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Thread: FCC Proposes to Reinstate Amateur Radio Service Fees

  1. #1
    Orca Whisperer W3WN's Avatar
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    Thumbs down FCC Proposes to Reinstate Amateur Radio Service Fees

    Courtesy of the ARRL: http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-propose...o-service-fees

    Newington, CT, August 28th, 2020 – Amateur radio licensees would pay a $50 fee for each amateur radio license application if the FCC adopts rules it proposed this week. Included in the FCC’s fee proposal are applications for new licenses, renewal and upgrades to existing licenses, and vanity call sign requests. Excluded are applications for administrative updates, such as changes of address, and annual regulatory fees.

    The FCC proposal is contained in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in MD Docket 20-270, which was adopted to implement portions of the “Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services Act” of 2018 — the so-called “Ray Baum’s Act.”

    The Act requires that the FCC switch from a Congressionally-mandated fee structure to a cost-based system of assessment. In its NPRM, the FCC proposed application fees for a broad range of services that use the FCC’s Universal Licensing System (ULS), including the Amateur Radio Service that had been excluded by an earlier statute. The new statute excludes the Amateur Service from annual regulatory fees, but not from application fees.

    “[A]pplications for personal licenses are mostly automated and do not have individualized staff costs for data input or review,” the FCC said in its NPRM. “For these automated processes — new/major modifications, renewal, and minor modifications — we propose a nominal application fee of $50 due to automating the processes, routine ULS maintenance, and limited instances where staff input is required.”

    The same $50 fee would apply to all Amateur Service applications, including those for vanity call signs. “Although there is currently no fee for vanity call signs in the Amateur Radio Service, we find that such applications impose similar costs in aggregate on Commission resources as new applications and therefore propose a $50 fee,” the FCC said.

    The FCC is not proposing to charge for administrative updates, such as mailing address changes for amateur applications, and amateur radio will remain exempt from annual regulatory fees. “For administrative updates [and] modifications, which also are highly automated, we find that it is in the public interest to encourage licensees to update their [own] information without a charge,” the FCC said.

    The FCC also proposes to assess a $50 fee for individuals who want a printed copy of their license. “The Commission has proposed to eliminate these services — but to the extent the Commission does not do so, we propose a fee of $50 to cover the costs of these services,” the FCC said.

    The Ray Baum’s Act does not exempt filing fees in the Amateur Radio Service. The FCC dropped assessment of fees for vanity call signs several years ago.

    Deadlines for comments and reply comments will be determined once the NPRM appears in the Federal Register. File comments by using the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS), posting to MD Docket No. 20-270. This docket is already open for accepting comments even though deadlines have not yet been set.
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    Forum Addict n6hcm's Avatar
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    lol. some asshat on facebook is all "we do so much public service that we should bill the FCC for our time." no doubt this dumbass begs for "first responder" discounts at denny's ...
    "... and another thing about you democrats ... you all believe in science!" -- denny crane

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    "Island Bartender" KG4CGC's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by n6hcm View Post
    lol. some asshat on facebook is all "we do so much public service that we should bill the FCC for our time." no doubt this dumbass begs for "first responder" discounts at denny's ...
    Does he enter the Denny's wearing his yellow vest? Probably has an amateur radio badge with his callsign and some fake title.

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    Orca Whisperer PA5COR's Avatar
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    We pay 35 Euro's a year, sincee 4 years after it was free for some years
    "If the Republicans will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop
    telling the truth about them." - Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965)
    “I’m not liberal/conservative, I’m anti-idiotarian.”
    At some point in the last 20 years, the left moved to the center, and the right moved into a mental institution

  5. #5
    "Usual Suspect" WZ7U's Avatar
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    Makes five usd a year look like a bargain.

    Still not happy about it though

    Like that post was...
    Moving on, my posts are not helpful

  6. #6
    Orca Whisperer W3WN's Avatar
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    I don’t find the fee per se a problem.

    $50 per renewal seems a bit high. It costs the FCC that much to issue or renew a ticket? Really?

    The real stinker is... an additional $50 to mail you a copy of your license? Really?

    I don’t mind reasonable fees to cover services rendered. But this? This is a rip-off.
    “Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. 90% of the people don’t care, the other 10% are glad it happened.” — Clint Hurdle, 2019

    BAN THE DH!

