#: 13970 S1/General Interest
    13-Jan-92  00:18:34
Sb: #13969-Just Wondering...
Fm: Erich Schulman 75140,3175
To: Paul Rinear 73757,1413 (X)

Yes, there are countries which do.  Australia used to require licenses to use,
own, or maintain radio or TV receiving equipment until the '60's. England still
does.  And there are other countries.  Full details appear(ed) in the WORLD
RADIO TV HANDBOOK at the top of each country's listing.  I haven't bought a
WRTH in several years so I couldn't say whether they still do.  In England, the
license fees are used to support the BBC.  My mother told me about when she and
my father were stationed in then-West Germany and a truck would go around
"sniffing out" radio receivers in use (yes, it is possible) and the authorities
would go ask to see peoples' licenses.  Fortunately we don't have to get a
license to just listen to the radio.  As for call signs, listeners get them as
a way to show serious interest in radio communications even if that interest
doesn't include the ability to talk in a conversation as in amateur radio.  But
some people like to berate such call signs as being a way to spend a couple of
bucks and a stamp you couldn't find any other use for. Erich Schulman (KTN4CA)