IW5EDI Simone – Ham-Radio

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General info for foreign HAM operations in Italy by IK2XYU

Foreign Amateurs who wish to operate in Italy may do so if the country of which they are a citizen and amateur licensee has entered into a bilateral or multilateral reciprocal operating agreement with the C.E.P.T. Countries.

No additional permit is required just bring your original license, a C.E.P.T. certificate and a valid I.D. (such as your passport or ID card for E.U. residents) (this is pursuant to Article 140 of the Italian Decree 259 of 1 August 2003) Often the C.E.P.T. agreement license is included in the home country license.

If your country is not in the C.E.P.T. agreement, you should contact directly the Italian Ministry of Communications, usually you can have a reciprocal permit, but it could take a while (few months sometimes).

Using the C.E.P.T. license mobile and portable operations are welcome. You can use a local Amateur home or club station.

Generally you should follow the rules of your border entry in Italy to limit your radio operations. If you will stay longer than 90 days, you should apply for a local license.

Only one class of Amateur Radio licenses is available in Italy (full license) (this is pursuant to Decree of 21 July 2005 published in the official Gazette nr 196 of 24 August 2005). No Morse code is required. All Italian licenses are equivalent to C.E.P.T. class 1 – recommendation T/R 61-01

Identify your station with the right callsign !

Remember to identify your station with the appropriate callsign ! Following the C.E.P.T. rules you must identify the country of operation, your home call and the operative conditions, e.g. I/DL1ABC/P.

Italy is divided into call areas, mainly on region base, so that it is a nice practice to use the appropriate local prefix, eg. I2/DL1ABC/P for Lombardy and IT9/DL1ABC for Sicily. Ask a local Amateur Radio for the right area call suffix or just use the C.E.P.T. rules using the I prefix only. See the following map as reference.

Additional info to properly operate

Please note that with the C.E.P.T. agreement, frequencies are limited by the country of operation, and Italy has its own frequencies. You can request a list of frequencies to ARI. For common use of VHF and UHF please note:

6 meters: 50 MHz to 51 MHz, mainly CW, SSB and digital operation. FM is not in use as per IARU band plan.

2 meters: 144 MHz to 146 MHz. Lower portion of the band (144 MHz to 145 MHz) is CW, SSB and digital. Upper portion of the band (145 MHz to 146 MHz) is FM and repeaters. APRS is on 144.800 MHz (in all EU).

70 cm: 430 MHz to 434 MHz and 435 MHz to 438 MHz. From 434 MHz to 435 MHz it is NOT for Amateur radio (be careful).

In Italy, aircraft or similar operations aren’t allowed.

Important notices:

(1) you are not allowed to use a microphone or a mobile phone while driving a car, as this will be fined by the Police.

(2) frequencies that are not allowed for listening to (such as Police frequencies, etc.) should not be memorized in your radio.

2 meters repetears

144 MHz VHF FM repeaters : step is 12.5 KHz with –600 KHz shift (some tone required)

output frequencies are 145.600 – 145.800 MHz – input frequencies starting at 145.000 MHz

NOTE : for 144 MHz VHF FM repetears not all frequencies area available in all regions

144 MHz VHF FM phone : 145.200 – 146 MHz with 12.5 KHz step

70 centimeters repeaters

430 MHz UHF FM repeaters : step is 12.5 KHz with +1600 KHz shift (some tone required)

output frequencies starting at 430.025 MHz – output frequencies starting at 431.625 MHz

NOTE : is not easy locate 430 MHz UHF FM repeatears in Italy. Not all frequencies are available in all regions.

GENERAL COMMENT : Contact some Italian HAM for the latest frequencies update including the Subtones list.

Cross Band Repeater

Cross Band Repeaters are legal in Italy. You can find them around and probably even you don’t know it, you are using them !

Using Italian List for Repeaters, probably you can notice the Cross Band Repeater as Trasponder (not Transponder, we are Italian and we like mistakes !)

Some EchoLink repeater is available.