Marine SSB License ?

[Surveyor]

Below is a quote from someone giving advice which has served very well to confuse me. I have passed the ham tech exam and will sit for the general exam in January thinking this is all I need to be legal.

The bold lines in the quote are what I am questioning. Are there seperate licenses and thence calls signs for the marine bands? If so, who administers this?

Thanks in advance,

Originally Posted by Someone giving advice on facebook

Both PERSON 1 and I are licenced amateurs having passed the ham exams in our respective countries. PERSON 1 is X0XXX hence his name and I am X0XXX (UK licence holder). These call signs are very specific to the ham bands and cannot be used on the maritime bands. Whilst at sea, on the amateur bands, you are known as being ‘Maritime Mobile’.

On the marine bands our respective call signs are XXX0000 (American BOAT NAME 1) and my call sign 0XXX0 (Euro BOAT NAME 2). These call signs cannot be used on the amateur bands.

The Marine bands start at 500kHz and extend up to 30 MHz and there is also a marine allocation at VHF. Apart from the ubiquitous marine VHF transceivers, it is not common to see SSB of any type, ham or marine, in cruising yachts unless they go ‘blue-water’ or Round the World.

If you do not have a licence for the ham bands, they ham fraternity will generally not call or chat to you as their licence was obtained by studying and passing the respective exams. These exams cover licence conditions, radio wave propagation, radio frequency interference and how to eliminate it and radio procedures in general. You also need a SSB licence to operate a marine SSB transmitter.

[mdvick]

I would suggest that you go to FCC.gov and NOT facebook for the answers to your questions. Anything that has a transmitter requires a license BEFORE you use it. A cell phone number is the license for that appliance. You get the idea.

[HotRod]

Originally Posted by Surveyor

Below is a quote from someone giving advice which has served very well to confuse me. I have passed the ham tech exam and will sit for the general exam in January thinking this is all I need to be legal.

The bold lines in the quote are what I am questioning. Are there seperate licenses and thence calls signs for the marine bands? If so, who administers this?

Thanks in advance,

You need a separate ROC / GOC (GMDSS) license for operating mf/hf marine stations, the boat need a permit/callsign for this as well.

This link might help you: http://law.upd.edu.ph/index.php?opti...159&Itemid=242

Ham license is a personal license (you get the callsign), while for marine it's the vessel that gets the callsign.

So no, you cannot operate a marine hf/mf station or vhf station for that matter with a HAM license.

And you cannot use a ROC / GOC license for HAM...

BUT! If you install a HAM radio in your boat, you can use that on HAM freq. but not on maritime freq.

Best regards
LA8ILA - Frode

[Surveyor]

Originally Posted by mdvick

I would suggest that you go to FCC.gov and NOT facebook for the answers to your questions. Anything that has a transmitter requires a license BEFORE you use it. A cell phone number is the license for that appliance. You get the idea.

The quote is from a social group and totally unsolicited by me. I just happened to stumble upon it. Thanks for the help

I assume you meant to reference the Ship Station License requirements of which I am aware of.

[cal40john]

Hardware: You cannot legally use a SSB designed for HAM use on the marine bands except in an emergency. There are SSBs designed for the marine bands that can be altered to additionally transmit on the HAM bands.

Licenses: HAM license allows you to operate on HAM designated frequencies.
Marine license, you need at minimum a restricted operator permit for the person, and a station license for the boat when you have a marine SSB.

Types of licenses for the person:
Commercial Radio Operator License Program: Types of Licenses

Does your boat need a station license?
FCC: Wireless Services: Ship Radio Stations: Licensing

Answer is yes for marine ssb.

There are lots of threads here on which radios and what it takes to alter the marine SSB.

John

[sck5]

What john says

You need a ship station license for a marine ssb. It is specific to the owner and boat. That is, if you buy/sell the boat it does not transfer.

You need a Restricted radiotelephone operator license for vhf and usb in quite a few countries when travelling abroad though nobody ever checked in the Caribbean. However, an RRO is easy to get - no exam and all you need is $60 and an address for them to send it. Good for life.

Marine SSb radios must be type accepted to be legal on the marine bands which are "channelized" much like the vhf channels. You can use them on ham bands for which you need a ham license which it sounds like you are getting.

Call sign for marine bands is your boat name. Call sign for ham bands is your ham call sign.

