FCC Requires Payment of Vanity Call Sign Fee at Renewal Too
As the window approaches to renew the very first Amateur Radio licenses issued a decade ago through
the vanity call sign program, the question on many lips is, "Do I have to pay a vanity call sign fee again
when I renew my license?" The answer is, "Definitely yes, if you want to keep your vanity call sign for
another 10 years." The FCC has steadfastly maintained from the very start of the vanity call sign program
that payment of the vanity call sign regulatory fee would be required for renewal applications as well as
for new applications.
League Calls on FCC to Deny Part 15 Rule Waiver Request for 902-928 MHz
Expressing concerns about interference potential and increased noise levels, the ARRL this week asked
the FCC to deny an industry request to waive three sections of its Part 15 rules. Octatron Inc and Chang
Industry Inc sought the waivers last November to accommodate unlicensed analog video and audio
surveillance products they're developing that would operate in the 902-928 MHz band--an Amateur Radio
allocation. The FCC opened the proceeding, ET Docket 05-356, for comments in late December.
FCC Noncommittal on "Morse Code" Proceeding Action
Just when the FCC will act on the "Morse code" proceeding, WT Docket 05-235, remains hazy. The Commission
released a Notice of Proposed Rule Making and Order (NPRM&O) last July proposing to eliminate the Element 1
(5 WPM) Morse code requirement for all license classes. The Amateur Radio community has filed more than 3800
comments on the proceeding, and additional comments continue to show up, even though the formal comment
deadline was last October 31 (with reply comments by November 14). The next--and most-anticipated--step for
the Commission is to formally adopt any revisions to its rules and conclude the proceeding with a Report and
Order (R&O) that spells out the changes and specifies their effective date.
"There really is no news," an FCC Wireless Telecommunications Bureau staffer told ARRL on background.
"We certainly hope to release WT Docket 05-235 sometime this year, but we're not making any predictions at this time.
We certainly are not saving up any big announcements for Dayton Hamvention."
Another Transatlantic QSO -- on 2200 metres, 22 January 2006
The Atlantic has been spanned by amateur long waves again as Jim Moritz M0BMU and Joe Craig
VO1NA transmitted on 136.317 and 137.777 kHz respectively. Jim was running a 1.2 kW Decca amp
into a 40m wire while Joe was running 70 watts to a 100 metre wire. The contact used slow speed CW
and lasted for almost 5 hours with solid reception at both ends. Jim used was a home brew sound card
receiver described in the latest RSGB Handbook. The details of Joe's home brew LF station were
published last July in QST. Strong signals were also received from Dave Pick G3YXM, but the QSO was
cut short by fading. Several other stations on both sides of the Atlantic were also active. RAC were
successful in adding a 2200m amateur allocation to the agenda of next year's World Radio Conference.
For more information on the long wave experiments in Newfoundland, please visit the Marconi Radio
Club of Newfoundland web page by searching for VO1MRC on the internet. [RAC]
Canadian Amateurs to Lose 220 - 222 MHz
Effective 25 January, 2006, despite the protests and the efforts of Radio Amateurs of Canada, the Canadian
Amateur Service lost the 220 - 222 MHz portion of the 220 - 225 MHz band. Details are contained in Canada
Gazette Notice DGTP-004-05, "Proposals and Changes to the Spectrum in Certain Bands Below 1.7 GHz"
available on the Industry Canada web site at:
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/insmt-gst.nsf/en/sf08494e.html
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