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Hey, good evening everyone. It's time for Ham
Talk Live. It's episode number 156, Traveling
Abroad with Ham Radio, recorded live on Thursday,
March 14th, Pi Day 2019. I'm your host, Neil
Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in to this episode
of Ham Talk Live. Tonight we're joined by Dan
Henderson, N1ND, and we'll take your calls live
in just a few minutes. And two big holidays today.
So a happy pie day and we won't talk about the
other one. That's a family show, but, but, uh,
have a, have a great day. And, uh, if you want
to operate your radio abroad, well, that's what
we're going to talk about. Mostly licensing and
that kind of thing tonight. We'll talk a little
bit about. traveling with your gear but we'll
stick mostly to all the legal stuff and we'll
give you a chance to call in with some questions.
In fact, we've already got some on Twitter so
you can tweet those at Amtok Live if you like
and I'll give you the phone number to call here
in just a little bit so you can write that down
and have that ready. We've been going through
some changes with the phone system and found
out we're definitely getting a new phone number.
We're gonna have to say goodbye to the old phone
number So we'll figure all that out and I'll
give you the the number to call tonight It's
the one we've been using for a while But last
week here on the show Sterling man in zero SSC
was here to talk about the Yark youth contesting
program If you missed that you can listen anytime
just go to HamTalkLive .com or your favorite
podcast app or YouTube and you can catch the
rebroadcast also on WTWW 5085 AM Saturday evenings
at about 6 30 p .m eastern time. Also a note
just came in from John Amadeo not too far before
the show started. Jett Juergensmeyer. He plays
Mike Baxter's grandson on Last Man Standing.
He and his dad both got their licenses. They
passed the test. So they have technician licenses
that are waiting on the call signs. But congratulations
to Jett and his father. I believe his father's
name is Scott. So congratulations to them. And
we've got more hams on the crew of Last Man Standing.
Get your questions ready to go about traveling.
If you listen to us on Thursday night live, you
can give us a call after the interview and here's
the phone number 812 -650 -9556. Again, to call
in to ask a question later in the show, it's
812 -650 -9556. Write that down, have it ready
to go. We're not ready for calls just yet, but
We will soon. So 812 -650 -9556 is the phone
number. And again, tweet us. We're at HamTalk
Live. If you'd rather tweet us, we will check
that as we go through the night as well. So I'll
be back with Dan right after this word from iCom
America right here. on HamTalk Live. Create your
own band opening. ICOM's newest SDR transceiver,
the IC -9700, is coming soon. This new radio
is bringing direct sampling to the UHF -VHF week
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is loaded with innovative features such as dedicated
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of 100 watts on two meters, 75 watts on 70 centimeters,
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radios. Right now, you could be sitting on a
beach, sipping a drink with an umbrella in it
and enjoying the good life. But instead, you've
decided to listen to Ham Talk Live. So we thank
you. And now here's Neil Rapp with more of the
show. Thanks as always to ICOM America for helping
bring HamTalk Live your way each and every week.
Tonight our guest is Dan Henderson, N1ND. He's
been a ham since 1970. Dan is the Assistant Secretary
for the ARRL and is also the ARRL Regulatory
Information Manager. He's the Administrator of
the ARRL Volunteer Council and Volunteer consulting
engineer programs. Dan has degrees in history,
education, and political science, and his call
sign reflects his love for Notre Dame, both as
a proud graduate and as a football fan. And for
many, many, many years, Dan was the ARRL field
day guru. So Dan, welcome to the show. glad to
be able to be with you this evening. Yeah we're
glad you're here and this has been an interesting
topic that we're talking about tonight. Already
had some interest on all the social media and
on the forums and everything. Seems like it's
a popular topic right now as people are thinking
about going places in the summer and getting
all this figured out of can I take my radio?
How can I do that? Can I, can I get a license?
Do I have to get a license? Do I have to get
an upgrade and all this kind of stuff? So we're
going to try to clear up a lot of that tonight.
So First of all before we get started in all
of this just exactly. What does it mean to be?
Reciprocal agreement Okay, Neil I the biggest
misunderstanding I think people have when it
comes to operating under a reciprocal permit
Reciprocal operating does not mean hi. I'm here.
I'm gonna get on the radio because we got a reciprocal
agreement and so I I can go operate in any way
I want to. In some cases, it is that simple.
