TX: legal considerations

  • more for the SSB users: 2.4 GHz 20W Wifi Booster from AliExpress. USD 232.-

    Hallo Achim,

    was muss man beachten, wenn man den 2.4GHz 20W Booster bestellt?
    Welche Zollrechtlichen Dinge sind zu beachten?
    Muss aus der Rechnung ersichtlich sein, dass es sich um Amateurfunk Ausrüstung

    handelt?

    73 Hans-Jochen DK1MG

  • Hallo Achim,

    was muss man beachten, wenn man den 2.4GHz 20W Booster bestellt?
    Welche Zollrechtlichen Dinge sind zu beachten?
    Muss aus der Rechnung ersichtlich sein, dass es sich um Amateurfunk Ausrüstung

    handelt?

    73 Hans-Jochen DK1MG

    Moin,

    meistens schreiben die chinesischen Versender nur unspezifische Angaben auf den Versandkarton. Je nach Versandweg kann das Päckchen problemlos durch den Zoll gehen oder Du bekommst einen Brief vom Zollamt, dass Du dort die Sendung abholen und verzollen bzw. die Einfuhrumsatzsteuer zu entrichten musst. Die Sendung wird in deinen Beisein zollamtlich geöffnet und begutachtet. An dieser Stelle ist die Vorlage der Amateurfunkgenehmigung und eine einfache technische Erklärung, was mit diesem elektronischen Bauteil passieren soll, hilfreich. Die Beamten beim Zoll sind keine Techniker, aber häufig technisch interessiert. Die meisten Beamten schauen nur nach dem CE-Kennzeichen und einer deutschsprachigen Anleitung (beides Pflicht bei "normalen" Wirtschaftsgütern). Hier hilft der Hinweis auf die Rechte und Pflichten des Funkamateurs bzgl. Selbstbau.

    Hoffe, ein wenig geholfen zu haben.

    vy 73 de Rainer, DG8KD

    • Official Post

    Well, first of all why should I ask for a label saying 'hamradio equipment'? It is a simple RF amplifier and this is not restricted in any way. The question about CE declaration is actually a good one.. I had always the impression that (sub-)modules do not need CE, components likewise. Never can remember any NE555 bearing a CE declaration.. and the amplifier itself cannot be used on its own.

  • It of course varies by country and by current situation. Here the regulations changed on 1-1-2019 so now, like in the past before the EU trade liberalization changed that, it is again illegal to possess or sell transmitter equipment without license or registration, not only to use it. And there is special attention to items like Jammers and amplifiers.

    So I guess it would not hurt to make some note about "for registered radio amateur" on the label... ("licensed" instead of "registered" in countries where that still applies)

    • Official Post

    Well first of all, if I work in an electronics workshop (which I do) why should I be not allowed to purchase RF amplifiers? The module itself is perfectly legal.. I am just not allowed to go on the air with it (hamradio is of course..).

    Then, where do you draw the line between a preamplifier (receive) or driver amplifier? The latter would be TX but some of them can be used for both..

    Just found out: HB9 is great.. we do not care about CE.


    But maybe all the legal regulatory things should go in a dedicated thread to keep this one clean.

  • Well first of all, if I work in an electronics workshop (which I do) why should I be not allowed to purchase RF amplifiers? The module itself is perfectly legal.. I am just not allowed to go on the air with it (hamradio is of course..).

    Well, after being confronted a lot with situations that clearly are illegal but cannot be acted upon because the user cannot be caught actually operating the transmitter, the pendulum here has now swung back to "possession or sale of anything that is a transmitter or can be used as a transmitter is only allowed for those having a license to operate it". The limitations and punshments are even harsher for the broadcast bands than for other frequencies.

    Of course there is still the freedom of the authorities to act or not to act when you have some other usage and do not cause interference, but it can be expected that especially at import there are stricter checks than before.

