What can you say on-air?

Foundations of Amateur Radio

There are things to say and things not to say as a radio amateur.

Let's start with swearing on-air. Each jurisdiction is different and changing. The Australian Radiocommunications License Conditions Determination, or LCD has nothing to say about content. It's all about bandwidth, frequency and modes. The rules in the USA discuss "obscene or indecent words or language", but there is no definition of what that might mean. A word in one country is meaningless, where in another it's completely unacceptable.

Our station signals travel around the globe, so it's prudent to moderate your language and to refrain from creating a situation where offence might occur.

Of course, there are those who take this to the n'th degree. There is a perception that you cannot use the words K-Mart or Target on air, instead referring to these locations by some euphemism. There is nothing in the rules saying that you are prohibited from stating that you purchased a tube of SWR grease for $1.49 from Target, but if you're using the bands to tell your fellow amateurs that you're offering a two-for-one deal on your pork chops because you're a butcher during the day, that's considered an advertisement and is prohibited.

There is no prohibition on language about sex, religion or politics, but that doesn't make them good topics of general conversation. That doesn't mean that you are not allowed to discuss them on-air with a mate, it means that you should really think about it if you're raising this as a topic in a net. Keep remembering that there are people from all walks of life, across the globe, who can hear you.

There is a funny clause in the Australian LCD, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it also exists in some form in other jurisdictions. Here, it states that the licensee must not transmit any form of entertainment. In Australia this is explained as not permitting music, but that is not actually a word that occurs in the conditions. It does occur in the USA and no doubt there are variations within other jurisdictions.

This "entertainment" clause is about broadcasting. There is an attempt to distinguish between commercial on-air use, that of a broadcaster, and amateur use, that of a licensed amateur.

The way it's worded in Australia is funny though. Am I entertaining you right now? Are you listening to this on-air? Am I currently in breach of the Australian licence conditions, or is the station that is transmitting my voice? To put your mind at ease, this is covered under another section, the licensee must use an amateur station solely for the purpose of transmitting news and information services related to the operation of amateur stations.

The two clauses that I just mentioned, the entertainment one and the news and information one, are all part of the same section, so you need to read the whole bit to understand what's going on. Of course that won't stop complaints or other interpretations, but so-far, that's all we have.

While we're on the point of describing what's proscribed and what's not. The Australian conditions say nothing about how to sign if you're operating portable. There is no rule that says that you have to. There is a document called "Amateur operating procedures" that states that the "information, about the operating procedures for the amateur service, can help prospective amateur operators studying for amateur exams". It suggests that you use the locality when you're saying your callsign and if you're using CW, it suggests a stroke and a number. This is why we have this proliferation of different ways of communicating this information. Stroke mobile, Stroke portable, Stroke QRP, Stroke VK6 they're all made up. None of them have any official status. Your callsign is just that, your callsign.

That's not to say that it's not helpful to add that you're portable, mobile, on a bicycle or standing in the ocean, but it's not part of your station identification.

There used to be a special endorsement for an amateur station to permit it to transmit television signals. It involved a Stroke-T as a suffix, but that was discontinued.

This means that what you say on-air is part regulated, part folklore and part common sense. Unfortunately where the edges of those three are is less than precise.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB