What can't I do with an amateur station?
Most of the bans trace back to one idea: amateur radio is not a business and not a broadcaster.
Never for hire
An amateur station may never transmit messages for hire. If someone pays you to send a message, you are breaking the rules.
There is one narrow exception. A control operator (the person in charge of the station when it transmits) may be paid to transmit messages from an amateur station only if they work for a public service agency such as the Red Cross.
No broadcasting, no music
- Amateurs may not broadcast information intended for the general public.
- Music is not permitted in the amateur service.
- Codes, cyphers and abbreviations intended to obscure the meaning are not permitted. They are never used in amateur radio.
Messages for other people
Sometimes you pass a message on behalf of someone else. That brings in two terms:
- Third-party communications: a message passed from the control operator of an amateur station to another control operator on behalf of another person.
- Third party: any person for whom a message is passed through amateur channels, other than the control operators of the two stations handling it.
Sending to another country
You may pass a third-party message to a foreign country in either of two cases:
- Kenya has a third-party communications agreement with that government, or
- the third party is eligible to be the control operator of the station.
You now know
- An amateur station may never send messages for hire; the one exception is a control operator working for a public service agency such as the Red Cross.
- No broadcasting to the general public, no music, and no codes, cyphers or abbreviations meant to obscure meaning.
- Third-party communications are messages passed between control operators on behalf of another person.
- A third-party message may go abroad only if Kenya has an agreement with that government, or the third party is eligible to be the control operator.