Author Archive
Reciprocity sometimes isn’t reciprocal; Why I didn’t operate from Mexico
I recently returned from a vacation in Mexico. We stayed at a beautiful resort in Nuevo Vallarta, just north of better-known Puerto Vallarta, and although there was plenty to do there (including doing nothing but lying around the pool sipping a cold drink), one thing that I was unable to do was to bring along my ham radio gear and operate. Although weight restrictions and the cost for additional bags are a concern, that wasn’t the issue. As with my trip to Grand Cayman a couple of years ago, I can fit most everything into either a backpack (to be used as a carry-on) or in between the bathing suits and t-shirts. The issue was that while there is a “bilateral reciprocal operating agreement” with Mexico, in this case the rules for Mexican amateurs operating within the US are very different than the rules for American amateurs operating in Mexico.
Here’s what the ARRL says (in part) about foreign amateurs operating in the US:
…if your country of citizenship and amateur license share a bilateral Reciprocal Operating Agreement with the US, the FCC allows foreign amateurs to operate with no permit. Simply carry your foreign amateur license and proof of your citizenship in that country. Identify using “W” and the number of the FCC call letter district in which you are operating followed by a slash and your non-US call sign, e.g. W3/G1ABC).
So this means that if XE9ZZ comes to the US and wishes to operate from my home state of New Jersey, he could get on the air and simply identify as W2/XE9ZZ. There are no forms to fill out, no visits to the FCC, no copies of passport pages or visas, and assuming that you are a Class I licensee in Mexico, you’ll have all the operating privileges of a US Amateur Extra license. I think that this is how things should work.
Unfortunately, for a US amateur to operate in Mexico a lot more paperwork, time, and money are involved. The detailed process has been explained very nicely on a page on DL6KAC’s web site and there is a lot of additional information available on WD9EWK’s site as well. To try to summarize the process briefly (and I’m glossing over a lot of the details), you need to fill out some forms, send in a bunch of documentation, including the application itself, a copy of your passport, a copy of your visa (which is issued when you enter the country as a tourist, which means you can’t really apply before you get there), a copy of your ham radio license, and information that proves that you have paid for the license. (You do this through a bank in Mexico). The current fee is 1025 pesos, which at the present time is about US$75. Of course, all the forms are in Spanish and translated copies are not acceptable, except if the particular official decides otherwise. (To be fair, this is reasonable, since Spanish is the official language in Mexico). Fortunately, US hams do not have to get a letter of invitation from a Mexican ham (non-US hams do), although I think that would be a relatively easy thing to get.
After you get all of that together, you either mail it or hand deliver it to the proper address (which is especially challenging if you don’t happen to be located in Mexico City), and then you wait.
As best I can tell, it can then take around 60 days to get your license, which is mailed to you at your address in Mexico. All of this makes it rather difficult for a casual tourist such as myself to operate from Mexico. To even have a chance of getting a license I’d have to find someone located within Mexico who’d be willing to handle some of these details for me, and I still can’t quite figure out how I’d get a visa in advance of actually being in the country. I suppose that if you spend a signficant amount of time there (a lot of Americans and Canadians have homes in and around Puerto Vallarta, and I’m sure elsewhere), then it would probably be worth the effort to do this.
By the way, once you get your license, you have the privileges of a Mexican Class I license (their highest-level license), but there are some restrictions: Unless you specifically ask for permission, you can’t operate from any Mexican Island, you cannot operate in a contest, nor can you be part of a DXpedition. (I’m not quite sure how simply visiting is different from a DXpedition.) Also, you must use your callsign as provided on that permit with an additional suffix if you travel outside of the callsign area for which it was issued. For instance, if I was issued XE2/K2DBK it would be fine to operate from Puerto Vallerta, but if I decided to visit Cancun, I’d have to identify as XE2/K2DBK/XE3. (Good thing you can’t operate in contests, that’s quite a mouthful!)
Clearly every country is going to have different rules governing their amateur radio service. It would be nicer if the processes were truly reciprocal.
What is Amateur Radio?
Not long ago, I added a feature to my Facebook page that automatically posted these blog updates there. While many of my friends know that amateur radio is a hobby for me, I do get asked “so exactly what does that mean?” fairly often. Although there are a number of sites that explain it, Julian, G4ILO, wrote up what I think is a terrific primer on the subject that I hope will help some of you get an answer to that question. Here’s a link to his site: http://www.g4ilo.com/ham-radio-faq.html
Remembering the C6APR team
In case you haven’t already heard, four of the operators of the C6APR station were tragically killed this week in a plane crash on their way to the station. Ward Silver, N0AX posted the following message to the CQ-CONTEST reflector, which I’m going to reprint here.
