Who can I send messages to, and what are the exceptions?
Amateur radio is a closed club. Your messages are for other members of the club.
The basic rule
Amateur messages may be addressed only to other licensed amateurs, or to the stations of licensed amateurs. You may not use your station to talk to the general public.
Messages for "general reception"
A message meant for anyone who happens to be listening is a message for general reception. That is not allowed, except in these cases:
- Initial (CQ) calls: a call looking for any amateur to answer.
- Groups, once you have first made contact with one member.
- Net participants: a net is a scheduled on-air meeting of a group.
- Mailbox or bulletin-board messages for RTTY and data stations.
Greetings from unlicensed people
A person without a licence may send a greeting only if all of these hold:
- it is under direct supervision of the licensee (or an authorised club member), who operates the transmitter and identifies the station;
- it lasts at most 5 minutes each;
- it is only within Kenya.
Messages addressed to your station
A message sent to your station may be recorded and retransmitted only to the originating station, and only if the original sending station's call sign is included.
You now know
- Messages go only to licensed amateurs or their stations.
- General-reception messages are banned, except CQ calls, groups, nets and mailbox messages for RTTY and data stations.
- Unlicensed greetings need direct supervision by the licensee, a short length, and stay in Kenya.
- A message addressed to you may go back only to its originator, with their call sign.