German Amateur Radio Fees Reduce

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The Federal Network Agency informs about new fees for official acts according to the Amateur Radio Act (AFuG) and the Amateur Radio Ordinance (AFuV). In order to cover the costs of the administration, fees and expenses are charged in accordance with the Federal Fees Act. These were determined and stipulated within the framework of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy's Special Fee Ordinance for individually attributable public services by the Federal Network Agency.

Section 3 of the aforementioned ordinance contains the amounts that are charged for official acts under the Amateur Radio Act and the associated Amateur Radio Ordinance from 1st October 2021. For radio amateurs, this means that some positions will be cheaper (e.g. the examination fee, admission to participation in the amateur radio service, special callsigns), but other official services will have to be paid in the future (e.g. new issuance of a certificate, duplicates, changes to the approval data).

This is the list of the fee items for the amateur radio service that will apply from October 2021 - https://www.darc.de/fileadmin/filemounts/gs/redaktion/DARC-Portal/2021/2109/2109_BNetzABGebV

Japanese Amateur Reaches Stricken Boat

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On 21st August 2021 at 8:45 p.m. an amateur named Sakai-san (call sign unknown) was at the Mt. Chokai hiking trailhead (1,000M elevation) in Yamagata Prefecture making QSO's when he heard someone calling SOS on his frequency.

Turns out it was a small boat that was being moved from Hokkaido to Okinawa which completely lost power (including the marine radio) off the coast of Niigata Prefecture. One of the guys had an amateur handheld but was unable to contact the coast guard directly as the coast guard in Niigata does not have an amateur radio monitoring station set up and no phone signal was available.

Sakai-san confirmed their location and situation and as he did not have a mobile phone signal he relayed the information through another Amateur radio operator who then contacted the Niigata Coast Guard.

Sakai-san continued to talk to the guys on the boat, relaying messages and reassuring them until the coast guard arrived around 2:30 a.m. They were approximately 55km from shore.

More information - https://kahoku.news/articles/20210906khn000028.html

RSGB Remote Invigilation Figures Soar

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The RSGB passed the fantastic milestone of 4,000 candidates passing their Foundation licence via remote invigilation. During 2020 the Society implemented remote invigilation in stages for all three licence levels, to enable people to become involved with amateur radio and progress despite the pandemic.

The RSGB is delighted that 1,241 candidates have since passed the Intermediate exam and 544 have gained their Full licence. The Society would like to thank the small team of remote invigilators and congratulate all those successful candidates.