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ARLB004 Licensing plan opposed
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ARRL Bulletin 4  ARLB004
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT  January 11, 1994
To all radio amateurs

The ARRL has filed comments opposing an FCC proposal to grant
immediate on-the-air privileges to amateur examinees before a
license is issued by the Commission, preferring the early
implementation of electronic filing as a better way to address the
problem of excessive delays.

The League said it stood by its comments already made, on a petition
for rule making that resulted in the FCC's proposal, in PR Docket
93-267.  The ARRL told the FCC that its Notice of Proposed Rule
Making, issued November 4, did not seem to consider the League's
comments made last summer.

At that time, the ARRL said in response to a petition by the Western
Carolina Amateur Radio Society-VEC that such a system was both
unlawful and a would be detrimental to enforcement.  The League said
that the FCC had, as recently as 1987, denied such a concept and
that the absence of an up-to-date database of such temporary call
signs would make both self-regulation by amateurs themselves and
rules enforcement by the Commission more difficult.

The League now has added that suggestions in the NPRM that
precedents for such a plan exist in other services are incorrect;
has reiterated its opinion that such a plan is inconsistent with the
international radio regulations; and has emphasized that electronic
filing of applications with the FCC would accomplish the same goal,
of reducing the wait to get on the air, while maintaining total FCC
oversight of licensing.

The reply comment date for this proposal is February 10, 1994.
/EX