Required Radio License for EU waters

[chrismin]

Hello everyone, I Will soon be cruising the waters of the med, and then on to the Carribean.
Can anybody advise what radio license is required.
Thanks

[Quirocat]

Hello, I live in Barcelona. The EU has no communit- wide laws. Each country has its own requirements. As a foreign yacht, you will be exempt from these, unless you are EU flagged. The important item is having your MMSI number, for distress and ship communication. SSB licensure could be another issue, but is not an issue as the med is all VHF or MF range.

[Lagoon4us]

When we changed our boat from Austrian to Australian we had to get the MMSI number that Quiro speaks of, under Australian law you must have a Restricted Radio Operators Certificate of Proficiency.

Officials in Croatia don't care about licences as the boat is foreign not local.

Safety gear inspections here amounted to 1) Fire extinguishers. 2) Lifejackets. 3) Axe.
4) Paddles for our Lagoon 440. 5) First aid kit. 6) Boat Drivers license for Australia.
just wasn't interested in radio.

Cheers

[carstenb]

Inreality, the laws are the same all over. If you have (not just operate) a VHF - you must have a license. Meaning a least one person on board must have a license. Anyone else can operate.

Not sure if the "anyone else can operate" is true for the other classes.

[GrowleyMonster]

U.S. flag? HF/MF gear aboard? You need at a minimum a Restricted Marine Radiotelephone Operator Permit, as well as your FCC Ship Station License. Get your MMSI with the Ship Station License. You should then be good to go practically anywhere in the world.

No test for either license. Go online, fill out the forms, pay with your cc and your licenses come to you in the mail. Program your new AIS, EPIRB, VHF, etc with your new MMSI and you're done.

You would be well advised to go for the (unrestricted) MROP license, or General Radiotelephone License (GROL) simply because in studying for the exam, you will probably actually learn a thing or two. You are not above the law just because you are ignorant of it. Learn what is legal and not, what is possible and not, what works and not. The test for GROL is actually pretty involved and you will learn quite a bit about how radio actually works, and basic troubleshooting techniques. Sort of like going for your General class HAM license. Or maybe Advanced class. I don't know... they kind of dumbed down the HAM requirements. Anyway, a higher class license means you had to at least memorize some useful information. The Restricted MROP license only means you know how to fill out a form. But you are still responsible for illegal transmissions, etc. The GROL is a lifetime license. I got that and also 2nd Class Radiotelegraph and Ship's Radar Endorsement. Don't have a ham ticket anymore. Got tired of the junk mail and I strongly disagreed with dumbing down the Morse requirements. But speaking of which, you might find a HAM license useful to you. Your Ham license is both operator and station license. As a general rule, you can operate ham gear on the ham bands under the authority of your US license while at sea on your boat. Most Ham transcievers have full coverage reception so you can listen to marine safety broadcasts, weather forecasts, etc and even pull WEFAX, RTTY, CW, and other digital modes. It is generally NOT legal to transmit on marine bands with ham equipment. It is NOT legal to modify marine HF/MF SSB equipment for transmitting on the Ham bands. Well, actually it is only illegal to transmit on Marine bands with equipment you have modified, not to modify it per se. There are radios type accepted for both services, though. Anyway you might consider getting both types of license.

For Marine VHF operation, you need to be licensed when in most countries' waters. Once again, your Restricted MROP will be a minimum requirement. Even though you no longer need a license in U.S. waters, you will need it overseas. And your MMSI must be one assigned by the FCC and not by a third party.

Bottom line: as a minimum, get your Restricted MROP and a Ship Station License.

[goboatingnow]

Hello, I live in Barcelona. The EU has no communit- wide laws. Each country has its own requirements. As a foreign yacht, you will be exempt from these, unless you are EU flagged.

This is not the case. It is the case under comity, that most countries merely respect whatever your own country requires. However the law of land applies within the territorial waters of the land in question. For example , French safety equipment rules apply to all leisure boats within French waters, irrespective of nationality ( so carry flares )

Since the US requires a ships station license and an operators license, these must be carried in the Med

There are radios type accepted for both services, though

There are no radios type accepted for combine HAM and Marine frequencies. Since there is no type acceptance for amateur radios , there couldn't a legal combination. There are radios that are capable of such, but that doesnt make them legal.


PS: Inn fact under most countries laws it is actually illegal to listen to frequencies that you do not have a license for , ie scanning. But of course its virtually unenforceable and therefore isn't.

Dave

[barnakiel]

The radio license as per your flag country requirements. Required only if you have a radio.

b.

[Quirocat]

Just as chris has said. No one is interested in your radio license. My experience in Europe: ships papers and proof of insurance is all that most authorities/marinas are interested in. Spanish law states that you must comply with the laws of the country in which the vessel is flagged. We have a Dutch flag, were just stopped by the Spanish coastguard and there were no safety requirements... only those pertaining to Dutch maritime law

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Quirocat

Hello, I live in Barcelona. The EU has no communit- wide laws. Each country has its own requirements. As a foreign yacht, you will be exempt from these, unless you are EU flagged. The important item is having your MMSI number, for distress and ship communication. SSB licensure could be another issue, but is not an issue as the med is all VHF or MF range.

Actually it does via ETSI and the CEPT licensing system. And such licenses are basically interchangeable. ( both for VHF SSB, Inmarsat A/B and telex over radio ( TOR)

Dave

[GrowleyMonster]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

This is not the case. It is the case under comity, that most countries merely respect whatever your own country requires. However the law of land applies within the territorial waters of the land in question. For example , French safety equipment rules apply to all leisure boats within French waters, irrespective of nationality ( so carry flares )

Since the US requires a ships station license and an operators license, these must be carried in the Med



There are no radios type accepted for combine HAM and Marine frequencies. Since there is no type acceptance for amateur radios , there couldn't a legal combination. There are radios that are capable of such, but that doesnt make them legal.


PS: Inn fact under most countries laws it is actually illegal to listen to frequencies that you do not have a license for , ie scanning. But of course its virtually unenforceable and therefore isn't.

Dave

Uh right... I was not being very precise when I said some rigs were type accepted for both services since actually type acceptance does not apply to the Amateur service. But there are transcievers type accepted for Marine HF/MF use that are capable without modification of operating on the ham bands. The SGC SG-2000 is the main one that comes to mind, But I believe some versions of the SEA 222 also. Of course on a vessel REQUIRED to have HF SSB installed and to guard frequencies by watch or autoalarm, it would be illegal to use the required radio on the ham bands. For small yachts, this is normally not an issue. The Icom M700 is a channelized Marine transciever but the channels are user programmable and meant to be so. Setting a channel to a simplex amateur frequency when such programming is meant to be done by the operator is not a modification. It is used quite a bit on Amateur frequencies. No true CW capability but to creative minds that is splitting hairs. Oh and the Icom M802... don't forget that one. Bottom line is, at least under U.S. law and licensing, it is possible to use the same rig for both services. You don't have to start with a ham rig and clip the magic diode or whatever and end up with a non-type accepted Marine HF rig that is illegal to transmit with. You can do it straight up, by the book.