WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

Hi all,

I was out last night, when I heard "Anonymous requesting a signal report"

I replied telling them 5/9, and asked them why they hadn't used their callsign.

They responded with "Thanks", then another station who gave their callsign, told me, not to answer calls if they don't give their callsign.

Any comments?

Don't answer them. If you don't give them a response who ever is transmitting will be less inclined to do it.

numloxx wrote:... another station who gave their callsign, told me, not to answer calls if they don't give their callsign.

Any comments?

That other station is correct. As amateurs we are allowed to communicate only with other amateurs on our assigned frequencies. The LCD lists the four things we're only allowed to use amateur radio for and one of them is "intercommunications" (between amateurs).

Some of our frequencies are shared with other services, so just because someone is on one of our bands, doesn't mean they're an amateur. They could be another legitimate user of that band, or they could be an unlicenced user. Either way we can't talk to them.

So how do we know they're an amateur and it's OK to talk to them? Through their callsign.

If they're transmitting without a valid amateur callsign then we must assume they're someone we're not allowed to talk to. (Obvious exception being a distress or urgency situation.)