Roger Hayter wrote:
Rob wrote:

Michael Black wrote:
On Thu, 30 Jun 2016, Jeff wrote:


I forgot to mumble something about which bands require an amateur
license and which do not under Part 15. The lowest frequency band
that requires a ham license is 160 meters (1.8 to 2.0 MHz).
http://www.arrl.org/frequency-allocations

That of course depends on which country you live in.

In the UK 137kHz is an band that requires an amateur licence, with a power
limit of 1W ERP (a significant difference to 1W into the PA stage)!!

427 to 479kHz is also an amateur band in the UK with a 5W erp limit

I think the US is a tad behind, but that may have already changed.

Here in Canada we definitely have one of the new LF bands, but I can't
remember the details.

As long ago as WARC 79 there was talk of making that low frequency license
free band a ham band, so finally that's come to fruition, more or less.

Here in the Netherlands amateur radio licenses have been scrapped some
ten years ago. We have no licenses anymore. The amateur bands are
now all "license free bands with obligatory registration", like
maritime VHF radio. You just apply for a callsign and away you go,
without license.

To apply for a callsign you still need to pass an exam, just like with
maritime VHF. So to the outsider the system may look the same. And
in fact, many amateurs still talk about "the license". But there isn't
any.

Does that mean anyone in the Netherllands can transmit on amateur
frequencies provided they don't a callsign that sounds like an amateur
one?

In practice yes, but I think that is true in any country.

However, to legally transmit on the amateur bands you need to register
a callsign at the authorities. You can register any callsign within
the range PA1-PH9 that has not yet been registered by someone else.
To be able to do such a registration, you must first prove your technical
knowledge by passing an exam at an accredited organization.

Before this change, the authorities organized the exams and those that
passed were issued a license, with associated callsign. The change
was motivated as "deregulation" and "cost saving" (the license had
a yearly fee and the registration was free), but in the meantime a
yearly fee for registration has been introduced, albeit much lower than
the previous fee for a license.

Some hams believe that without a license they have less protection
against interference and intruders. They believed that the license
not only allowed them to transmit on the bands but also got them some
protection against others doing so (including unintentional transmissions
like interference from digital equipment).

Interference is becoming worse and worse, and involvement from authorities
is becoming less, but there is no real indication that it is related
to that change.