These terms are the agreement between you and SimTX. Here, "SimTX" ("we", "us") means whoever runs SimTX. Today that's qrmcat, a private individual based in Hungary. If SimTX is transferred to a company or another operator, it means the new operator (section 13). The community rules are part of these terms. The privacy policy explains how we handle your data.
Key points
They're the parts of these terms you're least likely to expect.
- SimTX is a free simulation in open beta. Nothing goes out over real radio. It can change, break, lose data or stop.
- Our liability is limited as far as the law allows. We're still fully liable for harm we cause on purpose or through gross negligence, and for harm to life, body or health.
- What you transmit goes out live to anyone tuned in, and moderators can listen to any of it. We don't record transmissions, but other users can.
- You give us a licence to use your content to run SimTX and to show it publicly, for example in screenshots of the map. Catalog items you publish stay available, without your name, after you delete your account.
- We keep an activity log with IP addresses, and we link accounts that share an address, network or callsign. Moderators decide what to do, with one automatic exception: a ban comes back if the banned person signs up again with the same Discord account or email address.
- Most on-air play, jamming included, is allowed. Moderators step in when it's overdone or people complain, and they can restrict, suspend or ban accounts. You get the reasons and can ask us to look again.
- We can transfer SimTX and these terms to a company we control or to a successor. We'll tell you first, your rights stay the same, and any new terms need your acceptance.
- You must be 13 or older, and if you sign in with Discord, old enough to use it where you live. If you're under 18, a parent or guardian must agree to these terms.
1. About these terms
1.1 Contact
If you need our full name and postal address, ask at [email protected]. Write to [email protected] for reports, copyright notices and requests to look again at a decision. Write to [email protected] about your data, and to [email protected] about anything else in these terms.
1.2 How the agreement is made
You sign up with your email address or with Discord, from the sign-in page, the portal or the desktop app. The sign-in screen links to these terms, the community rules and the privacy policy. With email, we send you a code and a link, and we create your account when you use one of them. With Discord, you approve sharing your basic Discord profile with SimTX, and we create your account when Discord sends you back.
You accept these terms by continuing on the sign-in page. If you signed in some other way, you accept them by pressing Accept in the portal or the app. That's when the agreement is made. Until you've accepted the current version, you can use your account only to:
- read the terms
- see any restrictions on it
- download your data
- manage your sign-ins
- sign out or delete it
You can stop at any point before you use the code or link, or approve on Discord. You can change your handle or display name in the portal afterwards.
We record which version of these terms you accepted, and when. We don't keep a separate copy for each user. The current terms are always at simtx.net/terms, and we keep earlier versions. The terms and the agreement are in English. Any translation is for convenience only.
1.3 Listening without an account
You can listen through the public receiver without an account. If you do, follow the community rules. We can block addresses that misuse it.
2. What SimTX is
SimTX is a free, non-commercial multiplayer shortwave radio simulator. You use it through the website and portal, the desktop app, our game servers, the public receiver, the wiki and our Discord server.
It's a simulation, not real radio. Nothing you do on SimTX is transmitted over the air. Its results can differ from real conditions. So don't rely on SimTX for real radio planning, navigation, safety or emergencies. Nobody monitors simulated distress calls. In a real emergency, call 112 or your local emergency number.
SimTX has no connection with any radio licensing authority or amateur radio organisation. If you connect SimTX audio to real radio equipment, your own licence and the law where you are apply to you.
3. Your account
To have an account, you must be at least 13. If you sign in with Discord, you must also be old enough to use it where you live, and Discord's own terms apply to your Discord account. If you're under 18, a parent or guardian must agree to these terms. They can accept them for you, or let you accept them yourself. If you're under 14, they must accept them for you.
Each person may have one account. Don't share yours, and don't create accounts for other people. A parent or guardian can agree to these terms for their child, but the account is the child's.
Keep your email account, your Discord account, your devices and any personal access tokens secure. Don't use tokens to get around limits or rules. You're responsible for what happens through your account, unless you couldn't reasonably have prevented it.
4. Your content
"Your content" means everything you put into SimTX:
- your handle, display name and profile
- station names, callsigns, locations, antennas, antenna model files and radio settings
- satellites
- the audio and signals you transmit
- reports
- catalog items
- wiki edits
You keep whatever rights you have in it. These terms don't transfer ownership to us.
4.1 The licence you give us
You give us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use your content to run SimTX.
