New Regulations for Hams in Norway

NKOM – the Norwegian equivalent of PTS – has now published its update of the regulations for amateur radio in Norway. As we previously announced, the most important change is the introduction of a new entry-level certificate, or as it is called in the legal text, “limited license”. Just like our entry-level certificate, it will have simpler examination requirements than the “full license” (HAREC) but a number of limitations. Holders of a “limited license” are limited to a maximum of 10 W transmitter power. The frequency bands are all from 3.5MHz – 432MHz (but not the WARC bands 10MHz and 24 MHz). Compared to the previous revision version from November, some changes have been made. In addition to changing the name from “beginner license” to “limited license”, the most important things are:

The ban on remote control has been lifted for both "restricted licenses" as well as for stations in Norwegian "overseas" territories.

The CE marking requirement is also removed for the "limited license" (which can be considered logical since Norway is not part of the EU). However, this means that entry-level amateurs in Norway are allowed to build their own equipment (which must, however, be guaranteed to meet Norwegian requirements for out-of-band interference).

Otherwise, Norway is adapting to the new CEPT proposals for the handling of the 23cm band, 1240 – 1300 MHz. We can also note that the power allocation for 2400MHz is very generous for satellite traffic – they are basically following the same line as the UK. In Sweden, we can still see that the protection of WiFi weighs very heavily with PTS, which allows exceptions for higher power only on a case-by-case basis, and then only in sparsely populated areas.