    • Official Post

    Well, good luck to the authorities trying to prevent people from owning the combination transistor-inductance-coil-battery. Which would be illegal by your explanation. I don't doubt your information but I strongly question the sanity of the lawmakers.. we have been fighting similar stupidities at QRL lately and even those who were enforcing the rules to us in the beginning admitted shortly thereafter that those were not applicable in the real world.

    We as hamradio operators should be grateful for the privilege to build and operate our own designs. Let's make the best use of it!

    • Official Post

    Actually CE is not as bad as it sound.. and it's not a bad idea et all. Some other countries, believe it or not China, are even more restrictive with imports...


    If it is declared as a development or demo unit, sample, only for laboratory etc. - no problem...


    Usually if Customs have doubts, you will be contacted and have to explain what it is and what it's used for... main reason customs declaration missing or incorrect. So we should not mix-up CE with customs. However, Amateur radio is explicitly mentioned in the regulations as an exception., but you might need to demonstrate this with papers...

    • Official Post

    https://eur-lex.europa.eu/lega…TXT/?uri=CELEX:32014L0053


    ANNEX I

    EQUIPMENT NOT COVERED BY THIS DIRECTIVE :!:

    1.

    Radio equipment used by radio amateurs within the meaning of Article 1, definition 56, of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Radio Regulations, unless the equipment is made available on the market.

    The following shall be regarded as not being made available on the market:

    (a)

    radio kits for assembly and use by radio amateurs;

    (b)

    radio equipment modified by and for the use of radio amateurs;

    (c)

    equipment constructed by individual radio amateurs for experimental and scientific purposes related to amateur radio.



    So if you have a problem with importing, show the above to your customs...

    • Official Post

    and by the way.. SWISS has it's own "CE", and if an imported device has "CE", they accept it..

    Otherwise they have to have "CH" and than you are not allowed to export it outside of Swiss.

    In addition, Swiss harmonized CE into their PrSG rules..



    The "infamous" Baofeng UV-5R does not have CE and also not CH. It's not a kit for amateur radio either, but a complete device.

    BAKOM found it by sampling and has it forbidden after it failed to pass the conformity measurements..

  • Well, good luck to the authorities trying to prevent people from owning the combination transistor-inductance-coil-battery. Which would be illegal by your explanation. I don't doubt your information but I strongly question the sanity of the lawmakers..

    Well according to the same reasoning it would be insane to prevent people owning the combination of sheet metal, gears, tires etc forming a car, without license and approval, and in practice this does not appear to be a problem, also not in DL. Or similar it is not allowed to possess a firearm even when you can see it as just a combination of some metal parts.


    You have to understand that there is no police force roaming the country to find every combination of parts that would be a transmitter. What happens is that some interference happens (e.g. to Aircraft comms or broadcast services) or e.g. some high antenna that is clearly intended for 3M FM transmission is located, and then the authorities locate the culprit but could not do anything as long as they did not find a person operating the equipment. In the past (when I obtained my license) this was different: it was illegal to possess the equipment, not only to operate it. It had changed when the EU promoted free trade of whatever equipment you wanted to trade and the actual use was someone else's problem. But apparently now sanity has returned (IMHO).

    Now that the regulations again are more strict, it is easier for enforcement teams to seize equipment that everyone understands is used as a transmitter.

    But that does not mean that every electronics lab is stripped of its measurement equiment!


    Besides, there is the problem of shops selling things that are completely illegal to use (like GSM or GPS jammers) and things that are illegal to use for most customers (like amplifiers for WiFi). When this is not controlled, the shop just sells them with a smile on the face and the customer just installs it. Now, this is illegal too and the shop owner can get hefty penalties. Customs are watching the import of such equipment with more priority.


    This is what could affect us. Of course we still can buy and use equipment like a 20W amplifier for 2.4 GHz, but we may have some explaining to do that was not required before. When the explanation is "I want to use it within the limits imposed by my amateur radio registration" of course it still is not a problem.

    But when you want to use it to control your drone over many kilometers of range, you have a serious problem.