Talk:Radio Society of Great Britain

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[edit] Improvement

Hi, I am going to start improving this page for several reasons (mainly because there is a lack of good information on this subject on the web, because it is such an amateur topic the websites that contained good information seem to dissapear over time). The current plan is to seperate it out into the following sections:

  1. the role of the RSBG
    1. and affiliate organisations such as RAYNET which have their own pages
    2. its relationship to the government, military and OfCom
  1. Licensing information (classifications etc)
    1. bandwidths allowed + reasons and information
  2. Informational services provided by the RSGB
  1. The history of the RSGB (such as the changes in licensing)
    1. Possibly starting a stub page for the UK code prefixes including information such as what a G8 is and what a G6 is
    2. reasons for the changes (such as the decline of home-built ham-gear replaced with high quality gear from Japan etc providing better service & less interferance)

and also possibly

  1. information about complaints (such as interfereance or missuse of communcations)
  2. Starting to document all the information about individual events and developments
  3. starting stub pages to contain information about suppliers and groups in the uk
  4. starting stub pages containing information on the techincal meanings (including license discussion such as the difference between ERP and power into antenna)
  5. providing links for learners and resources that can be used.

This will take me a couple of weeks... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mchicago (talk • contribs) .

- I am sure that if you contact the RSGB you will receive help. Suggest asking the guys at RadCom. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 213.2.202.178 (talk • contribs) .

[edit] Importance Tag

The tag needs to go. This article does assert the RSGB's Importance. The article may need to be expanded, however it no longer needs the tag for importance. Anonym1ty 17:20, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Changes by Yellowhammer 3 March 2007

User:Yellowhammer has added changes that put a definite Anti-RSGB slant on the article which is not NPOV. I think these changes do little to improve the article and intend to undo them if there are no objections. Dsergeant 08:02, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

My changes did not aim to put 'a definite Anti-RSGB slant' on the article; rather they were intended to neutralise what seemed to me an excessively pro slant within it. I have been an RSGB member since 1963, have held a licence since 1968 and I do support the society on most matters; however the article to me implied that the society acts with the wholehearted support of the majority of amateurs and that is far from being the case. Highlighting the number of members it has relative to the total of licences in issue is to report a fact (quoted from the RSGB's own report) and that seemed to me a reasonable way of showing the limits of their support and at the same time of moving the resulting article closer to an NPOV. As for 'it represents the interests of the UK's 60,000 licensed radio amateurs...' I would take the view that it can only do that with their consent - and as its membership is less than half of all licensees that is something many have chosen to withhold. However, life's too short etc and I shall not be undoing your changes, though I clearly disagree with them. Yellowhammer 17:12, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Rather than slapping the criticisms of the RSGB into the body of the current article, it would be far better to start a section Criticism and write clearly and concisely what the criticisms are and cite references. This would make it easier to demonstrate there is criticism, what it is and why without slanting other parts of the article. It would also make it easier for the reader to understand than to lump it altogether and suggest everyone is critical of the RSGB. Anonym1ty 20:23, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
Interesting idea, but you'll see that I did not include any criticisms of the society within the changes I made to the article - quite how you could interpret the changes as implying that 'everyone is critical of the RSGB' entirely eludes me. The fact remains that the society is not as universally popular as the original article indicated; to that extent the piece did need improving. A section on criticisms may be useful; I agree that it should cite references but then so should the other sections - at present for the most part they do not and that of course significantly reduces their value here.
Thanks for your comments. There is a delicate line with NPOV in WP which I guess many of us regular editors frequently overstep. It seemed inappropriate to put comments which could be considered criticism right in the opening paragraph of the article, especially since RSGB themselves use the 'represent all radio amateurs' phrase in their own publicity. There are indeed many who do not agree with what RSGB does (as a member for nearly 40 years I cannot admit to be among them) but if there is a place in the article it should be in a later criticisms section. Dsergeant 07:48, 21 March 2007 (UTC).
It seemed critical to me and did change the point of view of the article. This is not necessarily a bad thing. What didn't work was to put it in with the other content. It made the article hard to understand. The material still has merit but should be introduced in a separate section. Perhaps it was where the information was inserted that made it appear more critical than it actually was. Moving it to its own section would help. Anonym1ty 18:13, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Inappropriate link

Why remove the LPWS link ? While most radio amateurs might understandably have a problem with some of the activities promoted by "Laughing policeman wireless society" its website (and in particular the page to which the link pointed) does pose some valid criticisms of the RSGB. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 87.113.68.35 (talk) 17:48, 19 March 2007 (UTC).

Firstly you should have a read of WP:EL which offers guidance to the purpose of external links. In this case the LPWS article did not refer directly to any topic specifically discussed in the article and in fact appeared to express strong POV. Some including me consider it marginal on spam. If in connection with the comments on criticism discussed above somebody adds a criticism section then it may be a relevant external link to support what is written there. Or maybe not. Dsergeant 11:05, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
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