FCC Proposes Eliminating Paper License Renewals by Surface Mail

Really, they are simply accepting a digital image of your paper check. The paper makes you feel comfortable. Wal-Mart does not want it.

 

True on at least one count; I have never coded HTML - by hand or with any sort of FrontPageish (or their descendants) program, either. I also wondered how long it would take for my knowingly poor attempt and showing code was exposed. I will turn myself into the HTML police as soon as I squirrel some money away in my offshore account for my family.

;-)

Cheers,
Matt

 

Well, to be fair and balanced, I know an impressive number of 'old farts' (well older than Mr. Flatulent, here) who are quite adept at navigating things online. As far as using someone else to try and file your renewal for you, I guess you can find that information in QST. I'm hoping that said 'other OFs' subscribe and still have vision enough to read in order to try and explain to their caregiver or family what they need done on their behalf. Some of them may even have success using this method.

Here's some positive reinforcement for you under 80 years old young punks out there. My mom is 97 and enjoys her Kindle. We pay for satellite internet for her and it's the only thing she can get where she lives out in the sticks. She doesn't have a lot of online activity, but she knows what it is to 'Google' something (using that as a generic verb, turn the anti-Google flames off, please). She doesn't upload photos - but she knows how to view them, respond to email, etc. The flip side of that coin is that since most of her friends are dead, she only has 'young punk' friends now ... many of them in their early to mid-80s. Almost none of them would know where to go online for a doggone thing or how to go about it. I know this because I've heard them talk about how they don't even have a computer and don't know how to use such newfangled things. Using my admittedly poor math skills, I put the paper renewals to be at between 1.1 and 1.2 percent of the FCC renewals/filings. While not totally non-existent as a percentage of their business, we're not talking about massive $ outlays, either. No way even one person's salary for a year is devoted to doing this. I've noticed many folks have also disregarded a lot of the other pro and con points about this - and, like most topics on here, is starting to cherry-pick this to death. Such is society, and it's not ham radio's or even old fart's fault. By the way, at my agency, as long as there is even an infinitesimal percentage of people that cannot file documents via the web, paper documents will be allowed and dealt with. Almost daily, the percentage of them drops due to strokes, heart attacks, cancer, and modern math - so we realize that not making it hard on some of the folks that contribute toward paying our salary is the right thing to do.

 

Again read slower... .they accept your paper check. They process it then return your paper check back to you. Any entity that really wants your business will accept all forms and not impose limits. If a person wants to walk into the FCC with a form printed on a napkin they should accept it. You answer it yourself. Walmart doesn't want your paper and niether does the FCC. But Walmart accepts it with a faux smile. Just an opinion which I know we're not entitled to anymore but I fight that as well and air it when I feel the need. Carry on.

 

Okay, time to come clean and assuage my guilty conscience here. That reckless, heartless and non-politically correct loose cannon WY7BG used the term 'old fart.' I, in my zeal to be 'accepted' among such ne'er do wells and ruffians, parroted the term. I had forgotten - nay, been outright addled and negligent in remembering - that we, as ham radio licensees, have no ability to use sarcasm, humor, mirth, fun, and lightheartedness. We are like Tommy Lee Jones in 'Men in Black' when he said, "No ma'am, we at the FBI do not have a sense of humor we're aware of. May we come in?"

 

I say do it.

Everything I do with the FCC is through the ULS, and I've never been a paper collector anyway.

(except of course for my QRZ certs............they're beauties......)

 

If the FCC wants to go all Electronic... Fine.

There is one thing I do miss. Would it be too much to ask for the Commission to generate a nice Old Fashioned Extra Class Certificate that a new licensee could download and print?

This is a significant accomplishment and a nice "Official" looking ticket would go a long way to make your new upgrade feel more important. I received a cheesy-looking one in 1983 but at least it was something.

Lloyd K3QNT

 

Actually even if the FCC does away with it by mail , you may still be able to file by mail though the ARRL VEC .
So it maybe much ado about nothing .http://www.arrl.org/call-sign-renewals-or-changes

 

I pay no bills on line still use checks and cash if they can hack elections they can hack banks and any online transactions Old but not feeble

 

Absolutely! I keep my license in a pdf on my phone anyway.

 

When you hand over a check you are giving your routing# and account#. Easier to steal $$ from you then using online or credit card.

 

To become old and wise, you must first be young and stupid....

 

I wonder how many on here were licensed before the invention of running water?

 

No worries.

An ever increasing number of those online orders on EBay/ Amazon are being delivered by the USPS.

G3SEA/KH6