Monster Media 1994 #1/monster.zip/monster/HAM/ARLB.ZIP/ARLB003.TXT

Text File | 1994-01-16 | 2KB | 42 lines

SB QST @ ARRL $ARLB003
ARLB003 Lifetime license sought
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 3  ARLB003
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT  January 11, 1994
To all radio amateurs

The ARRL on January 6, 1994, petitioned the FCC to make Amateur
Radio operator licenses valid for a lifetime.

The League said in its petition that there is nothing in the
Communications Act of 1934 that would prevent such a license term
for amateurs, and that a lifetime operator's license would allow
inactive amateurs to return to the Service at the same class of
license without the necessity for retesting.

The League believes that the number of amateurs who would benefit
from such a lifetime license would be ''relatively substantial.''

The League said that under the current 10-year license term, with a
two-year grace period, it already is possible for relatively
inactive amateurs to remain licensed for long periods of inactivity.
There is no practical difference, the League said, between such a
person and one who allows his or her license to expire and later
wants to again become involved in Amateur Radio.

This proposal would apply only to operator licenses; station
licenses would still, by law, be limited to 10-year terms. A person
with a lifetime operator license but no station license would not be
permitted to operate a station of his own (but would be permitted to
operate from the station of another amateur).

The League said that nothing in this proposal should have any effect
on the call sign issuance program either as it currently exists or
as proposed (the ''vanity'' call sign program).

The League also said it was not proposing at this time to make this
rule change retroactive, but, rather, to extend currently held
operator licenses from 10 years to lifetime.
/EX