Licence Revalidation

All radio amateurs are required to ‘revalidate’ their licence at least every five years. In practice, confirming annually is recommended. The process requires every licence holder to confirm or update the details on the Ofcom licence database.

It is important to be registered with and be able to access the Ofcom Online Licensing System. This enables revalidation, amendments and other functions including Exam-pass and Special Event callsign applications.

If you are not registered, once you become invalid and exceed a cooling-off period, your call sign becomes potentially available for reassignment to others.

Don’t let that happen! Keep your details up-to-date and make a diary reminder to renew each year.

Full Licence note: Any 5MHz/60m usage has an explicit licence requirement for a current (preferably mobile) phone number to be stored on the database as well.

Key Links/Guides:

If you need further assistance in the process, Ofcom staff are available to help, but please be patient during times of heavy workload. Ofcom have also made this handy video guide:

Additional Guidance / FAQ

  1. Ensure you are registered and can access your Ofcom online account
  2. Logon to your Ofcom account
  3. Note the last verified/changed date on the lower left
  4. Revalidate by Confirming your personal address details (or updating a phone number)
  5. If successful the date on the home page will be updated
  Notes:
  • Just logging on with no other change is NOT enough.
  • If you have not logged on for some time a reminder will be more prominently displayed on your account home screen
  • Confirming your details on the database does not change the 'Issue date' on the licence itself - this is not necessary - but see below if this is desired
The revalidation / confirmation date is displayed on the lower left of your Ofcom account home page. If for some reason you do need to show a more recent 'Issue Date' in the Licence pdf itself,  then chose 'My Licences' and the option to Amend your licence. Any minor change to your station address such as adding an extra space will be enough to cause a re-issue.
  • Background: The current online system was introduced by Ofcom in 2016, replacing an older service.
  • Account Registration:  Registration/login security is based on an active confirmable email address as your user-id and did not carry over any previous passwords from before 2016. Users of the older pre-2016 system need to re-register as new users. If your email address matches older records then it will be used to help match up your previous licence records.
  • Email Confirmation: If registering for a new account the system will email you to confirm with a verification link to click before setting up your password and logon. Please be aware that this important confirmation email may be trapped or blocked by spam filters (for example by btinternet.com). Please check for this situation and also ensure you choose a stable long-term email address.
 
The system tries to match your current information with previous records, but does play safe. Contact Spectrum Licensing and have to hand your full details including callsign, postcode and licence serial number (such as 1-2345-6789 or AM123456 from a previous copy). Ofcom staff can then attach the records to your new/changed account
Note: Ofcom Spectrum Licensing is based in Warrington, so paper applications may incur a delay