Brickworks: Frequently Asked Questions

If you have any questions regarding the Brickworks scheme, having read the content on this website, we have assembled some of the more frequently asked questions below.

If they still do not answer your specific question, please contact the RSGB Brickworks Coordinator and they will get back to you as soon as possible.

Frequently asked questions by Brickworks participants

We will publish achievements regularly on the RSGB website and in RadCom.
There is no time limit, you may take as long as you like.
Trying to find your way around any technical hobby can be difficult – that is one of the reasons we designed Brickworks. Exploring a new hobby can be a lot more fun if you do it with friends. You can discuss the answers to your questions, support and help each other to get the best out of your hobby. This is why we ask you to register with an accredited club to join the scheme.
Absolutely nothing! Please be prepared to join your Brickworks Accredited Club as a token of thanks for organising all the activities for you.
Brickworks is part of an RSGB suite that has been designed to help you explore amateur radio and discover new and exciting things to do. The Individual Scheme takes you further with lots of more specialised activities that you work through independently. You will learn new skills and be able to share them with your friends.

Frequently asked questions by Brickworks Accredited Clubs

  • Increased membership We will be promoting Brickworks to all newly-licensed operators. We'll also be advertising it across all the appropriate RSGB communication channels, including RadCom, as well as at major events and local rallies. As a result, individuals will be looking to register with a Brickworks Accredited Club – make sure yours is one of them to benefit from this opportunity!
  • New associations with other local clubs Everyone benefits when clubs work together
  • A new, varied programme of events and activities We hope that Brickworks will give clubs a focus for their annual programme that all members will be able to take part in. When the word gets out that your club offers lots of great, interesting and exciting activities to help members learn new skills and get more involved in the hobby, others will want to join too
  • Progression As members get more involved in the hobby we hope it will encourage more of your members to progress to Intermediate and Full licences
  • Retention We believe that newly-licensed operators who join active clubs with varied programmes are more likely to stay with the club and the hobby for the long term. Brickworks will help boost your club’s retention rates
In an effort to keep things as simple as possible, there isn’t a rule book. All we ask is that you undertake to do the following:
  • Deliver a wide and varied programme of events and activities throughout the year that will enable registered participants within the club to work towards completing the Brickworks tasks
  • Monitor the progress of each participant and update their Records of Achievement regularly – a blank template will be supplied once your application has been approved
  • Produce and present Brickworks awards to the participants as they achieve them – we will provide the template and you just need to complete the participant’s name and print it off or give it to them as an electronic PDF version
It may be helpful if the club appoints a member to be their ‘Brickworks Champion’ and oversee these tasks, especially if the club has a large number of participants.
We see Brickworks as an opportunity for local clubs to work together. Some clubs will have the expertise to offer one set of activities, while another club will have a different range of expertise. If clubs work together, they can share the activities between them to offer members the full range
Clubs should send us a list of members (including their call signs) and the awards they’ve been issued using a simple spreadsheet we will supply you with. Please ensure that you have the permission of the participants to do this. We’ll publish these achievements regularly on Brickworks web pages, in RadCom and across other RSGB communication channels.
Brickworks has been designed to be as easy as possible to implement and manage for accredited clubs. We allow accredited clubs a wide latitude to interpret how they will run the awards within their group. However, there do need to be some terms and conditions to identify responsibilities and liabilities. We have tried to keep these to a minimum in order to prevent the management of the awards from becoming an onerous task. In the following terms and conditions, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
  • “RSGB” – Radio Society of Great Britain.
  • “Brickworks Accredited Club” or “accredited club” – a club that has applied for and been granted accreditation to run Brickworks in their club.
  • “award” – a certificate that is awarded to a participant as they progress through the scheme.
  • “participant” – a person that has registered with a Brickworks Accredited Club to undertake the activities that make up the scheme.
  • “accreditation” – permission that is granted to an RSGB-affiliated organisation to run Brickworks.
  • “Record of Achievement” – a spreadsheet that is used to record a participant’s progress through the scheme.
  • “activity” – a task that needs to be undertaken by a participant to achieve an award.
  1. Only organisations that are affiliated to the RSGB can become a Brickworks Accredited Club. However, other clubs can register for accreditation once they have completed their affiliation.
  2. The scheme is an RSGB initiative, wholly owned by the RSGB.
  3. When a participant enrols on the scheme with a Brickworks Accredited Club any contract that may be deemed to exist in law will exist between the participant and the Brickworks Accredited Club.
  4. By applying for accreditation your organisation is committing to
    • Running activities throughout the year to enable participants to complete activities
    • Make no charge, over-and-above normal costs, to run these activities or for awards presented to participants
  5. Participants under the age of 18 should be supervised by a parent, guardian or responsible adult when completing activities.
  6. All participants in Brickworks do so solely at their own risk and cost.
  7. Some of the activities may require the permission of a third party to enable the participant to complete an activity—e.g. activating a SOTA summit that is located on private land. It is the responsibility of the participant to ensure that they have obtained such permissions before starting the activity.
  8. The RSGB will not enter into any dispute between participants and Brickworks Accredited Clubs.
  9. The only information that the RSGB will hold about participants of the scheme is their name, callsign, awards issued and the dates on which those awards were issued. From time to time a participant's progress may be published by RSGB providing the participant's permission has been given to do so. It is the responsibility of the Brickworks Accredited Club to get the participant's agreement to their details being forwarded and publicised.
  10. Any personal information that Brickworks Accredited Clubs hold about participants is the responsibility of the accredited club under GDPR law and the RSGB will not be held responsible for any misuse of that information.
  11. If a participant resigns from a Brickworks Accredited Club, by whatever means, the accredited club will provide the participant with an electronic copy of their Record of Achievement so that the participant can continue to work towards the awards with another accredited club.
  12. The RSGB reserves the right to terminate an organisation's accreditation
  13. The RSGB reserves the right to withdraw Brickworks from operation at which point all accredited clubs will be informed and have their accreditation terminated.