One of the conditions of our Free Amateur Radio licence is that it must be validated at least once every 5 years.

According to Ofcom (December 2015), an amazing 47% of amateur radio licences had not been validated by the end of 2013 and so towards the end of 2015 Ofcom began writing to those licensees advising them that, after due process, their licence may be revoked and will cost £20 to re-apply for your licence to be able to continue operating.

The relevant part of the licence is as follows:

Note (i): “In order to avoid the Licence being revoked, by no later than five years after the date of issue of this Licence, the Licensee must either notify Ofcom of a change of the Licensee’s details in Section 1 of the Licence or confirm to Ofcom that the details set out in Section 1 of the Licence are still valid. Unless the Licensee makes a further notification or confirmation to Ofcom once every five years from the last date of notification or confirmation, then the Licence will be revoked.”

The process to "revalidate" is very straightforward and once your Ofcom account is registered, validation will only take a few minutes online to complete.

Revocation of your Licence

The process of revocation is clearly set out .. such that Ofcom MUST :-

* Notify the licensee of the reasons for which it proposes to revoke the licence;
* Specify a period in which the licensee may make representations;
* Decide whether or not to revoke the licence within one month of the end of that period .. and :-
* Notify you of its decision within a week of making it.

Now, critical to this whole process is that if you have NOT advised Ofcom of any change to your present station address (i.e. new address since you moved house) or change to your current email address, then any attempt by Ofcom to execute their process and make contact with you requiring a response .. will fail. 

This will trigger Ofcom to move your callsign on to the list to be revoked.

Worse than that is that if Ofcom do not have your correct station and email address you will never know if/when your licence has been revoked and that you are no longer licensed. 

Operating illegally, you could be subject to up to 6 months in prison plus a fine of up to £5,000

To validate your licence is easy !

Click on the following link to go to the Ofcom website.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/manage-your-licence/radiocommunication-licences/online-licensing-service

This will take you to the Ofcom Amateur and Ships Licensing Radio Portal.

If you have never created an account to manage your callsign with Ofcom, then click on New Customer and "Register"

Do this first, it is quick and easy and it is FREE, and it should take no more than 5 minutes.

(If you do not have online facilities then ring Ofcom direct on 0300 123 1000  or  020 7981 3131  You will find them very helpful.)

If you have previously registered and are just looking to validate your callsign, take the next option to Log-in/Register for Existing Customers

using your email address and password.

You will now be presented with the Ofcom Licensing Dashboard.

The page is now in three columns :-   Personal Details,   My Licences   and   My Contact Types

The action command is at the foot of each column to :-

1/   Edit and Manage Personal Details

2/   View my Licences or Apply for a new Licence

3/   Manage my Contact Types

When editing is complete (if required) then click on Verify my Details (above the centre column)

Providing your name and address are correct and complete, click on CONFIRM and your validations is complete.  You will then be returned to your dashboard and you will see your last validation time and date are now updated to a few seconds earlier !

Job done. 

Don't forget to do this every time you change your station address or email address

 and with no changes,  validate it at any time up to every 5 year interval.

Finally .. any problems, ring Ofcom direct on 0300 123 1000 or  020 7981 3131 and ask for Amateur Licensing Dept, they will be happy to help you.

Page Updated 13th May 2021