Voluntary ships must meet the rules applicable to the particular mode of operation as contained in the following subparts of this part and as modified by § 80.1153:

(a) Licensees of voluntary ships are not required to maintain radio station logs.

(b) When a ship radio station of a voluntary ship is being operated, the appropriate general purpose watches must be maintained in accordance with §§ 80.147 and 80.310.

Radioprinter operations provide record communications between authorized maritime mobile stations.

(a) Supplementary eligibility requirements. Ships must be less than 1600 gross tons.

(b) Scope of communication. (1) Ship radioprinter communications may be conducted with an associated private coast station.

(2) Ships authorized to communicate by radioprinter with a common private coast station may also conduct intership radioprinter operations.

(3) Only those communications which are associated with the business and operational needs of the ship are authorized.

(c) Assignment and use of frequencies. (1) Frequencies for radioprinter operations are shared by several radio services including the maritime mobile service.

(2) Ship stations must conduct radioprinter operations only on frequencies assigned to their associated private coast station for that purpose.

(d) Authorization procedure. The authorization procedure for ship station radioprinter operations is as follows:

(1) The associated private coast station must submit an application for specific radioprinter frequencies and provide the names of ships to be served.

(2) When the private coast station receives a radioprinter license, it must provide copies of their license to all ships with which they are authorized to conduct radioprinter operations. The private coast station license copy must be kept as part of the ship station license.

(3) Any addition or deletion of ships must be notified to the Commission by letter.

Facsimile is a form of telegraphy for the transmission and receipt of fixed images. Ships must use facsimile techniques only with authorized public coast stations.

NB-DP is a form of telegraphy for the transmission and receipt of direct printing public correspondence. Ships must use NB-DP techniques only with authorized public coast stations.

EPIRB transmissions must be used only under emergency conditions. The various classes of EPIRB's are described in subpart V of this part.

Frequencies for general radiotelephone purposes are available to ships in three radio frequency bands. Use of specific frequencies must meet the Commission's rules concerning the scope of service and the class of station with which communications are intended. The three frequency bands are:

(a) 156-158 MHz (VHF/FM Radiotelephone). Certain frequencies within this band are public correspondence frequencies and they must be used as working channels when communicating with public coast stations. Other working frequencies within the band are categorized by type of communications for which use is authorized when communicating with a private coast station or between ships. Subpart H of this part lists the frequencies and types of communications for which they are available.

(b) 1600-4000 kHz (SSB Radiotelephone). Specific frequencies within this band are authorized for single sideband (SSB) communications with public and private coast stations or between ships. The specific frequencies are listed in subpart H of this part.

(c) 4000-23000 kHz (SSB Radiotelephone). Specific frequencies within this band are authorized for SSB communications with public and private coast stations. The specific frequencies are listed in subpart H of this part.

(a) The frequencies assignable to AMTS stations are listed in § 80.385(a). These frequencies are assignable to ship and coast stations for voice, facsimile and radioteletypewriter communications.

(b) [Reserved]

(a) On-board stations communicate:

(1) With other units of the same station for operational communications on the ship.

(2) With on-board stations of another ship or shore facility to aid in oil pollution prevention during the transfer of 250 or more barrels of oil.

(3) With other units of the same station in the immediate vicinity of the ship for operational communications related to docking, life boat and emergency drills or in the maneuvering of cargo barges and lighters.

(b) An on-board station may communicate with a station in the Business Radio Service operating on the same frequency when the vessel on which the on-board station is installed is alongside the dock or cargo handling facility.

On-board frequencies are assignable only to ship stations. When an on-board repeater is used, paired frequencies must be used. On-board repeater frequencies must be used for single frequency simplex operations. On-board frequencies are listed in subpart H.

When an on-board repeater is used, the following limitations must be met:

(a) The on-board repeater antenna must be located no higher than 3 meters (10 feet) above the vessel's highest working deck.

(b) Each on-board repeater must have a timer that deactivates the transmitter if the carrier remains on for more than 3 minutes.

(a) On-board stations must identify when:

(1) The vessel is within 32 km (20 miles) of any coastline; or

(2) The communications are likely to be received aboard another vessel.

