Licensed amateur radio operators may continue to operate handheld radios in the Amateur Radio Service, despite an Indiana law that took effect July 1, 2020.
The new law, IC 9-21-8-59, prohibits a person from holding or using a “telecommunications device” while operating a moving motor vehicle.
Fortunately, however, a separate part of the Indiana code, IC 9-13-2-177.3, states that the definition of a “telecommunications device,” as it applies to the above referenced IC 9-21-8-59, does not include “amateur radio equipment that is being operated by a person licensed as an amateur radio operator by the Federal Communications Commission under 47 CFR Part 97.”
The provisions of IC 9-13-2-177.3, therefore, exempt the use of amateur radio equipment from the new handheld device ban (IC 9-21-8-59), as long as the equipment is operated by a licensed amateur radio operator.
It also, by the way, exempts citizens band equipment and other communications systems, if those systems are “installed in a commercial motor vehicle weighing more than ten thousand (10,000) pounds.”
Interestingly, IC 9-13-2-177.3 provides no explicit exemption for two-radios in police cars or other emergency vehicles that are not commercial motor vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds.