From NorthWest Evening Mail 

GOVERNMENT WARNING TO RADIO FANS 

A GOVERNMENT agency has warned Barrow radio enthusiasts not to upgrade their rigs. 

Radiocommunications Agency, RcA, is warning Citizen Band radio users not to alter their

 sets so they can broadcast further. The warning comes after Steven Richardson, 47, 

of Barrow, was fined £500 at Preston Crown Court on Monday after admitting using an illegal radio. Richardson of Dane Ghyll was a member of the Alpha Tango radio club at the time of the offence in July 2000. The RcA says other Barrow CB users risk prosecution if they also try to boost their broadcast range. An RcA spokeswoman said: "CB radios are for use over short distances. "However, some users make illegal alterations to their sets so they broadcast over longer distances, which is also illegal. "Using portable direction finding equipment we can trace the transmissions to their source and arrest the operator." To operate a long distance radio users have to buy an annual licence and take a competency exam and show they will broadcast responsibly. To operate a CB radio a different licence available from the Radio Licensing Centre is required. Richardson was one of 24,600 licensed CB users in the UK. RcA experts and police arrested Richardson after he placed details of how to alter CB radios for long distance use on the internet. Details of the July 2000 Alpha Tango meeting were taken from the website. Police and the experts waited outside the meeting until Richardson began broadcasting and then arrested him. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-- 4 DVDs Free +s Join Now http://us.click.yahoo.com/pt6YBB/NXiEAA/ySSFAA/CPMolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~- Information may only be reproduced if full credit is given to the original source, contributor AND to the British DX Club (BDXC-UK). web site: http://www.bdxc.org.uk Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/