There have been several suggestions for on-the-air actions to remember the four ops lost on their way to C6APR yesterday. Perhaps a moment of radio silence – at the beginning of the contest or perhaps around the time of their flight. Or look back in your log to find the time of your most recent contact with them and take that moment out then. Maybe call C6APR at some appropriate time and wait for their signal. Putting a C6APR QSO in your log with a zone of 00 is another idea – I know that K7RA used show up in logs from the Pac NW for years after Homer’s untimely demise. Whatever seems appropriate to you, take some time out during the contest to not only remember the team, but to appreciate the other competitors. Let’s try to treat each other with a little extra respect this coming weekend as we’ve all just been reminded of how quickly a log can close.
73, Ward N0AX
More DX during the solar minimum
Despite the poor propagation conditions occurring during the current solar minimum (which I, and practically every other ham has written about ad nauseam), I continue to make some good, and sometimes outstanding DX contacts. A couple of weeks ago, I had a CW contact with Richard, 9M2CNC in West Malaysia on 20m at around 8pm local time. While I’d worked West Malaysia before (in fact with Richard as well, then operating as 9M2/G4ZFE during an RTTY contest), that was the first CW contact that I had with that DXCC entity. I’m happy to say that the contact has been confirmed via Logbook of the World already.
Yesterday afternoon, I was working from home and took and saw a spot for Bill, E51NOU on 17m CW. The interesting thing was that it was the middle of the afternoon (not normally a good time for propagation to that part of the world), but I was easily able to make the contact.
Best of all, early this afternoon, I saw some spots for Wim, XU7TZG in Cambodia on 20m phone. The time was around 1PM local time, which means it was around midnight in Cambodia, late for this type of contact. I tuned to the frequency and was surprised to hear Wim working a (surprisingly small) pileup. I needed a contact with Cambodia as an “all-time new one” for DXCC purposes, so I figured that I might as well try to call him. Wim slowly worked the pile down (presumably getting the stronger stations out of the way), and after 30 minutes or so, I was very pleased him respond to my call, and the contact was completed.
All three of the contacts I’ve just discussed were made under fairly poor solar conditions. The solar conditions when I worked Wim in Cambodia were about as bad as you can get. The solar flux number was 69, which I believe is the minimum value possible (I’ll have to go read up and see why it doesn’t go to zero) and there were no sunspots at all. Both of those values indicate poor propagation. Fortunately, like the urban legend (check out that link, it’s a good explanation of that legend) that says that it’s aerodynamically impossible for bees to fly, radio waves don’t bother to listen to scientists nor do they study physics.
As I’ve said before: Stop complaining about how poor the conditions are. Turn on your radio. Listen around and if you don’t hear anything, call CQ. You might be surprised at the kind of wonderful contacts you can make.
Scandinavian Activity Contest
eally slick thing is that as soon as you upload it, they do an immediate syntax check (so you’ll know if there are any errors), then post your claimed score on their website along with everyone else in your category.
I submitted as Outside Europe, Single Operator, Multi-band, low power and I guess I’m kind of in the middle of the pack at the moment. Of course, this is subject to log checking (I may have made an error logging a station or two) and it will change as others submit their logs, but it’s nice to get immediate feedback. Another excellent use of technology by the contest organizers.
One nice side-effect of just “playing around” in the contest was that I did not only work OH0Z on Aland Island on 75m, but as soon as I uploaded my log to Logbook of The World this afternoon I got a confirmation of that contact, bringing me to 97 countries confirmed on that band. I’m getting pretty close to being able to submit for the 5 Band DXCC award.
Here’s why you should use Logbook of The World
I’ve been a fan of Logbook of The World (LoTW) since it was announced by the ARRL, and have written about it in previous posts. I’ve gotten a lot of stations confirmed by the use of this electronic QSL method, but today was, I think, the first time that I’ve gotten a confirmation for an all-time new entity via LoTW prior to receiving a physical card. By way of explanation, for new entities, I always send out a card to the station that I worked. At this point that’s a relatively rare occurrence, so I normally mail my QSL card to the other station pretty quickly. Under the best of circumstances, I’m thrilled to hear back from the other station in 2 or 3 weeks. It’s not unusual to wait 3 months or even longer (sometimes a lot longer; I’m still getting cards back from stations that I contacted in 2000), but in this case, I got confirmation via LoTW today for a contact made just 3 days ago. In fact, the total elapsed time between me “sending” my QSL record to LoTW and the confirmation being made was a grand total of 36 hours. (This information is available within the system.) You can’t beat that kind of turnaround time.
It’s not that unusual to get a confirmation from a domestic US station within minutes of a contact (especially at the end of a contest, where many stations all upload their log information at once), but this is a confirmation of a contact that I made with a station located in the Solomon Islands. Wow.
And yes, I will send for a physical card for this contact as well, just because it’s fun to have the cards.