FCC Denies Partial Reconsideration of Club Call Limits

[W3WN]

From today's FCC digest:

AMENDMENT OF THE AMATEUR SERVICE RULES GOVERNING VANITY AND CLUB STATION CALL SIGNS. Denied the Petition for Partial Reconsideration. (Dkt No. 09-209 ). Action by: the Commission. Adopted: 01/03/2012 by MO&O. (FCC No. 12-1). WTB
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-12-1A1.doc
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-12-1A1.pdf
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-12-1A1.txt

Key paragraph:

In summary, the petition does not provide any grounds for reconsidering the Commission's decision in the Report and Order. The concerns expressed by ARRL about licensees attempting to evade the rules adopted in the Report and Order are already addressed by our licensing rules and processes. We therefore deny the petition for reconsideration.

Personal note: As some who is personally aware of a club call sign held by a trustee who was never a member of that club, lives about 150 miles away from the club's location in another state, and of a club that dissolved 5 years ago and no longer exists... I have my own doubts about the FCC 'licensing rules and processes' being adequate to address the situation. So I guess we'll have to find out the hard way.

[N8YX]

Repeat offenders of this policy ought to permanently lose their licenses. And like yourself, I don't believe that the existing rules adequately address the potential for abuse.

[W3WN]

Well, the W3AC situation has been an annoyance.

NA8A once held over 25 "club" calls as a trustee, including two in the name of the (now defunct) WPa DX Association... of which he was never a member (and I was, and that's been confirmed by former club officers)... one of which was/is W3AC

The other call was W6AZ. This came to light when a certain induhvidual I know, now K7ACZ, was living in CA and trying to acquire a 1x2. He wanted that call because of the initials, obviously, and had a story that a SK who was a previous holder had been a relative (he's since said he was mistaken that said previous holder was a relative). And he got down right nasty regarding WPaDXA.

If you look on Vanity HQ, the posts should still be there.

When I got wind of it, I did some digging and discovered that NA8A, as stated before, was never a member of the club; the club (as a whole) didn't even know it had not one, but two calls in it's name. I tried to explain this to Mr. Zack... suffice to say he wasn't very nice to me, and hasn't been ever since.

And yes, I reported this to Riley (this was prior to his retirement). I heard back from his office that they would look into it... and nothing since.

I've since learned (thanks to AE7Q & everyone on his site) that NA8A once held over 25 club calls, as already noted... and that when this came to light, he was "encouraged" to cancel or give up the bulk of them. I believe he still is trustee for 2 or 3 "clubs". Now I don't know about the others, but I do know that WPaDXA is defunct. So by rights, that call ought to have been released... right?

[W2NAP]

So by rights, that call ought to have been released... right?

i think so. once the club is no longer then calls should be released.