In most cases, there are a few things you have
to do. I like in reciprocal operating to, there
are known hoops to jump through, some of them
are more difficult than others, but they're known
hoops to jump through. It's not just simply get
on the plane, get off and throw an antenna in
the air and get on the air. So I think that's
always The second thing is even with some of
the multilateral agreements, there are two primary
multilateral agreements, actually three, that
U .S. amateurs can avail themselves of to be
able to go simplify the operation. Even with
those, sometimes there are hoops that you have
to jump through, and we'll talk a little bit
about those down the way. You know the situation
before you go in. As an example, for many, many
years, amateurs would show up at the Mexican
border, and we have a reciprocal agreement with
Mexico, and they would go to the border, and
they'd tell the border crossing guard, hey, I
want to do ham radio while I'm here, can you
help me get a license? Sure, here, fill out this
form, give us our $100, and now you can go play
ham radio. Not one of them was legal, because
that wasn't the process. that you're that you're
fully aware of what the hoops are before you
start jumping through them yeah planning ahead
is definitely a top priority and sometimes that
can take months or even years in some instances
most most of them not but it can take a long
time so let's let's talk a little bit about you
know Temporarily operating in another country.
So that's probably what a lot of people ask is
I'm going on vacation I'm going to visit Aunt
Martha. I'm going you know, whatever for a couple
of weeks What do I need to do as a US amateur?
To operate temporarily in those other countries
Do you do you just need a prefix or a suffix
to your call or what so? Let's start off with
the easy one. Let's start off with Canada. With
Canada, the Reciprocal Agreement is actually
written into Part 97. And in Canada, it's literally
tax, stroke, VE, whatever province you're in,
or VE7 if you're in British Columbia, or VE2
if you're in Quebec. of that host entity. The
FCC isn't going to enforce you operating out
of band in England. That's Ofcom's job. So you
need to make sure that you understand that the
rules are going to vary by country to country.
Band allocations, frequency allocations, vary
by country to country. And so you need to do
a little bit of homework. The most frustrating
calls I get sometimes are the ones that say,
well, I'm popping on a plane tomorrow and I'm
going to take my H -T - with me. Yeah, and you're
going to a country like the Bahamas. We have
a reciprocal operating permit with the Bahamas.
You have to make an application, pay the fee,
and it's about the Lincolns, the Benjamins, and
you can get a reciprocal license. They actually
require you to get a reciprocal license, and
some places you have to go through the application
process, because you have done it in advance
if you're operating under, like the International
Amateur Radio Permit, the IARP. An example of
that Panama is a signatory to the IARP, and you
get the IARP from your national society here
in the United States, which would be the ARRL,
we issue one for US citizens. Don't ask the ARRL,
don't let a foreign national, even though they
may have a US license, is not eligible to get
an IARP through the ARRL. It's got to be issued
by only the citizens. So that draws it. But in
Panama, once you get that, then you have to notify
the national authorities of where you're actually
going to be operating. That caused some problems
at times down there. Gets a little more complicated
if you get on a Panamanian flag ship. And shipboard
operation is a whole other ball of wax, which
we'll get to, I think, in a little bit. We have
the listing of every country that we have with
as much information as we have. On that site,
you'll also find a link to a page called Licensing
Abroad, which was put together by OH2MCN VECA
Compa, who unfortunately became a silent key
a couple of years ago. The information on VECA's
website We would link to his information if he
had better information. But the broad parameters
of the stuff on VECA, on VECA's website are probably,
most of them are still valid. But again, always
ask before you go, and a good source to be asking
is not only to ARRL, but if you're, contact the
IARU Society in the country in which you're going.
Example, if you're going to Canada, you would
want to talk to the RAC. If you're going to England,
you're going to, want to talk to the RSGB and
all that's available at the IARU .org website.
We keep links to as much of that as we can. Okay,
so we talked about Canada and that's the only
one I've done. That's the only other country
I've been to and that was easy. That was fun.
I just said portable VE3 and that was it. Now
before we move on Chris, AA4CB from Tampa wants
to know, is the Canada ban plan and power limits
the same? I honestly can't tell you. You're going
to have to look at the RAC website. I can't keep
up with all hundred and however many national
rules and regulations and things like that. If
you go to the rac .ca website, you will find
the information about that. And every national
society country is pretty good about having that
information online. And if you don't read Spanish,
many of them will have simple stuff in English
or in Portuguese or whatever the national language
is. But you'll need to refer to the national
website for the most up -to -date information
on power limits, ban privileges, and things like
that. I want to say it's pretty similar, but
it seems like there were a few little differences
on power maybe. So again, check the website.
