I saw the following in a
Pacific Puddle Jump email, and am copying it here with the permission of the writer, Terry Sparks. I have no personal knowledge, one way or the other, including how
current the information may be, but this does seem to provide a basis for some optimism to those of us in the
USA:
"The FCC invited Icom to submit a waiver to allow the M802 not to be modified to meet the new GMDSS requirements. For those that may not be aware, while the new rules make some sense for commercial vessels, they would have almost no impact on cruisers. The M802 remains the only affordable Digital Select Calling (DSC) marine radio that will allow cruisers to directly contact commercial vessels. (Commercial vessels are only required to monitor/scan the emergency DSC channels, no voice monitoring is required for HF SSB)
Icom has submitted a waiver request to the FCC. The FCC is currently considering the waiver request and will respond. The FCC may put the waiver request out for public notice. I would hope that all cruisers would respond to the notice.
FYI, while the M802 costs around $1800, the next HF SSB DSC radio in order of cost is over $3200 making HF SSB DSC unaffordable for most cruisers.
If you need more information on HF SSB DSC or have questions on the waiver, feel free to send me a note.
Answer to one question is: It is presently legal for US cruisers to use an M802 radio. It is not legal for Icom America to sell new units to their distributors/resellers. In some cases, resellers are purchasing from Icom Canada."