 |
|
|
|
VHF Radio Station License Still Required for U.S. Pleasurecraft Under 65' L.O.A. Operating in Canada?
|
|
Herbert Korthuis sent this question:
|
|
|
April 13, 2001
|
|
|
|
I have read all of your 2001 Waggoner Cruising Guide, and find it very informative. We plan to cruise to Alaska this summer, and wonder if you have a cruising guide for points north of Prince Rupert. Also, do you have any more information on the requirement for U.S. pleasure vessels less than 65' to have have a station license to operate a VHF radio in Canada? Thank you.
--Herbert Korthuis
Lynden, WA
|
|
|
Response
|
|
|
|
Thanks for your questions. Regarding Alaska, the Waggoner stops at Prince Rupert, B.C., and doesn't go any further. Possibly in a few years we will be able to get into Alaska and expand the Waggoner's coverage area, but for now we simply run out of time. There is help, however. Don Douglass has published an excellent book, Exploring Southeast Alaska, Dixon Entrance to Skagway, and you can get a copy from most of the major marine stores in the Northwest. Charlie's Charts is another good resource. If I were going, I would carry both.
About VHF radio station licenses for U.S. pleasurecraft operating in Canada, the original rule is still in effect: The regulation says you must have a station license. This is absurd, because the U.S. and Canada have agreed to waive the station license requirement for travel between the two countries. Canada already has implemented the waiver for its own boats. The U.S. side of the agreement, however, is bogged down in bureaucratic delay, leaving the station license requirement in effect for U.S. pleasurecraft.
As a practical matter, people who know these things tell me that Canadian authorities have better things to do than enforce U.S. station license requirements for pleasurecraft under 65' l.o.a., and the U.S. Coast Guard is not going to chase across the border into Canada on such a matter. Enforcement, in other words, appears to be highly, highly unlikely.
That said, if we were to get a new boat, we would groan and grumble, but we would send off our $120 for a VHF radio station license, just to be absolutely and completely legal in every respect.
You didn't ask about individual Restricted Radio Operator Permits, but to avoid any confusion, you definitely need operator permits for all foreign travel, including into Canada. That rule is not going to change. My wife and I each have ours.
--Bob Hale
|
|
|
Back to Readers Write In |
|
|
|