Under the licence, we can store, copy, process, transmit and display your content. This lets us:
- simulate how your signal travels, which changes how it sounds
- deliver it live to the users who can receive it
- show it on the website, in the app and in our Discord server, as the privacy policy describes
Moderators can review your content and listen to your live transmissions. When they moderate, they can change or remove your content. Our service providers can do these things for us, but only to run SimTX. The licence also covers showing SimTX publicly, for example in screenshots or videos of the map. These can include public callsigns and handles. Public screenshots and videos never include your audio.
The licence ends when you delete the content or your account, with these exceptions:
- copies in backups last until the backups are deleted, within 30 days
- copies we keep in moderation records, or because the law requires it, last for the periods in the privacy policy
- catalog items continue as section 5 explains
- wiki edits are covered by the wiki's content licence
- we can't recall transmissions other users have already heard, and we don't control recordings they make
The licence doesn't affect your moral rights as an author, such as the right to be named.
4.2 Share only what you have the right to
Transmit, upload and publish only content you have the right to use. Don't share other people's personal information without a lawful reason. You're responsible for what you transmit, publish and upload. If you break these terms or the law and someone makes a claim against us because of it, you're responsible for our resulting losses and reasonable costs. This applies only as far as the law makes you responsible for them.
5. Catalog items and extensions
When you publish an item in the catalog, you also give every SimTX user a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to download, install, use and adapt it for use with SimTX. If you attach a different licence to the item, such as an open-source licence, that licence applies instead.
If you delete your account, your catalog items stay available and both licences continue. But the items no longer show your name. If you want an item gone, remove it before you delete your account.
Extensions run on other users' computers. So an extension must do what its description says. It must not contain malware. It must not collect or send data about users unless its description clearly says so. And it must not try to get around the limits the app places on extensions.
We can review, disable or remove any catalog item. We don't check every item. Items are made by other users, not by us, so install only items you trust.
6. Acceptable use
Even if the community rules allow something, you must not:
- break the law, or use SimTX to share illegal content
- attack, overload, probe or break into SimTX, or use bugs or modified software to harm others or to get around limits our servers enforce
- evade a ban or restriction, whether with another account, someone else's account or another network
- collect information about other users from SimTX, such as their locations, beyond your own normal use of the service
- file reports you know are false
- use SimTX in a way that breaks export control or sanctions law, or use it on behalf of anyone under EU sanctions
7. Moderation
7.1 How we moderate
We moderate SimTX with a few volunteer moderators who act on our instructions. We don't check everything people transmit or publish, and we don't have to. Moderators listen in when they choose to, through our moderation tools or like any other listener. They act on what they hear, or on what's reported to us (section 8).
We keep a log of sign-ins, connections and transmissions. It includes callsigns, frequencies, locations and IP addresses. From it, we record which accounts have used the same IP address, network range or callsign. This helps us spot ban evasion and shared accounts. A link is a signal, not proof. Our systems also flag patterns for a moderator to review, such as a link to a banned account. A flag never acts on its own.
We don't use automated tools to disconnect or ban people, with one exception. It applies when an account is deleted while it's suspended, banned, or restricted from connecting or transmitting. If the same Discord account or email address signs up again before that measure would have ended, the new account gets the measure automatically, for the time it had left. You'll get a statement of reasons that says so, and you can ask us to look again. If we add tools that act on transmissions automatically, we'll update these terms and the privacy policy before turning them on.
7.2 What we can do
We can act when content or behaviour is illegal, breaks these terms or the community rules, or disrupts SimTX for others more than the rules allow. We can:
- warn you
- remove, hide or change content, such as a station name, callsign, profile text, catalog item or wiki edit
- disconnect a live session
- restrict features such as transmitting, for a set time or with no end date
- suspend your account until we lift the suspension
- ban your account permanently
- block an IP address, or a range of addresses where that's needed to stop ban evasion
A blocked range can affect other people on the same network. If that happens to you, tell us.
7.3 How we decide
Moderators decide case by case. The community rules list what we act on most often. But we can also act on behaviour that harms people, SimTX or its community, or that puts us at legal risk, even if no rule names it. To decide whether on-air play is overdone, we look at how long it goes on, whether it targets someone, how many people it affects, and whether people have complained.
We choose the measure that fits. We take into account how serious the breach is, whether it was deliberate, how it affected others, and your history on SimTX. Usually we start small. Serious cases can lead straight to a ban and, where the law requires, a report to the police. Examples are threats, sexual content involving minors, publishing someone's personal details, and repeated ban evasion. Breaking copyright again and again can lead to longer restrictions.
