The Amateur Radio vanity call sign regulatory fee is set to disappear in the next few weeks. According to the best-available information from FCC sources, the first day that applicants will be able to file a vanity application without having to pay a fee is Thursday, September 3. In deciding earlier this year to drop the regulatory fee components for Amateur Radio vanity call signs and General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) applications, the FCC said it was doing so to save money and personnel resources. The Commission asserted that it costs more of both to process the regulatory fees and issue refunds than the amount of the regulatory fee payment.
“Our costs have increased over time, and now that the costs exceed the amount of the regulatory fee, the increased relative administrative cost supports eliminating this regulatory fee category,” the FCC said in its Report and Order, which appeared on July 21 in The Federal Register. “Once [it’s] eliminated, these licensees will no longer be financially burdened with such payments, and the Commission will no longer incur these administrative costs that exceed the fee payments.”
The FCC raised the Amateur Service vanity call sign regulatory fee from $16.10 to its current $21.40 for the 10-year license term in 2014. The $5.30 increase was the largest such fee hike in many years. In a typical fiscal year, the FCC collected on the order of $250,000 in vanity call sign regulatory fees.
The FCC said the revenue it would otherwise collect from such regulatory fees “will be proportionally assessed on other wireless fee categories.” Congress has mandated that the FCC collect nearly $340 million in regulatory fees from all services in fiscal year 2015.
Source:ARRL.org
Recent Posts
Talking through a satellite from 15 feet apart
“Andrew Knafel, KN8FEL saw my videos and through our correspondence I helped him learn how to operate satellites. He and his family live in Ohio... Read more
Radioddity GD-77S versus GD-77, an Odd Radio
GD-77S Dual band VHF UHF: Meet the different system standard in different states and countries. Dual time slot for point to point: You can use separat... Read more
The Best Way To Communicate When The Power’s Out
When there’s a disaster or power outage and all forms of modern-day communication are down, what do you do? It’s not hypothetical. Hurricane Sandy in... Read more
New Icom UK website Dedicated to Everything in Two-Way Radio
If you are a returning visitor to this website, you will have noticed a radical change. Our website (www.icomuk.co.uk), has been given a new, modern,... Read more
DAV – FCA1000: 1250W Linear amplifier – 160 to 6 Meter
The power delivered is constant on all bands, including the new 60Meter Band, selectable in 4 steps by 250W, 500W, 1000W and 1250W. It has 3 antenna o... Read more
YANTON DM-980
YANTON DM-980 Built for dual-mode (Digital+ Analog) 1000Channels Versatile Voice Call (Private call,group call, all call and emergency call) Digital e... Read more
Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) Members Support DOD HF Radio Communications Exercise
MARS – Military Auxiliary Radio System From 22-26 October 2018, MARS members will be supporting the DOD HF communications readiness exercise te... Read more
Warning: file_get_contents(https://plusone.google.com/_/+1/fastbutton?url=https%3A%2F%2Fqrznow.com%2Famateur-radio-vanity-call-sign-fee-to-disappear-in-september%2F): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found in /home/qrznow/public_html/wp-content/themes/goodnews5/framework/functions/posts_share.php on line 151
