A question on operating etiquette and dealing with abuse will be added to syllabus section 8 and the paper will comprise 26 questions with a pass mark of 19. The text below will appear in a reprint of the Foundation Licence Now course book.

Etiquette
It is important to remember that anyone may be listening including short wave listeners considering becoming amateurs. Abuse and bad language are not part of amateur radio and on-air transmissions should always be polite and respectful. It is also worth remembering that radio has no boundaries and your remarks may be heard in other countries with different cultures and beliefs. Indeed it is in being able to talk with such people that gives amateur radio the richness it enjoys.
Sadly there are those who do seem to find entertainment in disrupting other people’s conversations, playing music and being generally abusive. This kind of behaviour has no place in amateur radio. If you do overhear such material or feel it is directed at you the important thing to remember is that you must not react or respond to it. That is often what the abuser wants you to do so they can send even more abuse. Talking to an unlicensed station is a breach of your own licence and could get you a bad name or reported to the authorities as well. Simply find another channel or frequency. If it is on a calling frequency or a repeater wait a while and see if the problem has ceased. The abuser should not even know he has been heard.
Advice on many aspects of operating and ethics can be found on the RSGB web site at www.rsgb.org/operating/. It is worth reading!
Persistent abuse can be reported to the RSGB’s Amateur Radio Observation Service (AROS) but any formal action requires good evidence, dates, times, locations and recordings and will also have to take its turn in being followed up. Obviously you must not put yourself in an awkward position but AROS operates in a strictly confidential manner with RSGB headquarters at Bedford as the only contact point.
There are other minor amendments and each book has a web errata page linked from the tutors’ web pages. There is also a printed A4 handout available from HQ or from http://www.rsgb.org/tutors/pdf/good_operating_practices.pdf