Baofeng hardware - legal in Australia or not

[SWLVK5ANDY]

I'm still working on get my license, and was trawling through a number of websites looking at hardware prices.  I came across one site that was talking about Baofeng handhelds which to be honest looked too cheap to be true, but came across another website that insisted Baogeng equipment was illegal in Australia.

Searching the official ham radio websites I found one that had a list of hardware that was not legal in Australia but did not list Baofeng, yet more people were insisting you could not legally use them in country.

Scratching my head and reading carefully, I could assume that Baofeng are not legal to use inless you have a ham license, the websites that said you should not buy them listed reasons about how they would allow transmission on emergency services bands but no-one actually clarified the license requirement.

Does anyone have any knowledge on the subject and can clarify for me?

[VK5AAD]

A subtle point perhaps, but you will not "get my license". Since 19/02/2024 any new Amateur Radio operator has operated under a "class licence". Other radio services such as Citizens Band also operate under class licences, and in the case of CB radios have for about 40 years now.

The difference for hams is that unlike CB where only the use of "type approved" equipment is allowed,  hams can use any equipment, including transceivers they may construct themselves. To operate under the Amateur Radio class licence, one must prove technical proficiency and a knowledge of the regulatory environment they operate under before being eligible to obtain a certificate of recognition from the ACMA and an amateur radio service callsign.

The regulatory environment (predominantly for amateurs, the Class Licence) lays out technical requirements on things such as spurious emissions - eg

(1) A person must not operate an amateur station if its operation causes harmful interference to radiocommunications.
(2) A person must not operate an amateur station if its radio emissions include spurious emissions that are not attenuated below the power contained within the emission's necessary bandwidth, supplied to the antenna transmission line, by:
  (a) for frequencies less than 30 MHz – the lesser of:
    (i) 43 + 10 log (pX) dB;
    (ii) 50 dB;
  (b) for frequencies equal to or greater than 30 MHz – the lesser of:
    (i) 43 + 10 log (P) dB;
    (ii) 70 dB;

It is these spurious emissions that some Baofeng models in particular (but certainly not all) are often criticised for.  Apart from being able to illegally transmit on non-amateur bands, spurious transmissions while transmitting on amateur bands may interfere with other services such as aviation. So as a bona-fide Amateur, the possession and even use of a "Baofeng" radio is probably not illegal, the use of it in non-compliance of the requirements would be. Note that even though an amateur can legitimately use any radio on amateur bands, even an amateur cannot legally use a non-type approved device on the CB bands.

In any case, many new and not so new  amateurs go for the inexpensive Quansheng radios. They work fine out of the box, are easily programmed using Chirp, and most can be flashed with a variety of third party firmware for improved and increased functionality.

The class licence details of the frequency bands, modes, bandwidths and power levels permitted according to the level of proficiency recognised by ACMA.  Initially you may do the Foundation theory, regs and practical exams,  and so within a day or two can be on air on a subset of bands and a maximum power of 10w.

I'd strongly suggest going to the ACMA Amateur Radio site at https://www.acma.gov.au/amateur-radio and follow the links to download a copy of the Class Licence and the syllabus for the level of proficiency you're aiming at.

In most cases (better than 95%) it is possible to attend a Foundation course and complete the exams all in one day.  If you already have some radio experience (eg as a SWL, scanner enthusiast etc) then it should be a fait accompli.