Is the Amateur Radio involvement essential?
No.. It is quite feasible for a community to operate a viable Community WLAN entirely with 100% licence exempt equipment. It requires a lot of community solidarity and a fraternal spirit of generous co-operation amongst members such as for some members of a community (initially at least) to install antenna and operate equipment not specifically for their own use but for the greater benefit of the immediate WLAN community as a whole. The need for “Amateur Radio” is for the pioneering technology in the construction and use of high gain antennas or use of enhanced transmitting power, cross-band working and other essentially long-range interconnections which are outside the remit of ordinary “licence-exempt use”. The “Amateur Radio Repeater Group” provide us with a working model and Radio Society of Great Britain’s model constitution for “wireless clubs” also seems and excellent foundation on which to build a new amateur wireless service. A single radio amateur licensee might operate a “Cl
