South African Amateur Radio Regulations – 2015

Foreign Radio Amateur Operator

(6) The Authority will issue an amateur radio station licence to a foreign radio amateur operator if all the following conditions are met:

(a) whereby a foreign operator has a valid foreign amateur radio station licence.

(b) whereby a foreign operator has an amateur operator certificate, equivalent to the relevant class of South African licence or certificate, issued by a recognised competent foreign authority and

(c) whereby there is a reciprocal agreement between South Africa and the other country. 

Recommendation TR61-01 – CEPT Radio Amateur Licence

Recommendation TR61-02 – Harmonised Amateur Radio Examination Certificate

ECC Recommendation (05)06 – CEPT Novice Radio Amateur Licence

Regulatory documents are available here: Amateur Radio Regulations – South Africa (sarl.org.za)

South Africa applied many years ago to be part of the CEPT Radio Amateur Licence and makes use of the syllabus for the CEPT Radio Amateur Licence.

Using your amateur licence in other countries on a temporary basis

South African radio amateurs travelling to CEPT countries and to those countries who have an agreement with CEPT (Australia, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, overseas countries and territories of the Netherlands, Peru and the USA), do not have to apply for a licence in the country visited, if the visit is less than 90 days. See Annex 2 and 3 of Recommendation TR61-01.

The South African Novice licence (ZU) is only recognised in South Africa and may not be used outside the country.

South Africa is the only country on the African continent who has signed the agreement with CEPT.

The islands of Reunion FR (AF-016); Mayotte FH (AF027); Glorioso FT*G (AF-011); Jean de Nova FT*J and FT*E (AF-012 and AF-009) and Tromelin FT*T (AF-031) are part of TR61-01 under France.

Angola D2 – Head of Department, Frequency Management (telephone +244 222 338 / fax +244 222 339 356)

Botswana A2 – https://www.bocra.org.bw/amateur-radio-licence. Also speak to John Green, A2NEW

Eswatini 3DA (formerly Swaziland) – https://www.esccom.org.sz/ and application form
Vincent Molloy, 3DA0VV – Radio Society of Eswatini [RSE]

Lesotho 7P8 – https://lca.org.ls/spectrum/. Application form

Malawi 7Q – the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA). Contact MACRA at MACRA House, 9 Salmin Amour Road Private Bag 261 Blantyre, Malawi. Phone: +265 (0) 1 810497 dg-macra@macra.org.mw

Mozambique C9 – https://www.incm.gov.mz/

Namibia, V5 – https://www.narlnam.com/guest-license.html

Reunion Island FR – Reunion is covered through France’s participation in CEPT.

Seychelles S7 – Information on a visitor’s license for the Seychelles can be found at https://www.sara.sc/visitor-licence

St Helena ZD7 – Participates in CEPT through its ties to the United Kingdom

Zambia 9J – https://www.zicta.zm/

Zimbabwe Z2 – https://www.potraz.gov.zw/?page_id=476

Visitors to South Africa

Visitors to South Africa from CEPT countries (Annex 2 and 3) may operate for 90 days or less using ZS*/call sign, where * denotes the ZS call area 1 to 6. Please send a copy of your passport and licence to Kelly Dorey, the SARL Administrator at e-mail admin@sarl.org.za before your visit.

Visitors from the USA, only the Amateur Extra and Advanced licences are recognised.

The South African Regulator does not recognise any Beginners or Novice licences.

Where there is no general reciprocal agreement in place, it is quite possible there is a bilateral agreement between your country and the country you intend to visit. Check with you IARU Member Society or national spectrum regulator for information. Even if there is no bilateral agreement, it may be that a direct approach to the spectrum regulator of the country you propose to visit will allow you to obtain a national licence for the duration of your stay. 

CEPT ECC Recommendation T/R 61 – 01

The 1985 initiative by the European Regional Telecommunications Organisation CEPT, which resulted in CEPT ECC Recommendation T/R 61 – 01 has made it possible for radio amateurs from CEPT countries to operate during short visits in other CEPT countries without obtaining an individual temporary licence from the visited CEPT country. The Recommendation was revised in 1992 to make it possible for non-CEPT countries to also participate in this licensing scheme. 

