Transfer FCC ship station license?

[Davidhoy]

My old boat was crushed in a collision last year, and I’m closing on the replacement boat this week. I had a ship station license and MMSI assigned to the old vessel, which was sold for salvage. Can I transfer the ship station license and MMSI, which are in my name, to a different vessel? I will need to reprogram a couple of VHF radios, and a SSB, but that’s a minor inconvenience.

Any recommendations?

[Spot]

https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-...radio-stations


towards the bottom of the page-talks about cancelling and transferring but not about taking old ones with you. It might be worth a call to the FCC to confirm.

[MV Wanderlust]

Contact Gary Jensen at Dockside Radio. He does transfers and applications like this all the time and knows the ins and outs of the process. It was worth it to pay him to make sure our license and MMSI changes were done correctly.

Pactor-II/III Radio Modem sales, FCC License filing, Marine SSB & HAM Radio Net schedules &amp frequencies.

[Davidhoy]

The FCC is not being very helpful. They say I must cancel the existing ship station license, lose the callsign and MMSI, and then apply for a new license, with the associated fees, and get assigned a different callsign and MMSI. I can change the vessel name online, but not the CG registration number.

Going to give Dockside Radio a call and see if Gary knows if there's a way around this...

Regards,
David

[meirriba]

Originally Posted by Spot

https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-...radio-stations


towards the bottom of the page-talks about cancelling and transferring but not about taking old ones with you. It might be worth a call to the FCC to confirm.

The page referred above pertains to transferring an FCC license when the vessel is being sold.
You cannot transfer FCC licence between vessels.
You need to cancel the old one and apply for a new one.
If you buy a second hand vessel that has a radio station licence you may transfer it to your ownership (for free).
You still need to cancel the one that belongs to the vessel being scrapped.

[Davidhoy]

Originally Posted by meirriba

The page referred above pertains to transferring an FCC license when the vessel is being sold.
You cannot transfer FCC licence between vessels.
You need to cancel the old one and apply for a new one.
If you buy a second hand vessel that has a radio station licence you may transfer it to your ownership (for free).
You still need to cancel the one that belongs to the vessel being scrapped.

I need to contact the previous owner then, and see if I can transfer his license to me. There should be one since the boat has an SSB aboard. Then I'd just need to resolve the mix of MMSI numbers - the existing radios aboard with his MMSI number, and the radios I'm bringing with me from my old boat that have that MMSI...

[meirriba]

Usually to reprogram MMSI you need to go to a tech rep of the equipment manufacturer. Normally user program only the first time MMSI and for re-programming you need proprietary software. Anyway it is short and easy procedure if you have access to the software and the hardware to connect the radio to the PC (that has the a.m. software).