Except for the automatic step in section 7.1, a person decides every measure. They base it on what moderators heard, the activity log and reports. We don't have to act on every breach. If we don't act in one case, we can still act later, or in a similar case.
7.4 Statements of reasons and asking us to look again
When we warn you, restrict or suspend your account, disconnect you, or remove or hide your content, we tell you what we did and why, in a statement of reasons. If you think a decision about you or your content is wrong, you can ask us to look again within 6 months. The report page explains both, and your other options, such as complaining to an authority or going to court. Even while you're suspended or banned, you can sign in to the portal to read the statement, download your data, delete your account or ask us to look again.
8. Reporting illegal content and rule-breaking
Anyone, with or without an account, can use the report page at simtx.net/report. Use it to tell us about content or behaviour on SimTX that you think is illegal or breaks our rules.
Rights holders can also use the formal procedure in Hungarian law (Ekertv. ยง 13) for content we store. Under it, we remove the content and tell you. If you object, we restore it. We also send your objection, with your contact details, to the rights holder, who can then go to court. The report page explains this. It also explains a similar procedure for content that violates a minor's personality rights.
9. Ending the agreement
9.1 By you
You can end the agreement at any time by deleting your account in the portal (privacy policy, section 9). Deletion completes after 30 days, and you can cancel it until then.
9.2 By us
We can suspend or close your account if you break these terms or the community rules, or if the law requires it. We can also do it if you're below the minimum age, or if a parent or guardian asks us to. If we do it because of your content or behaviour on SimTX, you'll get a statement of reasons and can ask us to look again (section 7.4).
9.3 If SimTX closes
We can stop running SimTX or parts of it. If we close the whole service, we'll announce it on the website. Where we reasonably can, we'll do that at least 30 days before, so you can download your data.
9.4 What continues afterwards
Some parts of these terms still apply after the agreement ends. These are the catalog licences (section 5), the backup and record-keeping exceptions (section 4.1), the liability rules (section 11), and the governing law and courts (section 14).
10. Beta status and availability
SimTX is free and in open beta. We provide it as it is and as available. We don't promise that it will always be available, work without errors, keep any particular feature, or simulate radio accurately. We can change, move or remove features. We can also reset the simulated world, which can change or remove stations and satellites. Where we reasonably can, we'll warn you before a reset. Keep your own copies of anything important. The data download in the portal helps.
11. Liability
We're fully liable for harm we cause intentionally or through gross negligence, and for harm to life, body or health.
In all other cases, because SimTX is free, we're liable only if we breach a duty that is essential for SimTX to work at all. Even then, we're liable only for the typical damage we could have foreseen when you accepted these terms. Otherwise we aren't liable for harm caused by slight negligence, such as lost content or data, or SimTX being unavailable, as far as the law allows.
We aren't responsible for delays or failures caused by events outside our control, if we couldn't reasonably have foreseen or avoided them. Examples are attacks on our servers and widespread network or power failures.
We aren't responsible for what other users transmit, publish or upload, including catalog items. We act on illegal content when we learn of it, as the law on hosting services requires.
Nothing in these terms limits the rights you have as a consumer under mandatory law.
12. Other services
You can sign in with Discord, and our community server and bot run on Discord. So Discord's terms and privacy policy apply there. Map images come directly from outside map providers, and we link to other sites such as YouTube. Other people run these services under their own terms. We don't control them. We aren't responsible for their content, their availability or how they use your data.
13. Changes to these terms
We may change these terms for a good reason. Examples are a change in the law, a new or changed feature, security, or preventing abuse. When we do, we'll show you what changed. We'll ask you to accept the new version the next time you use the portal or the app. Until you accept it, the earlier version still applies to you, with the limits in section 1.2. If you don't agree with a change, you can delete your account. A change never applies to anything that happened before you accepted it.
We may transfer SimTX, together with these terms, to a company we control or to a successor, such as a company or association set up to run SimTX. We'll tell you beforehand, and the transfer doesn't reduce your rights under these terms. If the new operator brings new terms, you'll be asked to accept them as above. Until you do, you can still download your data or delete your account.
14. Governing law and courts
Hungarian law governs these terms. If you're a consumer living in another country, you keep the protection of that country's mandatory rules.
If you're a consumer, you can bring a claim in the courts of the country where you live or in Hungary. We can bring a claim against you as a consumer only in the courts of the country where you live. If you're not a consumer, the Hungarian courts have jurisdiction.
If part of these terms turns out to be invalid, the rest still applies.