2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE NINE - Highways and Traffic (§§ 1-8 — 5725) › Chapter 27 - Vehicle and Traffic Law (2000) › Subchapter I - Definitions; Registry of Motor Vehicles, Trailers or Semi-Trailers, and Authorization to Operate on Public Roads (§§ 5001 — 5044) › § 5029 - Special license plates—Amateur radio operators

By request of the interested party, the Secretary shall issue special license plates to every amateur radio operator who holds a current license granted by the Federal Communications Commission, and owns a motor vehicle for his/her private use, subject to the following rules:
(a) The special license plate issued shall bear the special code assigned by the Federal Communications Commission and authorized by the Secretary. This shall be the official license plate of the vehicle and shall be affixed on the rear of the motor vehicle in the designated place.
(b) The information needed to identify the special license plate with the official registration of the corresponding motor vehicle shall be included on the registration of the vehicle.
(c) A twenty-dollar ($20) internal revenue voucher shall be canceled for the issue of said special license plates, which sum shall be deposited in the Special DISCO Fund to defray the cost of production of said license plates.
(d) The Secretary may provide through regulations everything concerning the design, size, colors, location, issue, use, renewal and cancellation of the referred special license plates, as well as any other detail deemed necessary.
(e) Any application for said special license plate shall include the due certification from the Federal Communications Commission.
(f) The use of said special license plate on the public roads of Puerto Rico is exclusively authorized for the period of effectiveness of said authorization.
(g) The Secretary may cancel or revoke the authorization for the use of said special license plate in case of noncompliance of the provisions of this section as provided by regulations.
(h) Every motor vehicle owner to whom the Secretary issues a special license plate, shall be bound to return it to the Secretary whenever the same expires, or whenever his/her amateur radio operating license expires or is canceled, when he/she sells the vehicle, when it is disposed of as scrap metal, or is abandoned as useless, or when the vehicle is no longer authorized to travel on the public roads of Puerto Rico. Noncompliance with this provision shall result in the cancellation of the authorization to use the special license plate. It shall be the sole obligation of the amateur radio operator to whom the special license plate has been issued, to petition the Federal Communications Commission to authorize a new license plate when the same is lost, stolen or destroyed, since no duplicates thereof shall be issued. Whenever the above occurs, the Secretary shall issue an official license plate to the amateur radio operator who presents documentary evidence of what occurred, and the amateur radio operator must return the official license plate once he/she has received the authorization requested by him/her to the Commission, and shall also pay the Secretary the same amount prescribed by this chapter for the original license plates.
(i) Any person who displays a special amateur radio operator’s license without proper authority, shall incur a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be sanctioned with a fine of not less than two hundred dollars ($200) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500).
History —Jan. 7, 2000, No. 22, § 2.28; Oct. 9, 2000, No. 414, § 12; June 3, 2004, No. 132, § 2, eff. 8 months after June 3, 2004.