We're not keeping track of all of these countries.
And speaking of not keeping track of all of these
countries, I'm not going to go down the list
of every country here. But let's talk about Canada
and then let's talk about Mexico just because
they're here in North America and more likely.
So I'm going to pick out one more and that's
Mexico. Okay, Mexico is very problematic. While
we have reciprocity with them right now, they
are not issuing any permits. Their telecom administration
is undergoing some radical changes, and they
are not issuing licenses for any kind of reciprocal
operating. So right now it is not possible to
legally get a license and go down and operate
in Mexico. When that changes, we'll have that
information updated on our website, but Mexico
is problematic at this point in time. Now let's
talk a little bit about CEPT. That makes life
a little easier, yet it gets more complicated
legally. So let's talk about countries that have
the CEPT agreement and what that might do and
what it won't. in the European Union that allows
you to very easily operate from another country
if you were licensed with what is called a HEREC,
a Harmonized Amateur Radio Exam content. You
can even get a license in another, you can get
a Prince license if you're a Hungarian citizen,
for example. The U .S. does participate as a
signatory to CEPT, which means we agree to accept
CEPT licensing here. and we abide by what the
CEPT agreements are. So relatively simple with
CEPT, but if you've heard of this thing called
Brexit, that may create a problem for operating
in the UK, for example, but we do have a bilateral
as well as the multilateral agreement with the
UK. And as Zapper says, there could be some changes
along this way. There are two levels of CEPT.
One is TR -6101. that you can qualify for under
CEPT. You have to be a U .S. amateur extra or
an advanced class license to avail yourself of
the reciprocity under 6101. 6101, on our website
you will find a, if you will go in and search
for internet information for U .S. amateurs traveling
abroad. a whole bunch of countries from Albania
to alphabetically to the United Kingdom, which
is the last alphabetically, including Russia,
including Romania, so forth and so on, that all
have agreed to see EPT. You have to be careful
in some of those countries, such as Russia, to
make sure that there's nothing particular additional
that you have to do. But in general, if you're
a U .S. amateur, extra, or an advanced -class
licensee, you're fully eligible to go... operate
under 6101. There is a lower level, which is
available to U .S. general class licensees, which
gives you access to what is called the CEPT novice
radio amateur license. You've got to have a U
.S. general class. Technicians are not going
to qualify. And it is not as comprehensive a
list of countries. For example, the U .K. does
not participate in what's called recommendation
0506. the novice radio permit. It also gets a
little more complicated. There's been some recent
talk about people wanting to avail themselves
of CEPT to go operate in the Netherlands Antilles.
That used to be permissible. But you cannot use
seat. You cannot have a non CEPT European union
member availing themselves of CEPT to operate
in a another non CEPT European union member country.
Again, it's never, it's never quite as simple
as I think people want it to be. And I can confuse.
I can feed you a whole lot more if you want.
Well, We'll go with that for now and we'll see,
we'll see how it goes here. Um, and then let's
talk about the others. You know, if they don't
have the CEPT agreement, then it's pretty much
a case by case. Yeah, there is, um, the information
on the website at the reciprocal dash operating
on the AWS website is pretty good. There's a
one pager that is attached to that. And, but
again, if you search for, uh, on the AWS website,
for U .S. amateurs traveling abroad and make
sure it's the updated February 2019 edition.
It will also give you the list of not only the
CEP TR -6101 countries and the ECC recommendation
of 506 countries that will list the international
amateur radio permit countries, the IARP countries.
It will also give you a list of those countries
with which the U .S. has a bilateral agreement.
When you're traveling abroad, take a copy, take
your license with you. Don't rely, you don't
have to physically have it in the US. You may
even have to post it. I remember the good old
days where you used to have to post your license
in your shack. You don't have to do that anymore.
As long as you're valid in the ULS, you're free
to operate in the US. But when you're traveling
abroad, get a hard copy of your license and take
it with you. If you're operating under the terms
of CEPT, the FCC has issued public notice, which
is DA16 -1048. And the last update of that was
September 2016. You need a copy of that. And
it gives it in three languages. It's in German,
French, and English. I think it's in German,
English, French, and Spanish. And it will explain
in case the authorities tap you on the shoulder
and want to see what your operating authorization
and stuff like that. I can tell you, the time
I've ever traveled abroad and operated, nobody's
ever cared. But don't set yourself up for a problem.
