If you have a vessel you intend to cruise outside of US territorial
waters, the following may be of interest to you. It contains a
description of what I needed to do in order to correctly satisfy the
government's regulations regarding the use of electronic equipment on a
marine vessel that is being sailed outside of United States territorial
waters that employs radio navigation and communication equipment such as
Single Sideband, VHF and HAM radio, as well as RADAR, SONAR, EPIRB. It
also describes the proper licensing of the equipment operators on board.

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT TAKE THIS AS GOSPEL! This is intended only as a
description of what I've found out, I'm not a expert on these matters -
in fact I'd never dealt with the FCC before this, I am not sure that
everything here is absolutely correct, there are probably lots of things
I've omitted, and no doubt someone will have a better way of handling it.


NOTE: THERE ARE EASIER WAYS OF GETTING LICENSED! Although it can appear
like a lot of Byzantine Red Tape, forms and flaming hoops to jump
through, it isn't as bad as it seems. But if you hate having to
traverse the government's maze of regulations and confusing
instructions, there are commercial services that will do all the foot
work for you. You give them money, fill out a web page or two, and they
supposedly know which forms to do correctly and take care of everything.
I've never used them, I don't have any relationship with them nor do I
have any knowledge of how good they are. I came across their websites
while trying to do this on my own, and have included one only as an
alternative. If you would rather pay a fee than do the work yourself,
then check out http://www.hfradio.com. There are probably others as well.

That said, I've found that pretty much everything can be done on-line,
and in about a day. If you run into problems, there are various support
numbers you can call listed on the websites, but remember that you are
dealing with government employees located in Washington D.C. They don't
work nights, weekends or any holiday. Adjust your sleep schedule to theirs.

THE GOVERNMENT FAQ.

After reading this post, check out
http://wireless.fcc.gov/uls/index.htm?job=faq

It has a lot of useful info, and some confusing answers, but overall it
is a good starting place.


START AT THE BEGINNING: OBTAIN AN FRN (Form 160).

So, if you want to do anything with the FCC, you need to first get an
"FRN", which is an FCC Registration Number. This is a single number
that gets used on all FCC applications for all of the various licenses
for the ship and crew, and associated with it is your home address and
contact info, in case the FCC need to reach you for any reason. All of
your various licenses for your ship should be linked to this number.

To get an FRN, go to http://www.fcc.gov/frnreg, which directs you to a
secure site: https://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/coresWeb/publicHome.do

If you already have an FRN and want to update anything, this is where
you can do so. A surprise to me was that if you have recently sold
your vessel, you must cancel your existing (EPIRB, VHS, SSB, RADAR, VHF,
etc.) licenses for that vessel, they do not automatically transfer to
the new owner or follow along with you.




APPLY FOR A SHIPS LICENSE (via form 605 using "SA" typecode)

The next step is to apply for a ship's radio station license. The
starting point is http://wireless.fcc.gov, which will get you to the
various forms and documentation. I recommend having a good printer
hooked up to your computer, and printing off each of the instruction
sheets so that you can easily reference them when filling in the on-line
forms.

Read http://wireless.fcc.gov/marine/fctsht14.html first. It contains a
lot of info about what to do, what forms to fill out, etc.


So, the first thing you need to do is file a form 605. I did this
electronically, via:

https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsEntry/l...tion=actionNew

and selected "apply for new license" from the selection at the top left.
The next screen allows you to select the type of license you want, in
this case "SA" for ship's license.

NOTE: The government likes to make things as confusing as possible. One
way they do this is by assigning two letter codes to the type of
licenses (which they call "service"), and then burying the descriptions
of these. Check out

http://wireless.fcc.gov/uls/index.ht...radio_services


Most likely you will use an "SA" code, which is a "Ship Recreational or
Voluntarily Equipped" descriptor, meaning that you are sailing on a
non-commercial vessel that isn't required by international law to carry
a radio. i.e. the typical cruiser.

BTW, ships under 50 feet aren't required to carry any radio gear, but
for vessels over that there are some regulations requiring additional
equipment. Check out the Coast Guard and FCC rules if you are on a
bigger boat.


Next select the proper service. When applying for the license, choose a
"ships license". The entry says "SA or SB, SHIP" on the pulldown, next
answer the questions regarding your intended use. If you have a HAM
radio, or satellite communication system on board, you have to register
this as well. As best I could determine, the filing should be
considered "Regular", and not exempt from FCC fees, but you are welcome
to dig through the tome and decide for yourself.

NOTE: Anyone with any advice about this might chime in here.

Then follow along a few web pages that will ask you detailed information
about various equipment you have on board, contact info for emergencies,
etc. Make sure you've got all that with you when you begin, it will
make life easier.

When all that is complete, you will be shown a confirmation page. I
recommend you print each of the various pages out as you go through the
process. At the very end of everything, you'll confirm your entries,
then be prompted to fill out form 159, which is an electronic payment
form that allows credit card payment. The cost for me was $160.00 US.

Make sure to save off and print the forms so that you have proof of
having submitted an application.



NEXT STEP: RESTRICTED RADIO LICENSE (via form 605 using "RR" typecode)


If you worked on board a commercial craft, you would need to take a test
to prove you could competently operate the ship's radio. For smaller
pleasure craft, there is no test, but there are some minimum
requirements like: not be deaf, be able to copy down English reasonably
well, and fog a mirror.

You need to fill out this application for each individual on board who
will be operating the equipment. This means going through the entire
process for each person. Associate each application with the ship and
FRN. Once the application is filled out, you will taken through the
payment process (Form 159) and charged $60.00US. Do this once for as
many operators as you have on board.



FINISHED?

Well, according to the FCC documents, you are permitted to use your
equipment once you have completed the applications and have been
assigned the temporary authorization number. This should be included on
the very last page of each application process. You were printing each
of these out, right?


So, you now know as much as I do about the process. If there are
mistakes or misinformation, I apologize. My goal was to save everyone
else some time in tracking down this info, but not to present it as
expert or definitively correct. If anyone has anything to add to this
please do so!


Cheers,

Robb