Cuba publishes list of authorized amateur radio digital modes

Cuba publishes list of authorized amateur radio digital modes

HAVANA, Oct. 8th  After a four year wait Cuba’s amateur radio regulator MINCOM has finally published a detailed list of the digital modes amateurs are authorized to use – all 321 of them.

In the UK radio amateurs take it for granted they can use any mode they want with no restrictions. If a new model comes along we can immediately use it, no need to ask for official permission, but the situation in other countries isn’t so good.
Excessive bureaucracy and over-regulation in some countries can result in the regulator detailing every single mode a radio amateur is allowed to use.  In the case of Cuba, this has resulted in the Ministry of Communications issuing a list of 321 digital modes that amateurs can use.
The drawback with such lists is they are never comprehensive, some modes will get missed and it can be a bureaucratic nightmare to get new modes added to a list.  In the case of Cuba’s list the digital modes C4FM, DSTAR, DMR, Q65 are all missing which means they can’t be used.

On Twitter Pavel Milanes Costa CO7WT tweeted the news:

Cuba’s Ham radio Regulatory agency @MINCOMCuba publish the list of authorized digital modes (finally) after more than 4 years from the regulation update.

In February of 2017, Cuba’s regulatory agency updated the ham radio regulation. Nullifying all previous ones, that was the Resolution 75, on its 115 article mention that Cuban hams can only do digital modes authorized on a (to be published) list on the regulatory agency website.

So all digital modes were ruled out until that list is published. The boom of FT8 and other new modes moved hams to use them, even when none of them was legally authorized, which caused at least one major confrontation with one ham radio operator being almost sanctioned by using a non-authorized digital mode

So, after more than 4 years the “list” is published, you can check it here:

It’s a long list and you can spot almost all legacy modes and a few new ones, but there is some others that are missing, for example:

C4FM, DSTAR, DMR, Q65

Besides DMR the others are non-common in Cuba, so no big deal (so far)…

Did I mention that it took them more than 4 years to make and issue the listing?

CO7WT out!

Source CO7WT
https://twitter.com/co7wt/status/1445892968
062259205

Cuba has three classes of license:
1st Class – Prefix CO – 2000 watts max
2nd Class – Prefix CM – 100 watts max
3rd Class – prefix CL – 10 watts max
A copy of 2017 Cuban Radio Regulations is at
(http://www.southgatearc.org)
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