From BR68F
1(2) The licencee shall address messages only to other licenced amateurs or the stations of licenced amateurs and shall send only:
Messages relating to technical investigations or remarks of a personal character; OR
Signals (not enciphered) which form part of, or relate to, the transmission of messages.
Basically, an amateur radio station can only be used for the transmission of messages to another amateur station. Note that the messages are sent from one station to another, not one person to another. There are circumstances where an unlicenced person may send a message from an amateur radio station, but these are beyond the scope of what is required learning here. Remember that in all cases, any messages sent by the station must not be of an offensive or threatening nature as this would be a serious violation of the Wireless and Telegraphy Act. BR68F and its associated notes give examples of what may and may not be sent. An accepted general guideline is that you may talk about anything you like, but it is wise to avoid politics and religion. A useful footnote to this would be my mother's advice - "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all"
1(4) The licencee may use codes or abbreviations for communication as long as they do not obscure the meaning of, but only facilitate, the communications.
In the early days of radio the primary mode of communication was Morse telegraphy. Some of the most commonly used procedural phrases were shortened into 'codes', for example QSL meaning 'Are you receiving me clearly?'. These codes were created in order to reduce the number of letters that the telegraphist (operator|) had to send and are now universally understood in radio circles. They had the added benefit of being language independent and thus internationally understood. A list of these codes may be found here.
Use of such codes as mentioned above is permitted because it aims to make communication easier. However, substitution of a 'code' known only to the sender and recipient would constitute a cipher. All ciphers including word codes, voice scrambling, computer data encryption etc are forbidden. All messages sent by amateur radio must be readily received and decodeable by anyone. Note that the Morse code is not regarded as a cipher.
Extracts from the syllabus and BR68F ©Crown copyright Radiocommunications Agency
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