Amateur Radio Act
| Basic data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Amateur Radio Act |
| Short title: | Amateur Radio Act |
| Abbreviation: | AFuG 1997 |
| Type: | Federal law |
| Scope: | Federal Republic of Germany |
| Legal matter: | Special administrative law |
| References : | 9022-2 |
| Original version from: | March 14, 1949 ( WiGBl. P. 20) |
| Entry into force on: | March 23, 1949 |
| Last revision from: | June 23, 1997 ( BGBl. I p. 1494 ) |
| Entry into force of the new version on: |
June 28, 1997 |
| Last change by: |
Art. 8 G of November 4, 2016 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2473, 2485 ) |
| Effective date of the last change: |
November 10, 2016 (Art. 15 G of November 4, 2016) |
| GESTA : | J023 |
| Please note the note on the applicable legal version. | |
The German Amateur Radio Act regulates the requirements and conditions for participating in the amateur radio service .
It was presented to the General Assembly of the Economic Council of the Bizone on March 4, 1949 and approved by the latter. It was issued on March 14, 1949 and came into force on March 23, 1949, i.e. before the Basic Law . At the time, it was the only law on telecommunications.
The general regulations in the Amateur Radio Act are supplemented by the Amateur Radio Ordinance.
The Amateur Radio Act was amended to the current version on May 16, 1997 (AFuG 1997). Since then, only minor changes have been made, such as the changeover to the euro.
History of the Amateur Radio Act
After the Second World War , all telecommunications infrastructure was initially confiscated by the occupying powers (radios, but also carrier pigeons). The radio amateurs quickly made efforts to obtain transmission permits again. The first signals from the administration to regulate amateur radio as a regulation were rejected by the radio amateurs. On December 6, 1948, the Bizone Board of Directors presented a draft of an independent law on amateur radio. This draft was closely based on the provisions of the Radio Regulations for the International Telecommunications Treaty of Atlantic City 1947. The legislative procedure that followed dragged on and the radio amateurs feared that the law could no longer be passed in good time before the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany. In that case, the Amateur Radio Act would only have come into force in the medium term; other laws would initially have priority. Therefore radio amateurs started the initiative known as the legendary "Brick Action" in which radio amateurs from all over Germany were asked to send a brick to the chairman of the Economic Council on January 15, 1949, stating that the stone served to underpin the Amateur Radio Act . The post office had to use extra trucks to move these bricks. The action had an effect and so the Economic Council passed the law on March 14, 1949.
With the entry into force of the Basic Law on May 23, 1949, the Amateur Radio Law remained in force in accordance with Article 123, Paragraph 1 and Article 124 of the Basic Law. The scope of application of the Amateur Radio Act was initially limited to the United Economic Area and in the French Zone (which included the states of Baden, Württemberg-Hohenzollern and Rhineland-Palatinate as well as the district of Lindau) according to Art. 127 GG only on May 19, 1950, four days entered into force before the deadline specified there. The reason for this was that even then, as with the integration of the Saarland in 1957, attempts were made to override the more liberal approval requirements of the AFuG vis-à-vis the FAG and to regulate amateur radio at ordinance level. From 1950 until the adoption of the federal law in 1967, Berlin had its own law on amateur radio.
In the course of the amendment to the Amateur Radio Ordinance, the Federal Post Office also tried in 1967 to abolish the AFuG and to regulate amateur radio at the level of an ordinance; but this project failed at the Bundestag.
Only after the postal reforms with extensive liberalization in the telecommunications sector was a new amateur radio law passed in 1997. The offenses previously listed as a criminal offense have now been downgraded to administrative offenses and you no longer have to present a certificate of good conduct if you wanted to apply for a license.
scope
From the valid version from 1997:
- This law regulates the requirements and conditions for participation in the amateur radio service.
Definitions
The Amateur Radio Act defines who is an amateur radio operator, what the amateur radio service and what an amateur radio station is within the meaning of the law.
Regulations
The requirements for participation in the amateur radio service are specified:
- Who is allowed to operate an amateur radio station?
- Who receives what kind of amateur radio callsign and who awards it
- Can a callsign be changed
- When is the frequency plan valid?
It is also determined who conducts the amateur radio exams, who can be admitted to these exams, who can receive guest licenses for what period of time and who recognizes amateur radio certificates from foreign administrations. In addition, the rights and obligations of the radio amateur are regulated (excerpt):
-
An amateur radio station is allowed
- not for commercial or economic purposes and
- are not operated for the purpose of providing telecommunications services on a commercial basis.
In addition to the planning of amateur radio frequencies for relay stations , procedures for eliminating EMC incompatibilities and the operation of amateur radio stations in watercraft and aircraft, the section on technical and operational framework conditions stipulates the publication of a call sign list in which every radio amateur in Germany is listed by name .
The paragraph on protection requirements regulates the framework conditions with regard to the interference immunity of the amateur radio station and also the obligation that compliance with elementary EMC standards must be proven to the Federal Network Agency before the start of operations .
The law also contains clauses on fees and expenses, e.g. B. for the issuance of an amateur radio certificate, regulations on fines in the event of a breach of obligations and the responsibility of the Federal Network Agency is determined.
In the event of violations of the AFuG, operating restrictions and bans may be imposed on the operator of an amateur radio station.
Radio amateurs can be called upon to set up communication networks in the event of a crisis or disaster.
The further details are regulated in the Amateur Radio Ordinance.
Transitional regulations apply to amateur radio stations that had already been set up when the law came into force.