Okay. Well, yeah, that was point one. It's not
quite as easy as you might think. Let's go ahead
and move on a little bit and let's talk about
what about a permanent license? What if you decide,
hey, you know, I go to this country quite often.
How do I get a license in that country? You'll
have to test for the license in that country.
and they went back to Italy and tried to use
the U .S. license as an authorization that would
automatically qualify them for an Italian license.
It doesn't work that way. People traveling to
the U .S. that, hey, I want to get a U .S. call
sign, the only way to get a U .S. call sign is
to pass the license exam. And then what goes
along with that is once you have a U .S. license,
two levels of the CEPT license. If you've got
a CEPT license, you get full operating privileges.
The same does not hold course going back. So
we've had people that have come in. You have
to make sure that you abide by the regulations
of the country that you want. One of the reasons
that they will not accept the U .S. license for
a reciprocal full license is the U .S. does not
participate in HERET, the Harmonized Damage to
Radio Exam content that I mentioned a little
while ago. And since we are not a HERET country,
you do not qualify for that kind of, you can
certainly test for a license. exam, it's going
to be given in one of the foreign languages,
be forewarned of that, and you'll have to meet
those requirements and that's the way you would
get a full call sign other than reciprocity.
Okay, so get ready for a test and you're gonna
have to take that test probably in that country,
I would expect for most of those. if not all.
So that's the deal. So again, it's not a universal
thing. You're going to have to find out exactly
for that specific country. Well, before we go
to break here, and we are due for a break, but
let's talk just a little bit about traveling
with gear and restrictions on planes and ships
and everything. are there any restrictions on
what you can take with you as far as antennas
and power supplies and radios and that kind of
thing and what advice would you give for for
hams traveling with gear if it's a holiday style
operation keep it to a bare minimum because remember
you're going to when you I travel with gear frequently
and I've never had a problem because I carry
my license with me. I have been asked a couple
of times if I have an HT, you know, turn it on
and let them see it power up sort of thing. But
there are import limitations on some of these
things. They want to make sure you're not bringing
the equipment to leave in the country and avoid
paying a customs duty that way. So make sure
you have the receipts for your equipment that
you're traveling with to prove that them you
didn't buy them there and you don't know customs
duties on it. And let me know about taking the
break because the second part of this about traveling
like on ships and things like that is is a little
more detailed and we may need to do that on the
other side of the break. Okay all right well
let's do that let's go ahead and take our break
and we'll talk about cruise ships and keeping
your gear intact and then we'll get in and tackle
some of these questions coming up after the break.
So we'll be back with Dan and your questions
right after this word from Tower Electronics
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call in here in just a bit but let's uh... pick
up where we left off and and my apologies dan
had to cut you off from the commercial break
there uh... so we were talking about uh... traveling
with your gear and uh... we're talking about
a little bit about cruise ships and and i've
heard a little bit about cruise ships because
it was one of our news line guys paul uh... brown
w d i g c a was talking about it and said said
yeah I checked with the cruise line and they
said if I bring my HT they're going to confiscate
it. There's just nothing and that others are.
So let's talk a little bit about cruise ships.
This is the most complicated question I get and
I get this question once or twice a week. The
starting point with a cruise ship is you have
to have permission of the cruise ship company
to even have the equipment on board. If you get
that permission, and some of them will work with
you. I know that QCWA will do a theme cruise
on one of the boats and they've made special
arrangements with the cruise ship company to
have the stuff on board with them. If you get
that permission, then you have to have the permission
of the captain to be able to operate on board
ship, and that's another set of... the country
of the flag of the ship that you're on, a Panamanian
ship. Carnival Cruises is not a U .S. line, I
believe. the repeater and just talk to some people
and maybe have a lunch with somebody. You gotta
remember that in that kind of situation, they
don't use repeaters necessarily like we do. So
you're not necessarily going to get on and while
it seems exotic, oh well I was at DX country
in Montserrat and I was stroke VP, I was stroke
VP 8 in the Falkland Islands, it's not that simple,
especially when you're on board ship. I have
heard of situations where so they could keep
up with each other on the ground on a short relief
during a day, the cruise ship company became
aware of them having the radios and would not
let them back on board until they had turned
them into the purser to only to be returned at
the end of the ship. So you have to be, cruise
ships are another animal in and of themselves.
Okay, so more to check on. So what about TSA?
