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June 5, 2012

FCC provides waiver of new regulations for installation of radar on recreational boats

Recreational boaters who wanted to install new radar equipment were faced with a regulatory "catch-22" following a change in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules that took place on January 3, 2012. Under rules propagated at that time, radar equipment installed on so called "voluntarily" equipped vessel (i.e. recreational boats) had to comply with International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard 62252. The problem lay in that no commercially produced radar met that standard nor were they likely to be on the market anytime soon.

The Radio Technical Commission for Maritime (RTCM), in which BoatU.S. is an active participant, petition the FCC requesting a waiver from this requirement for recreational boats which has been granted. Click here to see a copy of the FCC notice.