    Fudd's First Law of Opposition: If you push something hard enough, it WILL fall down.
    Teslacle's Deviant to Fudd's Law: It goes in, it must go out.

    Just remember: Abraham Lincoln didn't die in vain. He died in Washington, DC

    Cutch 2K!!

    “Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfed.” — Bernie Sanders

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  7. #7
    Orca Whisperer PA5COR's Avatar
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    WE had a similar discussion here when we had to pay again for renewing our license every year after it had been free for several years.
    So, I asked the moaners, you spend 1000's ofnEuro's on 6ransceivers antenna's and other junk a year and complain about paying for something the government needs to do?
    When you tank gas at the station is it free?
    Is your work free?
    Yes, we pay taxes as well, but most people are no ham so this is an extra service provided.
    As i have to pay each year for my firearm license to be renewed.
    Or paying for my identity card/passport.
    LOL
    "If the Republicans will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop
    telling the truth about them." - Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965)
    “I’m not liberal/conservative, I’m anti-idiotarian.”
    At some point in the last 20 years, the left moved to the center, and the right moved into a mental institution

  8. #8
    Orca Whisperer W3WN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PA5COR View Post
    WE had a similar discussion here when we had to pay again for renewing our license every year after it had been free for several years.
    So, I asked the moaners, you spend 1000's ofnEuro's on 6ransceivers antenna's and other junk a year and complain about paying for something the government needs to do?
    When you tank gas at the station is it free?
    Is your work free?
    Yes, we pay taxes as well, but most people are no ham so this is an extra service provided.
    As i have to pay each year for my firearm license to be renewed.
    Or paying for my identity card/passport.
    LOL
    Irrelevant.

    i don’t have a problem with a reasonable fee.

    The proposal states that these are supposed to be COST BASED fees. So how does this justify a $50 renewal fee, especially when it is a “mostly automated” system? When the VECs do most of the actual work, and just submit a list of updates to the FCC?

    And even if we’re willing to accept a $50 renewal fee, considering it’s only $5 per year (and I can live with that, even if the actual cost is well under $5)...another $50 for a physical license? For a sheet of laser-printed paper, an envelope, and postage? Actual cost is what, $2?

    Dob’t tell me that it’s cost based, and then tell me that the “costs” are exorbitant. Or to put it another way, don’t piss on my leg and then tell me it’s raining.

    Not that this is atypical of the FCC. Remember when they withdrew 220-222 MHz, in large part because the band was “under utilized” because there were no repeaters there? And which agency didn’t permit repeaters in that part of the band?

    Or when 420-430 MHz was withdrawn North of “Line A” to protect Canadian land-mobile operations... and then US land-mobile was licensed in that spectrum?

    This proposal, as proposed, is a rip-off. And we are the ones being fleeced.
    “Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. 90% of the people don’t care, the other 10% are glad it happened.” — Clint Hurdle, 2019

    BAN THE DH!

    Fudd's First Law of Opposition: If you push something hard enough, it WILL fall down.
    Teslacle's Deviant to Fudd's Law: It goes in, it must go out.

    Just remember: Abraham Lincoln didn't die in vain. He died in Washington, DC

    Cutch 2K!!

    “Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfed.” — Bernie Sanders

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  9. #9
    Forum Addict n6hcm's Avatar
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    exactly. when the fee was last this high the FCC administered the tests, actually did enforcement, ...

    this is not at all cost-based. this is finding a cash cow and milking it (because other licenses in the ULS don't get the kinds of changes that amateur radio licenses do).
    "... and another thing about you democrats ... you all believe in science!" -- denny crane

  10. #10
    Administrator ad4mg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by n6hcm View Post
    exactly. when the fee was last this high the FCC administered the tests, actually did enforcement, ...

    this is not at all cost-based. this is finding a cash cow and milking it (because other licenses in the ULS don't get the kinds of changes that amateur radio licenses do).
    My thoughts exactly. Not enough to make me walk away from the hobby, but it is yet another reason to hate the federal government.
    QAnon / GOP Republicans mentally lack the necessary intelligence to even tell a decent lie (Ex: A cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic pedophiles run a global child sex trafficking ring and conspired against former President Dotard dRUMPf during his term in office... Jewish space lasers, etc.). What in the hell makes anyone believe these melon heads can actually govern?

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