What do you think? TSA looking for if you go
through And try to fly with a rig. What are they
going to look at? It's going to be like any other
electronics that you're carrying The difficult
part is when you're, such as the D Expedition,
going somewhere and you pre -ship equipment into
the country. You've got to remember that some
of those countries may not necessarily want you
to leave with that equipment if you catch the
direction I'm going there. They may be perfectly
content for you to bring it in, but it's amazing
that on occasion, well, this is illegal equipment
and we're confiscating it and you don't get it
back when you leave the country. Okay, and then
what about keeping your gear safe? What do you
recommend for packing your gear and making sure
it's still in one piece when you get there? You're
not going to be flopping around things like that.
Don't try to overpack it. Remember the weight
requirements on some of these flights. You have
to be careful of distribution of weight in those
things. Don't throw the K2 into the suitcase
on top of it. Just throw my underwear around
it and that will keep it safe. Again, you're
going to end up with a radio that's going to
be tasseled. If you've ever watched some of the
baggage handlers at some of these places, understand
what I mean by that. The United Breaks Guitars
video comes to mind. Yep. One of the airline
companies had their competition. They secretly
filmed them and they had a couple of gorillas
out there tossing suitcases around. You have
to be careful of that. But again, you would be
careful with anything like that that you're packing,
whether it was the radio or whether it was. of
the hand blown vase from Venice that you're bringing
home. You want to be prudent about the packing
and make sure it don't skimp on the packing material
and stuff like that. Uh, D can you recommend
that carry on versus check? Can you get into
that or. Um, I know people that do it both ways.
If you're carrying a significant gear to go down
and run a to one big carry on things like that.
like that. Remember that what you're putting
into that checked luggage is going to be open
and accessible. Okay, good advice. Alright, well
let's take some of your questions out there in
cyberspace here and on the phone lines. We'll
open up the phone lines here at 812 -650 -9556.
Again the number 812 -650 -9556. 6509 556 now
is the time to call if you want to call in we
do have a couple of Texts that have come in over
Twitter and on Spreaker here first of all Adam
k0 ffy says that he's planning on a trip to Iceland
and he says, I'm traveling to Iceland this summer
and would like to operate satellites. I recently
upgraded to General. In order to operate there,
I'm wondering if I need to upgrade to Extra or
notify or file anything with the licensing authority
there. Iceland is a signatory to both CEPT TR
-6101 and to CEPT recommendation 0506. So the
licensing is going to be covered for him in there.
They have VHF, UHF privileges in Iceland, but
again, I would go to the Icelandic amateur radio
IARU society, and you can find the link for that.
IARU .org will list all of, on there will be
the list of the member societies with the links
to their contact information. But I would drop
them a line and ask them the particulars, but
as far as licensing end of it, he will, Okay,
very good. And we can't obviously do that for
every country, but we had that one so we'll run
with that. Chris from Tampa again, I had a UK
ham come to my VE session and took the tech in
general here because his UK license wouldn't
let him operate 146 to 148. the uk license only
does one forty four to one forty six so now i
can operate on all general class u .s. frequencies
that's that's kind of strange that that sound
right there there uh... this is one of those
cases where their frequency allocations do not
necessarily uh... match with us i know that europe
has i don't believe i can't think of anybody
right off the top of my head in europe that has
one forty six to one They all have 144 to 146.
So he would have to pass the US exam to be able
to get those extra frequencies in that particular
case. And the thing to remember is that once
he has a US license grant, once he has that general
US class license, he is no longer eligible to
operate under a reciprocal license. He can only
operate in the US under that US license. Yeah,
that's the the strange one. I have a friend that
was talking about that from Canada that is you
know, he got a US license and now all of a sudden
that You know the reciprocity is not there. So
Okay, Carl KD9 HQT just opened up another can
of worms If I went to Japan or any other country
and brought and bought a rig from that country
that's not FCC approved since it would transmit
off frequencies of the U .S. bands but had to
operate on the country's band plan with that
import rig and then bring that back to the U
.S. What's the deal with that? Would that be
illegal if it's not type accepted for the U .S.?
What's going on with that? certificated is for
sale in the U .S. I can't give a definitive answer
on that particular scenario, but it is his personal
equipment that he bought Okay, and of course,
you know the rules and band plans are going to
apply in whatever country you're operating in
so you got to do that. Right, allocations and
band plans do differ by IARU region and while
there is a global band for example at from 7
.0 to 7 .2 megahertz, the 40 meter band, a lot
of the world does not have and things like that.
