was great and it may amuse younger readers to see how people ‘trolled’ over the air ‘back in the day’.
I realise this post may not be of the usual type that appears on this blog but I thought it was worth letting people know that there is nothing new under the sun when it comes to people using communications media to ‘have a laugh’ or even take the piss.
