New regulations for the Amateur and Amateur-satellite service in Portugal

A rather decisive regulation for Ham Radio in Portugal was finally published in the official journal (Diário da República) this March the 2nd 2009.

The Decree-Law 53/2009 is in fact a new national regulation, governing the amateur and amateur-satellite services, which will come into effect only in 90 days from this date.

This new radio regulation defines the fundamentals of the amateur services, and regulates communications between stations in the Amateur and Amateur-satellite services from Portugal.

Only a few hours spend from the publication this morning, there are no official reactions so far, but many ham radio colleagues are by now studying the new law, so reactions may come known really soon.

We all hope that this new regulation may reflect the current genuine priorities and can turn into a cut with the traditional attitudes of a past-time long gone.

Previous provisions in an old-fashioned ham radio regulation dated from 1995, had let the country calling for a modern legislation, which could face new technological progress and been released from rules that were no longer necessary.

Portuguese ham radio colleagues also hope that the new regulation can reflect simplification, including the updating of provisions to reflect today's attitudes as well as the reality of radio communications, the identification of some international standards for the qualification of amateurs and to encourage the international recognition of amateur licenses. The amateur service cannot afford to have countries ignoring the international regulations.

In order to avoid provisions that can become redundant because the same subject matter it is covered elsewhere in the national radio regulations, we hope that this new document can also allow the Administration to make additional conventions sequentially, to avoid in the future an evident gap with the most recent technological demands, like until now.

In time, we hope that someone can afford to write an article to compare the previous regulation with the new one, identifying what is new and what is different.

Another expectation concerns the previous demands concerning qualification.

It is fundamental that the amateurs may have appropriate operational and technical skills in this country.

More info in portuguese http://dre.pt/pdf1sdip/2009/03/04200/0141301422.pdf

73’ from Miguel Andrade, CT1ETL