I went through all of this a few years ago and unless they have changed the rules, you need two things for marine ssb - ship station license and RRO, and one thing for ham - a ham license.

[donradcliffe]

Originally Posted by sck5

What john says

You need a ship station license for a marine ssb. It is specific to the owner and boat. That is, if you buy/sell the boat it does not transfer.

You need a Restricted radiotelephone operator license for vhf and usb in quite a few countries when travelling abroad though nobody ever checked in the Caribbean. However, an RRO is easy to get - no exam and all you need is $60 and an address for them to send it. Good for life.

Marine SSb radios must be type accepted to be legal on the marine bands which are "channelized" much like the vhf channels. You can use them on ham bands for which you need a ham license which it sounds like you are getting.

Call sign for marine bands is your boat name. Call sign for ham bands is your ham call sign.

I went through all of this a few years ago and unless they have changed the rules, you need two things for marine ssb - ship station license and RRO, and one thing for ham - a ham license.

I agree with everything you said EXCEPT that the call sign for marine bands is not your boat name. Your marine call sign is the one assigned by your licensing agency, like the FCC. For instance, my marine call sign is WCP7870 and my ham call sign is KK6DQ.

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

I agree with everything you said EXCEPT that the call sign for marine bands is not your boat name. Your marine call sign is the one assigned by your licensing agency, like the FCC. For instance, my marine call sign is WCP7870 and my ham call sign is KK6DQ.

+1

The ships name is for VHF.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by delmarrey

+1

The ships name is for VHF.

Again incorrect, if you bother doing it right in the US and getting a ships station license, you will be allocated a Call SIGN, that callsign belongs to the SHIP, not the owner and the ship and it transfer with the ship , ie you register a new owner against the existing license. Only if the ship is changing flag is a new ships license needed. Thats callsign is the same for all radios of any type on board and for EPIRBS and anything that uses callsigns ( TOR for example)

The situation is confused in the US by the fact that operating in home waters you dont need a license. This is different to almost every country ( sheeh thats new!). The lack of formalised training is a big disadvantages to new uses of VHF, such as DSC and teh GMDSS ( Rescue 21) whereas in other countries the VHF training actually consists now ( well under the harmonised CEPT license) of lots of stuff on GMDSS organisation, rescue organisation, EPRIBS, SARTS etc, the use of DSC etc.

an Amateur Radio is a personal callsign, thats follows you around often postfixed by /MM etc for mobile maritime. it contains both the operator license and the rights to establish a radio station, wherever you give as the address

The thing that most people forget, is that for Marine radios, ie VHF, MF, HF there is an operators license ( in CEPT countries thats is the SRC for VHF, LRC for MF,HF, also theres is a ROC for commercial VHF, GOC for everything), and then there is a Ships Station license. The SSL allocates callsign and MMSI to the SHIP and lists all the radios that operate under that license ( inc radars, EPIRBS,etc). Its an important document for commercial ships as its carries inspection etc. In the CEPT countries it sets down the stipulations, such as the prevention of certain types of traffic, the secrecy of communications, the requirement to maintain a radio log etc.

Dave

[Surveyor]

Thank you to everyone that provided useful information. I am glad that I stumbled on to the guys comments because it made me ask questions and I learned something important.

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Again incorrect , if you bother doing it right in the US and getting a ships station license, you will be allocated a Call SIGN, that call sign belongs to the SHIP, not the owner and the ship and it transfer with the ship , ie you register a new owner against the existing license.
Dave

And if you don't get a ships license???? As many small boaters here in the USA don't! The ships/boats name is the only source to ID a boat.

You do NOT need a commercial operator license to operate the following:
Ship stations operating only on VHF frequencies that do not travel to foreign ports or make international communications (unless the vessel carries more than six passengers for hire, or the ship is larger than 300 gross tons and is required by law to carry a radio station for safety purposes).
Shore radar, shore radiolocation, maritime support or shore radionavigation stations.
Survival craft stations or EPIRBs.
Ship radar stations, if (a) the radar frequency is determined by a nontunable, pulse type magnetron or other fixed tune device, and (b) the radar is capable of being operated exclusively by external controls.
Coast stations.
Aircraft stations which operate only on VHF frequencies and do not make foreign flights.
Aircraft radar sets, radio altimeters, transponders or other aircraft automatic radionavigation transmitters.
ELTs or aviation survival craft stations used solely for survival purposes (testing only).

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by delmarrey

And if you don't get a ships license???? As many small boaters here in the USA don't! The ships/boats name is the only source to ID a boat.

Sure I never indicated otherwise but it's not a call sign. .

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Sure I never indicated otherwise but it's not a call sign. .

So what do you call it? Call name?

Merchant and naval vessels are assigned call signs by their national licensing authorities. In the case of states such as Liberia or Panama, which are flags of convenience for ship registration, call signs for larger vessels consist of the national prefix plus three letters (for example, 3LXY, and sometimes followed by a number, i.e. 3Lxy2). United States merchant vessels are given call signs beginning with the letters "W" or "K" while US naval ships are assigned callsigns beginning with "N". Originally both ships and broadcast stations were given call signs in this series consisting of three or four letters, but as demand for both marine radio and broadcast call signs grew, gradually American-flagged vessels were given longer call signs with mixed letters and numbers.
As broadcast stations became commonplace in the 1920s, some original three and four-letter call signs were reassigned as the corresponding ships were removed from U.S. registry. The WSB call sign had been held by two ships (the S.S. Francis H. Leggett, shipwrecked off Oregon's coast on September 18, 1914 and later the Firwood, a ship destroyed by fire near Peru on December 18, 1919[5]) before being assigned to the Atlanta Journal for use by its presumably-unsinkable Atlanta, Georgia broadcast radio station in 1922. Similarly WEZU, the international radio call sign of the ship SS Lash Atlantico, was assigned in 1997 to a broadcast station.[6] Additional call signs would be reassigned to coastal stations or moved from marine radio to terrestrial broadcast radio when ships were sold for registration to foreign nations, as the new owners would obtain new, local call signs for any existing shipboard radio stations.
Leisure craft with VHF radios may not be assigned call signs, in which case the name of the vessel is used instead. Ships wishing to have a radio license anyway are under F.C.C. class SA: "Ship recreational or voluntarily equipped." Those calls follow the land mobile format of the initial letter K or W followed by 1 or 2 letters followed by 3 or 4 numbers (such as KX0983 or WXX0029).
U.S. Coast Guard small boats have a number that is shown on both bows (i.e. port and starboard) in which the first two digits indicate the nominal length of the boat in feet. For example, Coast Guard 47021 refers to the 21st in the series of 47 foot motor lifeboats. The call sign might be abbreviated to the final two or three numbers during operations, for example: Coast Guard zero two one.
IMO assigns a unique identity signature for all ships to be used in the Automatic Identification System (AIS), this is however not intended for human usage.

Call sign - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Just saying!

Top Gun – Call Sign Generator

Officer Call Signs

Call Signs

Navy Ensign Lodges Complaint Over Crude Aviator Call Sign - TIME

FAC Call Signs 03

Tactical Voice Radio Call Signs

[donradcliffe]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Again incorrect, if you bother doing it right in the US and getting a ships station license, you will be allocated a Call SIGN, that callsign belongs to the SHIP, not the owner and the ship and it transfer with the ship , ie you register a new owner against the existing license. Only if the ship is changing flag is a new ships license needed. Thats callsign is the same for all radios of any type on board and for EPIRBS and anything that uses callsigns ( TOR for example)

Dave

Dave--this is from the FCC website--it would be much simpler if you could transfer your call sign and MMSI, but that's not the way they do it:

What to Do If Selling Your Ship
If you sell your ship, you must file FCC Form 605 requesting cancellation to:
Federal Communications Commission
1270 Fairfield Road
Gettysburg, PA 17325-7245
You cannot transfer your SHIP STATION LICENSE to another person or ship. The new owner cannot modify your license, but must apply for a NEW license.
If you have a RESTRICTED RADIOTELEPHONE OPERATOR PERMIT, you should retain it for future use since it is authorized for your lifetime.

[kellyp08]

I will be taking my boat from Maine to Mallorca, Spain this summer. The boat has 2 VHFs and a SSB. I understand that the Spanish require a Radio licence for the boat and an operator's licence for at least one of the crew (that would be me).

My boat has a radio license and a Call Sign. I do not have an operators license (unnecessary in the US). Has anyone had direct hands-on experience with this and advice on how to deal with the licensing issue (besides taking a VHF/SSB course and passing an exam in some EU country?)