CEPT Novice Radio Licence

I am researching the possibility of UK Foundation and Intermediate amateur radio licences being granted permission to operate in CEPT countries on a temporary basis, as UK FULL licences can under the CEPT Radio Amateur Licence T/R 61/01.

The document permitting other classes of licencee to operate in CEPT Countries outside their own country is the CEPT ECC Recommendation (05)06 CEPT Novice Amateur radio Licence (Links to PDF)

This topic has been raised before on the old SOTA reflector in Jan 2009:
LINK

It remains the case that the UK through Ofcom have not signed up to ECC(05)06, I also note that France, Spain and other entities are missing from the list of countries.

The official Ofcom Amateur Radio Guidance under section 2.34 & 2.35 states:

Reciprocal arrangements for ‘Novice’ licensees

2.34 Under a separate Recommendation (ECC Recommendation (05) 06 on CEPT Novice Radio Licence15), holders of ‘Novice’ licences in one participating CEPT country may operate in another. The UK has not adopted this Recommendation. Holders of Novice licences issued by other CEPT countries may not, therefore, operate under that Recommendation in the UK.

2.35 We have made no formal arrangements for the holder of a UK Foundation or Intermediate Licence to operate in other countries. However, we understand that some CEPT countries allow the holder of a UK Foundation or Intermediate Licence to operate there. These countries apply a call sign structure similar to that used for CEPT Recommendation T/R 61-01. This is peculiar to the licensing administrations concerned and has no bearing on CEPT Recommendation T/R 61-01 or any authorisation by way of the UK Amateur Radio Licence. Holders of UK licences should check with any country that they are visiting to establish whether they permit UK ‘Novice’16 licensees to operate there and what arrangements apply.

Does anyone reading this know of any UK Foundation or Intermediate licencee who has contacted a CEPT Communications Authority outside the UK to enquire if their licence would permit them to operate outside the UK under the terms of the CEPT Novice Radio Licence ECC REC(05)06 and have received a positive reply?

Thank you for reading and 73

Phil G4OBK

CEPT Countries accepting Novice Licence equivalents:

3 Likes

Hi Phil,
You have touched on the main point here. Ofcom is not willing to sign REC05-06 with the CEPT. The process was simplified some years ago and in short, what is needed is that Ofcom declares that THEY have investigated the UK Intermediate licence and declare that it conforms with and is compatible with the CEPT Novice Licence.

Believe it or not, there has been an actual CEPT definition of an entry-level licence (i.e. Foundation Licence) since 2006 “ECC Report 089”, so I would assume that there could be a third agreement between all countries who are willing to commit to saying that their entry-level requirements match or are better than the requirements defined by the CEPT. This third agreement does not, as far as I know, exist as yet.

In all three cases here we are talking about a short, up to 3-month, period not a long-term reciprocal licence as covered under TR6102 for full licensees.

It should not be forgotten however that UK amateurs with an intermediate licence can contact the national regulator of the country they wish to visit directly to apply for a temporary licence. Usually, if that country has a full and novice level licence, a novice level licence (with the locally applying restrictions) will be issued for a small fee. I would recommend that people wanting to do this apply 6 months before they plan to travel.

I will also be interested to hear if anyone on this list with either an intermediate or foundation licence has applied for a temporary licence in another country and made some progress.

By the way, the US has also signed the REC05-06 agreement while not being a CEPT country they also take advantage of short-term reciprocal licencing for their “General Class” operators with any of the CEPT countries who have signed REC05-06 (i.e. those listed in the table you included Phil).

73 Ed.

P.S. for my personal experience, I have found the team in Denmark who manage these documents to be very flexible and open. When I reported a couple of small errors in TR6101 to them, they thanked me and issued a revised version within a few days!

1 Like

Noted Ed. I would be very interested to know if any UK intermediate licencee (or even Foundation come to that) has actually applied for a temporary novice level licence in one of CEPT countries and has been granted one.

73 Phil

2 Likes

My personal experience:
With Novice license I was not allowed to operate in the UK. This was confirmed by Ofcom. They also explained UK does not recognize CEPT Novice hence there is no UK eqivalent license they can convert it to.
With HAREC Extra license the situation is quite different as this is recognized as Full license in the UK.

Now the other way round. My daughter is not able to get the license over here due to a min age limit that is set to 15. I was thinking she could take an online test to get the UK foundation license and then operate with it over here. And larer ask the local regulator to get it converted to Novice. Unfortunately, local regulator confirmed that neither is possible.UK foundation license is not recohnized over here and an operator with such license is not allowed to operate as a guest.

I guess similar rule will apply for UK foundation license in other CEPT countries as well.

73 peter

2 Likes

Hi Phil
I looked at this when I took my daughter, Sarah, 2E0DGM, to the Czech Republic in 2015. I contacted the Czech authorities and they were willing to allow her to operate as an “intermediate” licence holder. However, they also insisted that she used the club callsign of a UK amateur radio club. Telford & District Amateur Radio Society were happy for Sarah to use their callsign. However, the other condition was that she be supervised by a full licence holder. So, whilst she could operate, she was unable to accrue SOTA chaser or activator points as SOTA does not allow supervision.
73s
Alastair

1 Like

Except under TR61/01 CEPT operation, a UK Full licence holder cannot use a club call outside the UK. Or I could have been HB9/MX0TA/P not HB9/M0FMF/P this summer.

Basically, the assorted people in charge just make up the rules as they go along. :wink:

3 Likes

By far the easiest way to get around these obstacles is to progress the the licence structure to the Full (or overseas equivalent) licence.

4 Likes

I think they may have applied a rule that says a non licensee can operate up to privileges for Novice license holders under supervision of other license holder.

There is a small catch though. Frequency access for Novice license holders depends from country to country and often it is limited. For example in OM (and OK i believe too) the HF is restricted to few sections of 160m, 80m, 15m and 10m bands. VHF and higher is not restricted.

1 Like

Correct Andy - the local regulators can do exactly that - it’s their country, their rules. This can be an advantage when they allow something but when they say no, it’s no. CEPT is an agreement only under clearly defined conditions and only in signatory countries when working outside of that agreement, it’s what the representative of the foreign regulator decides and that can vary depending upon who you get. DXpeditions to rare countries often hit this problem.

73 Ed.

2 Likes

It’s lack of consistency that bugs me Ed.

3 Likes