And this goes way way back. I remember a conversation
griping about the test question that used to
be on the test it's not anymore on the US test
about what ITU region is Guam in. Well the whole
point was the allocations are different in Guam
than they are here even though it's still You
know a US territory is it's in a different region
Yeah, if you if you look at part ninety seven
three, I think it's 303 You will see that It
may be 301. I don't have part nine. It's the
one thing I don't have open on the computer screen
With all the other region one region two region
three because there are US possessions in each
of the regions longitude west, the 40 meter band
that you can use for phone is different. Okay,
well all kinds of stuff I think this I think
this could go on for hours and we're not going
to believe me but But there's a lot here. So,
you know make use of those online resources for
the country that you're you're looking at that
Dan's mentioned here and and Hopefully that will
that will help Let's talk a little bit about
We talked about the cruise ship traveling on
there. But what about while traveling on a plane?
What's the general allowance on that. You're
not going to. Not going to, yeah. It's no different
than using your cell phone in flight or something
like that. Use of a transmitter on board is pretty
much prohibited period. If you're the captain
of the plane and I have a good example and he
would talk to hams using the plane's equipment
and stuff like that. But Joe Rankin file sitting
back in the cattle call area on squeezing as
many people in as you can airline, you're not
going to be working ham radio with your HT as
you're flying over the country. Okay. And then
if you're in international airspace or international
waters, what What are the rules? What, uh, what
band plan do you have to use and what country
has the authority to say what happens? What's
the flag of the country of the boat that you're
on? Okay. Very good. Oh, okay. Go ahead. So,
you know, that, that becomes part of it. But
you've got to remember that people refer to ban
plans, they're actually most of the time referring
to frequency allocations and they are not the
same thing. You're looking at the frequency allocations
for region one, region two, region three and
it's going to be determined by the country of
flag of the ship that you're on. Okay, very good,
yeah. Yeah, ban plans are definitely different
and I may have flipped those terms there but...
but the band plan is different from what you're
allowed to operate on. Okay, we've got a call
on the line, so let's take a question on the
phone. Good evening, welcome to HamTalk Live.
Tonight, great topic. I can see there's a couple
of questions that you talked through earlier
before. Obviously, it's reasoning with people.
I have traveled a few times and taken my gear.
I've never packed it. I've always carried it
on board. I've got a nice little Pelican case
that's really the Harbor Freight knockoff, but
you know what? It does good enough. And I'm lucky
enough to have a KX2, so usually that's my radio
choice to go on aircraft. And as Dan mentioned,
I have never had any problems with PSA. going
through security, even going abroad when I go
back to Canada. I've never had any issues. They
just treated it like a piece of electronics.
I will say, to what Dan was trying to talk about
earlier, which is when we went to Costa Rica
with the YDXA, that 7300 came in the country
no problem. When it was time to leave, They were
asking for some paperwork, and Jim Storm that
was with us, he was one of the leads. I had already
had the copy of the invoice that the radio was
purchased in the U .S. It had already gone through,
and we were able to take it back. But there was
a slight hiccup, so that way there was a little
delay getting through. So to echo what Dan was
saying, that's absolutely right. Make sure you've
got all the paperwork and you're fully documented.
And then as far as operating in other countries,
Neil, I've shared this story with you before,
but since I have an American license, and when
I went to go back to Canada, I was not able to
use it because I am not an American citizen yet.
So I had to get a VE license to operate in Canada.
And if I go in other countries, I was told that
my US license will not be recognized since I'm
not a citizen of that country. I will have to
use my Canadian one. So things like that that
you don't think about, that doesn't seem to matter
much. radio amateurs of Canada when they were
in Dayton a few years back I have the question
and there were two gentlemen at the table and
I got two different answers but finally I dug
through the paperwork and realized that yeah
I do have to get it which was not a big deal
but it's one more thing to yeah read the paperwork
go to the country you're going see what their
laws are and figure out what you need to do so
well that's I just wanted to share some of my
experience Neil Alright, and my apologies. I
cut off the first few seconds of your audio to
everybody else, so this is Jocelynk88vrx. So,
Dan, anything to throw in there? Yeah. Yeah,
let me add, because he reminded me of something
along the way, and it's a topic that we did not
talk about talking about, and that's remote operation.
International reciprocal agreements are almost
all exclusively for boots on the ground operation.
