Association Forum - Ship Station License (VHF) for foreign ports?

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

Ship Station License (VHF) for foreign ports?

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

Davy J
Master Marine Consultant

Member Avatar

USA
1511 Posts

Initially Posted - 09/19/2014 : 13:30:04

After reading an article in Boating magazine, I've discovered that I may need to get a Ship Station License to take the boat to the Bahamas. And a trip over to the FCC website seems to confirm that:

http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=licensing& id=ship_stations

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Ships are considered as operating domestically when they do not travel to foreign ports or do not transmit radio communications to foreign stations. Sailing in international waters is permitted, so long as the previous conditions are met. If you travel to a foreign port (e.g., Canada, Mexico, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands), a license is required. Additionally, if you travel to a foreign port, you are required to have an operator permit. </i><hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Am I interpreting this correctly?

Anybody here got one?

How much are the fees, after a quick search, I did not find that info on the FCC site.

Edited by - on

Voyager
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
5239 Posts

Response Posted - 09/20/2014 : 12:21:14

In the past, an FCC operators' license was required by the FCC for domestic boaters in US waters as well. However, not everybody who used VHFs observed the laws at that time. The law was changed regarding domestic use of VHF, but since the FCC has no purview in other countries (not even Canada;-), the FCC cannot regulate them. That said, other countries will largely honor the VHF operator's licenses issued by the USA when American boaters are operating in foreign waters. That means that if you as an American want to operate your VHF in a foreign country, you need either an operator's license issued by the US FCC or by the foreign country's corresponding regulatory agency. Since it's probably a whole lot easier to obtain a US-based FCC VHF operator's license than a UK license (as far as I know), my choice would be to get the FCC license.