(b) Identification, when required, must be:

(1) Transmitted at the beginning and the end of a series of communications. Whenever communications are sustained for a period exceeding 15 minutes, station identification must be transmitted at intervals not exceeding 15 minutes.

(2) In English and must include the name of the vessel, followed by a number or name designating the respective mobile unit, for example: “S.S. United States Mobile One, this is Mobile Two.”

(a) An on-board station may be used for remote control of maneuvering or navigation control systems aboard the same ship or, where that ship is towing a second ship, aboard the towed ship.

(b) The remote control system transmissions must contain a synchronization signal and a message signal composed of a documentation number group, a company control group, an actuation instruction group, and a termination of transmission group.

(1) The synchronization signal must be the control character “SYN”, transmitted twice.

(2) The message signal is composed of the following groups:

(i) The documentation number group must be transmitted once and be the ship's U.S. Coast Guard documentation number or, if the ship is not documented, the call sign of the on-board station.

(ii) The company control group, composed of three letters taken from AAA through ZZZ, which must be transmitted one time.

(iiii) The actuation instruction group, composed of two letters taken from AA through ZZ, which must be transmitted one time.

(iv) The termination of transmission group, composed of the control character “EM”, which must be transmitted twice.

(c) The receiving system must:

(1) Reject any actuation instruction until it recognizes and accepts the company control group.

(2) Reject any company control group until it recognizes and accepts the documentation number group.

(d) The emission employed must be G2D. The provisions applicable to G3E emission are also applicable to G2D emission.

(e) The binary information must be applied to the carrier as frequency-shift keying (FSK) of the standard tones 1070 and 1270 Hz. “0” (low) must correspond to 1070 Hz and “1” (high) must correspond to 1270 Hz. The signalling rate must be 300 bits per second.

(f) The alphabet employed must be the United States of America Standard Code for Information Interchange (USASCII), contained in the United States of America Standards Institute publication USAS X3.4-1968.

(1) The bit sequence must be least significant bit first to most significant bit (bit 1 through 7), consecutively.

(2) The character structure must consist of 8 bits (seven bits plus one character parity bit) having equal time intervals.

(3) “Odd” parity is required.

Stations in the maritime mobile-satellite service must meet the eligibility requirements contained in this section.

(a) A station license for a ship earth station may be issued to:

(1) The owner or operator of a ship.

(2) A corporation proposing to furnish a nonprofit radio communication service to its parent corporation, to another subsidiary of the same parent, or to its own subsidiary, where the party to be served is the owner or operator of the ship aboard which the ship earth station is to be installed and operated.

(b) A station license for a portable ship earth station may be issued to the owner or operator of portable earth station equipment proposing to furnish satellite communication services on board more than one ship or fixed offshore platform located in the marine environment.

Ship earth stations must be used for telecommunications related to the business or operation of ships and for public correspondence of persons on board. Portable ship earth stations are authorized to meet the business, operational and public correspondence telecommunication needs of fixed offshore platforms located in the marine environment as well as ships. The types of emission are determined by the INMARSAT organization.

(a) Portable ship earth stations are authorized to operate on board more than one ship. Portable ship earth stations are also authorized to be operated on board fixed offshore platforms located in international or United States domestic waters.

(b) Portable ship earth stations must meet the rule requirements of ship earth stations with the exeception of eligibility.

(c) Where the license of the portable ship earth station is not the owner of the ship or fixed platform on which the station is located, the station must be operated with the permission of the owner or operator of the ship or fixed platform.

(a) A ship station may be authorized to use radio channels in the 285-315 kHz band in Region 1 and 285-325 kHz in any other region for cable repair radiodetermination purposes under the following conditions:

(1) The radio transmitting equipment attached to the cable-marker buoy associated with the ship station must be described in the station application;

(2) The call sign used for the transmitter operating under the provisions of this section is the call sign of the ship station followed by the letters “BT” and the identifying number of the buoy.

(3) The buoy transmitter must be continuously monitored by a licensed radiotelegraph operator on board the cable repair ship station; and

(4) The transmitter must operate under the provisions in § 80.375(b).