---
kind: "section"
citation: "46 U.S.C. § 7103"
title: "46"
title_heading: "Shipping"
number: "7103"
heading: "Licenses for radio officers"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/46/7103"
units:
  - "Subtitle II — Vessels and Seamen"
  - "Part E — Merchant Seamen Licenses, Certificates, and Documents"
  - "Chapter 71 — Licenses and Certificates of Registry"
---

# §7103. Licenses for radio officers

- (a) A [license](/usc/46/12101.md?p=b-2) as radio officer may be issued only to an applicant who has a first-class or second-class radiotelegraph operator [license](/usc/46/12101.md?p=b-2) issued by the Federal Communications Commission.
- (b) Except as provided in [section 7318 of this title](/usc/46/7318.md), this part does not affect the status of radiotelegraph operators serving on board vessels operating only on the [Great Lakes](/usc/46/9301.md?p=2).

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 98–89, Aug. 26, 1983, 97 Stat. 540.)

## Notes

| Historical and Revision Notes |  |
| --- | --- |
| Revised section | Source section (U.S. Code) |
| 7103 | 46:229a<br>46:229b<br>46:229g |

Section 7103 requires an applicant for a license as a radio officer to have, as a prerequisite, a first-class or second-class radiotelegraph operator license issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It also excepts radiotelegraph operators that are engaged on Great Lakes vessels from the requirement of having to obtain a radio officer’s license.