When you read the CEPT treaty, for example, it
talks about being able to present your license
to the authorities. It talks about being there
for a short -term visit. And a remote operation,
I mean, dialing into a Swiss transmitter, is
certainly not boots on the ground. And CEPT does
not cover remote operation. nor would it cover
a remote operation into the U .S. Remote operation
would also include if you were a foreign national
visiting the U .S. where you are boots on the
ground, you're certainly eligible to operate,
but you could not operate a remote station. You
couldn't be in Texas and operating a station
in Spokane because you would be operating under
CEPT, and CEPT does not allow remote operation
so I forgot to mention that earlier so I'm glad
he bought it up to where it reminded me of it.
And just a compliment there Neil I have a friend
that has a remote JK4ZLE that lives about 10
miles away from me at the very most and he allows
only US amateurs to transmit for that specific
reason because he said It's too hard to keep
up and the maintenance is just not worth it.
So he's like if they want to operate They have
to get a u .s. License. Sorry. I I wanted to
throw that in there real quick Tell today I said
hello, by the way, I've become a good friend
over the years Yeah All right. Well, I will let
you carry on and thank you for taking the call
Neil. I'll talk to you soon All right, Jocelyn.
Take care. Good to hear from you. Bye. Bye Okay.
Well, Dan, we've, we've already kept you over
time here, so I'm not going to, uh, to keep you
any longer, but, uh, any, any last thoughts that
you want to get out here and, and kind of summarize
what we've talked about here tonight? Yeah. The
bottom line is no before you go and have fun.
The bottom line is that's really where you know
ham radio I know that it's got all sorts of purposes
that people do experimentation and emergency
communications and public service but remember
to enjoy the ride along the way because we got
into this to have some fun along the way and
reciprocal operating is certainly something I
hope people get a chance to do because it really
is exciting one of the best experiences I've
ever had two or three times I've been relatively
rear DX I've been able to operate from there
I for you on ITU I've been able to operate twice
from HV0A at the Vatican. And let me tell you
something nice about about being on that end
of the pile up, but make sure you got your ducks
in the road before you go. Yeah, that's, that's
good. And remind everybody of the website again.
Yeah, the website, if you go to www .AWRL .org,
you'll, uh, you can search for just reciprocal
operating. It'll take you to the page and on
there, there's a link to the one page or about
the If you search for international operations,
you'll find the link on the search output. Okay.
Very good. So take a look at that for the country
that you want or, or, or just, you know, if you
go to Canada, that's easy. So I recommend that
one, but, but, uh, it's possible. You just gotta
check it out before you go and make sure you
do that and plenty of time to do that. Um, Ed
Durant, DD five LP sent me a whole bunch of stuff
about, traveling with batteries and I'll just
throw out here IATA international rules can be
found at iata .org slash dgr hyphen guidance
and it talks about Smart Jacket, so it's like
a case for your cell phone with a battery in
it. Hoverboard, scooters, and then even radios
that have some kind of a lithium battery in it.
Or maybe you've upgraded it and put a lipo in
it instead of an iCad. There are limits on...
you know the size of those batteries and everything.
So make sure you check that out too because those
lithium batteries can be classified as dangerous
goods. So I don't have the time to go into everything
that he sent me unfortunately. But he did want
to remind everybody to kind of check that out
too because the batteries can be an issue, so
be aware of that when traveling as well. Well
Dan, thank you so much for coming on. You've
been extremely informative, and I think we might
have left with more questions than we had to
start with. I'm not sure, but you've... a lot
enlightened us as to what this all entails and
where to find the information and giving us a
lot of great examples to To try to figure this
thing out. So my sincerest thanks and Glad to
have you on tonight It's been fun Neil. Thanks
for the invitation and like I tell people go
have some fun. That's our hobby All right. Well,
that's a wrap for this week's edition of HamTalk
Live. Thanks to my guests, Dan Henderson, N1ND,
and everybody out there in cyberspace for listening,
calling in, writing in. And I'll invite you back
next Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time when
Marty Salloway, NN1C, will be here to talk about
Team Exuberance, the youth CQ Worldwide WPX contest
team that will be operating at K3LR. And for
a list of all of our upcoming guests, just go
over to HamTalkLive .com. And if you like the
show, please leave us a review. If you can, that
helps others find us faster. So for now, this
is Neil Rapp. WB9VPG saying 7 -3, 7 -5 and may
the good DX be yours.