Amateur radio international operation

Amateur radio is a diverse hobby practiced throughout the world. Agreements for reciprocal licensing between countries may allow an amateur radio operator to operate a station while traveling abroad. Reciprocal licensing requirements vary from country to country. Some countries have bilateral or multilateral reciprocal operating agreements allowing Hams to operate within their borders with a single set of requirements.

CEPT

Member Nations of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) all have the same radio-amateur reciprocal licensing requirements. This allows Amateurs to travel to and operate from most European countries without obtaining an additional licensee or permit for each country visited. The United States currently accepts CEPT licenses within any area controlled by the Federal Communications Commission and CEPT members accept US licenses with a US passport and copy of the FCC/CEPT agreement. South African licences are also CEPT compliant except for the entry level class.

IARP

The International Amateur Radio Permit (IARP) allows for operation in certain countries of the Americas. The IARP allows hams to operate without the need to obtain a license or permit to operate from a country. To operate a station in an Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL) member nation an IARP must be obtained. The CITEL agreement allows an IARP to be issued by a member-society of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU). The permit describes its authority in four different languages.

The United States and Canada

Citizens of the United States or Canada may operate in the other country without the requirement of obtaining any licence or permission from the other government. For example, a Canadian operator with a valid Amateur Radio License from Canada would be allowed to operate in the United States, allow third party use of his station and callsign, carry international third party traffic, serve as a temporary control operator for a repeater station, and identify themselves using the national callsign system as opposed to the international callsign system, and vice versa.

Station Identification within Canada and the United States

Non US and Canada Stations

# Must have operating privileges in the respective country
# Must Identify the Country Prefix and Zone prior to their call sign. For example, a Mexican Station in The United States or Canada must Identify W7/XE2XX or VE3/XE2XX respectively. The W(VE) is country specific, while the following number is regional specific within a specific country.
# Has restrictions of third party use of their equipment.
# Is restricted to the operating powers and frequencies of their country's license and the country they are operating in.

US and Canadian Stations

# Must be citizens of the country in which they hold their license
# Must identify themselves and append the local US/Canadian Zone to the end of their call sign. ie. VE3AAA/W1 would be an operator from the Canadian Province of Ontario operating in the New England portion of the United States. N2XXX/VE2 would be a US operator from New York or New Jersey operating in the Canadian Province of Quebec.
# May be the control operator for a Field Day station, and allow others to use his/her callsign for contesting. It is very common to hear a field day station inside the United States or Canada, operating under a license from the other country.
#Is restricted to the operating powers and frequencies of the country they are operating in. For example a US operator in the US may normally transmit at a peak envelope power of 1500 watts, but may operate at 2250 watts PEP in Canada. A Canadian station, able to operate at 2250 watts PEP in Canada, is restricted to 1500 watts PEP inside the United States.

Other parts of the world

In other parts of the world where neither CEPT nor IARP apply and where the country being visited has not entered into a reciprocal operating agreement with an amateur's licensing government, the amateur must follow that country's guidelines to obtain a reciprocal license. For most countries, an application must be filed several months (or more) before the planned operating date. Along with the application and possible fee, a copy of the amateur's original license and passport, as well as a travel itinerary may also be required.

In some cases, it may be necessary for the visiting amateur to obtain a full amateur radio license and callsign from the foreign country. In this case, some countries accept licenses from other countries as proof of qualification and waive the examination requirement. However, the prefix of the callsign may be different in order to distinguish locals from visiting operators. For example, in Jamaica, locals are issued licenses with the 6Y5 prefix, whereas foreigners are issued with some other number (such as 6Y1). In Aruba, foreigners are issued licenses with the prefix "P40" whereas locals are issued callsigns with the prefix "P49."

Importing equipment

Often the most challenging part of operating in a foreign country is obtaining permission for the importation of equipment. Some countries control communications equipment tightly, and require special permits and approvals before equipment can be imported. This is usually because the country's Government wants to ensure that the equipment does not interfere with other communications services, or to levy import taxes such as customs duty or VAT.