---
kind: "section"
citation: "47 U.S.C. § 353a"
title: "47"
title_heading: "Telecommunications"
number: "353a"
heading: "Operators and watches on radiotelephone equipped ships"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/47/353a"
units:
  - "Chapter 5 — Wire or Radio Communication"
  - "Subchapter III — Special Provisions Relating to Radio"
  - "Part II — Radio Equipment and Radio Operators On Board Ship"
---

# §353a. Operators and watches on radiotelephone equipped ships

- (a) Each cargo [ship](/usc/47/153.md?p=46-A) which in accordance with this part is equipped with a radiotelephone [station](/usc/47/153.md?p=42) shall, for safety purposes, carry at least one [operator](/usc/47/153.md?p=38-A) who may be the master, an officer, or a member of the crew.
- (b) Each cargo [ship](/usc/47/153.md?p=46-A) of the [United States](/usc/47/153.md?p=58) which in accordance with this part is equipped with a radiotelephone [station](/usc/47/153.md?p=42) shall, while being navigated in the open sea outside of a [harbor](/usc/47/153.md?p=23) or [port](/usc/47/153.md?p=23), maintain continuous watch whenever the [station](/usc/47/153.md?p=42) is not being used for authorized traffic.

## Source credit

(June 19, 1934, ch. 652, title III, § 354, as added Aug. 13, 1954, ch. 729, § 2(b), 68 Stat. 706; amended Pub. L. 89–121, § 5, Aug. 13, 1965, 79 Stat. 514.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1965—Pub. L. 89–121 substituted “radiotelephone station” for “radiotelephone installation” in two places, and “one operator who may be the master, an officer, or a member of the crew” for “one qualified operator who may be a member of the crew holding only a certificate for radio telephony”, inserted “in the open sea” before “outside of a harbor”, and required a continuous watch whenever the station is not being used for authorized traffic.