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hellosailor · 17-11-2007, 17:09

Gentlemen, I think you are confusing the issues.

Some of the ICOM radios---like George's-- are fully certified and compliant for both Marine HF and Amateur radio. The *radio* itself is legal for both services.

Note that *any* radio may legally be used as a ham radio, by a licensed ham operator, the only FCC regulation on ham radios now is that those radios which are sold in commerce, intended for ham use, must be certified for that use. (Certified or type accepted, I forget which is the current term and which the obsolete one but there's no difference from the operators point of view.)

It is the responsibility of the ham to make sure whatever s/he is operating, meets the emissions requirements of amateur radio--regardless of how it was sold. Most would simply trust the dual-purpose ICOMs to work as ICOM claims they do.

However, there's one other "gotcha" left. IIRC the FCC requires a marine SSB radio installation to be totally separate and isolated from any and all other radios on the vessel. That means, no shared radio, no shared antenna, no shared nothing, so to speak.

And it is this last point that most ham sailors ignore, for the simple reason that it does no harm to anyone else if they choose to ignore it. The FCC doesn't care much either, as long as you don't do something flagrant in front of someone who is legally charged with enforcing it otherwise. That's the bottom line: Pay the extortionate marine license fee, be discreet, be practical, and create NO HARMFUL INTERFERENCE.

That's all the FCC cares about it, and beyond that, it is all anyone needs to stick their nose into.

In point of fact, many commercial fishing boats used Drake ham radios in the 60's and 70's instead of marine SSBs. The FCC knew all about it, they could recognize the "clearer" audio. They didn't give a damn--because those radios were built to the highest standards of the time, for the government/military market, and it did no harm if the boats way offshore were using them.

17-11-2007, 17:09	#53
hellosailor Registered User Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 3,997	Gentlemen, I think you are confusing the issues. Some of the ICOM radios---like George's-- are fully certified and compliant for both Marine HF and Amateur radio. The radio itself is legal for both services. Note that any radio may legally be used as a ham radio, by a licensed ham operator, the only FCC regulation on ham radios now is that those radios which are sold in commerce, intended for ham use, must be certified for that use. (Certified or type accepted, I forget which is the current term and which the obsolete one but there's no difference from the operators point of view.) It is the responsibility of the ham to make sure whatever s/he is operating, meets the emissions requirements of amateur radio--regardless of how it was sold. Most would simply trust the dual-purpose ICOMs to work as ICOM claims they do. However, there's one other "gotcha" left. IIRC the FCC requires a marine SSB radio installation to be totally separate and isolated from any and all other radios on the vessel. That means, no shared radio, no shared antenna, no shared nothing, so to speak. And it is this last point that most ham sailors ignore, for the simple reason that it does no harm to anyone else if they choose to ignore it. The FCC doesn't care much either, as long as you don't do something flagrant in front of someone who is legally charged with enforcing it otherwise. That's the bottom line: Pay the extortionate marine license fee, be discreet, be practical, and create NO HARMFUL INTERFERENCE. That's all the FCC cares about it, and beyond that, it is all anyone needs to stick their nose into. In point of fact, many commercial fishing boats used Drake ham radios in the 60's and 70's instead of marine SSBs. The FCC knew all about it, they could recognize the "clearer" audio. They didn't give a damn--because those radios were built to the highest standards of the time, for the government/military market, and it did no harm if the boats way offshore were using them.