The Log, the Register and Inspection

An amateur licence is a permission granted on trust, and the log is how the trust is audited. Condition VI of Annexure I turns your operating into a written record that an inspecting officer can walk in and read; conditions VII, X and XI say what else must be at the station, who may examine it, and what the Government may do with your station in an emergency. None of it is difficult, and Section B asks about it every time — the six particulars, the time standard, the retention period and the two suffixes are among the most reliably examined facts in the whole syllabus.

A bound book, and why

The parenthesis is the whole point. Pages in a bound book cannot be inserted or removed after the event, so the sequence you see is the sequence that happened. Loose leaves, a ring binder or a stack of printed sheets could all be rearranged afterwards, and a record that can be rearranged proves nothing.

Three further requirements protect the same quality. No gaps shall be left between entries. Entries shall be made and initialled at the time of receiving and transmitting — not written up on Sunday from memory. And the record covers transmissions emanating from or received at the station, so it is a record of the station’s radio activity, not merely of your successful contacts.

The six particulars

Learn these as a list of six. The examiner most often asks which of four options is not among them.

1. The date and time of each transmission.
2. A summary of the communications exchanged.
3. A brief description of the experiments and tests undertaken.
4. The call sign of the station or stations with which messages have been exchanged, the times, and the type of emission employed in each case.
5. The time of opening and closing down the amateur station.
6. For a portable or mobile station, the particulars of the temporary location.

Notice what is absent: the postal address of the station worked, the signal report, the name of the operator at the other end, the QSL status. Those belong on a QSL card and in your own interest; the law does not ask for them.

All times in Indian Standard Time

Condition VI(2) is short and surprises almost everybody: all times in the log shall be stated in Indian Standard Time, in the 24-hour format. The rest of the amateur world logs in UTC, and you will go on exchanging UTC on the air with foreign stations — but the book at your elbow is in IST.

The arithmetic is 1400 + 0530 = 1930 hrs IST. Do it in your head on paper before you do it on a rig: 0000 UTC is 0530 IST, 1200 UTC is 1730 IST, and 1830 UTC is midnight, after which the IST date is one day ahead of the UTC date.

Who signs, and how long you keep it

Another licensed amateur may operate your station in your presence, provided he holds a licence of comparable or higher category. When he does, the log must be signed by that person, showing his name, call sign and licence number. You remain personally responsible for observance of the Rules exactly as if you had operated the station yourself — the visitor’s signature identifies him, it does not transfer your liability.

The log shall be preserved for one year from the date of the last entry before it is destroyed, and the Central Government may direct that a particular log be kept longer. Read the trigger carefully: the year runs from the last entry, not the first, so a book still in daily use is never yet due for destruction. A log whose final entry is 12 March 2026 may be destroyed on or after 12 March 2027.

A specimen page

The Rules append a form of log; what follows is that form filled in for an ordinary evening at a VU3 station, showing all six particulars in their natural places.

The equipment register

Rule 16 requires a separate book. Every licensee shall maintain a register, in the form set out in Annexure VI, of all wireless telegraphy apparatus established, maintained and worked at the station. It tracks apparatus rather than operating, and records:

• the particulars of each apparatus — make, model, type;
• from whom it was received, or the words “self made” if you built it;
• the date of receipt or of assembly;
• the receipt number and the seller’s licence number;
• the particulars of any later sale or transfer, and to whom.

Contacts belong in the log; equipment belongs in the register. The paper likes to offer one where it means the other.

Four documents at the station

QSL cards are a courtesy of the hobby and not a legal record. Keeping them, or not, is entirely your own affair.

Inspection

Any officer authorised in writing by the Central Government may, at all reasonable times, enter the station — alone or jointly with others — and may inspect, examine or test any apparatus, and require the licence, the station log and other records to be made available for examination. The power is a standing one. It does not need a declared emergency, it does not need notice, and it covers the equipment as well as the paperwork.

Separately, when called upon to do so by the Central Government the licensee shall forward the licence, the log book, or any other record or data for examination. That is a duty to send documents in, distinct from the duty to admit an officer.

Emergency powers, and the indemnity

On the occurrence of any public emergency, or in the interest of public safety, the Central Government, a State Government or an officer specially authorised may take temporary possession of the amateur station for as long as the emergency or the interest of public safety requires. Under the same condition, and on grounds including the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states, public order or the prevention of incitement to an offence, an order may be made in writing directing that messages of a particular class shall not be transmitted or received, or shall be intercepted by the station, or shall be disclosed to the Government.

And then the sentence candidates always want to argue with: the licensee shall not be entitled to any compensation in respect of the exercise of those powers. None is payable for the possession, none for the interception, none for the time your station is out of your hands.

Condition XII runs the other way but to similar effect: the licensee shall indemnify the Central Government against all actions, claims and demands in respect of any injury arising from any act licensed or permitted by the licence. The licence gives you permission; the risk stays with you.

Where the station may be

The location of the amateur station is specified in the licence, along with the usual residence of the licensee, and the station may be operated only from the place so fixed.

A permanent move — you have changed house and will work from the new address — therefore requires the licence itself to be amended. You apply in writing giving particulars of the change, submit the licence for endorsement, and pay the fee. Under the 1978 Rules that fee was Rs 200, and Rs 200 is still the figure most often quoted. It has changed: the current fee is Rs 1,000. You do not get a new call sign, and you do not apply afresh.

A temporary change — taking a rig to a hamfest, a field day or a friend’s terrace for an afternoon — does not require the licence to be amended at all.

Portable, mobile and maritime working

Beyond a temporary outing, the 1978 Rules provided a formal instrument for organised portable and mobile operation: a special authorisation under rule 18, for occasions such as exhibitions and jamborees or for specific technical investigations in radio. Its conditions are examinable:

• The suffix MO is added to the call sign already authorised for the fixed station, and is followed by the location of the station.
• The authorisation is granted for a specific period, not exceeding 90 days, applied for well in advance with the occasion or investigation and the area of operation stated.
• The applicant holds a GENERAL licence, and pays an additional fee.
• The licensee’s fixed station and the mobile station shall not communicate with each other.

An amateur station may also be authorised on board a ship registered in India, on application accompanied by the written approval of the master or the owners. Its call sign takes the suffix MS, followed by the call sign of the ship in radiotelegraphy or the official name of the ship in radiotelephony. Three conditions matter:

• It may be operated only while the ship is in international waters or Indian territorial waters; inside another country’s territorial waters it must conform to that country’s law.
• It shall not be operated while the ship is in any harbour in India — a harbour is full of the port’s own radio services, and an amateur station has no business among them.
• It shall discontinue operation at once on the request of an officer of the Central Government, the master or radio officer of the ship, or any land station.