In practice, a visitor must:

• Check that his national licence class qualifies as a CEPT Licence and that his/her national licence document confirms this. If not, then confirmation that the licence held is equivalent to the CEPT licence is needed from his national licensing authority.
• Check what national licence class in the country to be visited is equivalent to the CEPT Licence.
• Check what are the operating privileges and regulations covering the use of that national licence class in the country to be visited and use the appropriate prefix which must be appended before his own national call-sign.
• The key point is that the operating privileges for the visitor operating under the CEPT Licence are defined by the COUNTRY BEING VISITED, NOT THE PRIVILEGES IN THE HOME COUNTRY.

The German member society, DARC, maintains a list of licence privileges by CEPT country. It can be downloaded from here as a pdf file.

CEPT ECC Recommendation T/R 61 – 01 was revised in October 2003 to reflect the outcome of the 2003 ITU World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-03) concerning the revision of Article 25 of the ITU treaty status Radio Regulations. At WRC-03 the mandatory Morse code requirement for amateur operations below 30 MHz was removed. Consequentially the number of amateur licence classes in T/R 61 – 01 was reduced from two to one. Other changes to T/R 61 – 01 were the removal of an ambiguity concerning portable and mobile operation and the freedom to use any amateur station in the country visited, not just the visitor’s ‘own’ station.

Annex 2 contains the information on national licence equivalence In a similar manner; Annex 4 provides information on non-CEPT countries.

Implementation status by country can be found here.

Notes.

1. Not all the countries, which implemented previous versions of T/R 61 – 01, may have implemented a revised and current version. 
2. Not all CEPT administrations have implemented any version of T/R 61 – 01.
3. Any country can add extra conditions to T/R 61 – 01. Such conditions are shown as footnotes in T/R 61 – 01 Annex 2.
4. The definitive website is that of ECO, referenced above.
5. Please also note that special conditions often apply to overseas territories such as those of France. Local permission will often be required at such locations.
6. T/R 61 – 01 bears no relation to the import and export of amateur radio equipment, which is subject only to relevant customs regulations.

CEPT Novice Licence — ECC/REC 05 – 06

Following the success of the CEPT Radio Amateur Licence detailed in CEPT Recommendation T/R 61 – 01 in 2005, a CEPT Novice Radio Amateur Licence was developed. The CEPT Novice Licence as it is usually known is detailed in CEPT ECC Recommendation 05 – 06 and has a lower standard than the CEPT Radio Amateur Licence. As the provisions of Recommendation T/R 61 – 01 allow non-CEPT administrations to join this licensing system a similar approach has been taken for the CEPT Novice Licence as described in Recommendation 05 – 06. The criteria for the corresponding CEPT Amateur Radio Novice examination are described in ERC Report 32. Many of the regulatory requirements mentioned above for T/R 61 – 01 equally apply to Recommendation 05 – 06. 

Again, the German society, DARC, maintains a list of licence privileges by CEPT country. It can be downloaded from here. Licensees intending to operate abroad should therefore acquaint themselves with all the requirements including the notes for T/R 61 – 01 above prior to taking their equipment to another country.

More information from CEPT on the amateur service is available here.

Outside CEPT

CITEL

CITEL is the Regional Telecommunications Organisation for the administrations of the Member States of the Organization of American States (OAS) in ITU Region 2, which are responsible for administering and licensing the Amateur Service and Amateur-Satellite Service. The Inter-American Convention on an International Amateur Radio Permit is a convention having treaty status that provides for temporary operation (up to 1 year) of amateur radio stations in one Member State of CITEL by persons holding IARP permits issued by another Member State without need for further review.

Any CITEL Member State may issue permits to its citizens to operate in another Member State. This Convention does not alter or affect any multilateral or bilateral agreements that are already in force concerning temporary operation in the Amateur Service in CITEL Member States. The General Secretariat of the OAS is the depository for its instruments of ratification, acceptance, and accession.

For more information see the CITEL web site or the ARRL 

Other Licensing Arrangements

There are also numerous bi-lateral agreements between administrations, which facilitate amateur operations, and licensing in other States. A separate external site by OH2MCN also has useful information although some of this information is now out of date and must be checked before relying on it. 

More and more countries allow foreign amateurs to operate during a temporary stay of less than three months. Visiting amateurs are encouraged to behave as a guest and to obey the rules applicable in the country they are visiting.

Disclaimer 

Whilst every effort was made to ensure that the information given herein is accurate, no responsibility is accepted by the SARL for any errors, omissions or misleading statements in that information by negligence or otherwise, and no responsibility is accepted about any subsequent action based on this note.