FCC Seeks Higher Vanity Call Fee

This is no place for political rants.

The vanity fee should be at least doubled.
I wouldn't mind if there were a fee for all licenses.

Wilson
W4BOH

 

Would many hams pay a one time fee for their vanity call? In Canada, the vanity fee is a one-time payment of $60 CDN. Why not a $60 -- $80 one time fee option for new applicants, and an optional prorated lump-sum payment for current vanity licenseholders?

I suspect that most hams would never agree on a "fair" pro-rata. For this reason ham opposition to this measure would likely be widespread. We're probably stuck with ten-year renewal fees. Still, I would pay a prorated lifetime fee if the pro rata was reasonably pegged to future costs.

73, Jordan

 

The problem that I see with these imposed fees is that everyone agrees with them as long as they personally can afford it.

Sure, 80 cents is no big deal to most so we can say "go ahead and tack it on, heck make it $30", however would so many be agreeable if instead it was that much per year? Instead of arguing what amount, it really needs to be looked at to see if this fee actually goes to administering the license program and not to make up some other shortfall somewhere else, or sponsor some quarter million dollar conference somewhere.

I just pulled some numbers from N4MC's website, which states there are 751,051 licensed amateur callsigns and that 12.31% are vanity calls. so that means that approximately 92,451 amateurs have vanity calls. At the current price rate that equals a little over $131,200 per year.

Just for administering this program, which has not much to do with the actual licensing, just granting and maintaining a different callsign. Now granted the first group got in for less so this is not 100% accurate, but if this system is not economically feasible at the current price maybe it should be altered so that it is, just like any private business would have to do.

To put it in a different light, lets do a crude division of the numbers and say that every year 9,245 vanity licenses expire. That means that every month 771 vanity licenses need renewal, which if we figure 20 working days in a month (oops, this is a gov't job so lets say 17 working days) so then we get a rough estimate of 45 renewals per day. I think a budget of close to $11,000 a month can handle this. I know it sure could in the business world.

 

The extra small fee doesn't bother me one bit. Nobody forced me to choose a new call or give up my old one. I could have opted for the next available call for my area and license class, but I chose to go the vanity call route.

Sure, I'd like it to have been a one-time fee, but compared to the cost of radios, coax, etc., it's pretty reasonable. For comparison, many states charge an annual fee of at least $20 for a vanity license plate for your car, and in some states that includes Ham Radio plates! In NJ, though, there is thankfully a one-time fee for vanity ($50) or Ham ($15) plates.

73,

 

Why do they even bother with 80-cent increases? As someone said, it probably cost more to administer and collect than the revenue will bring in.

I don't have a problem paying more for my license as long as I get some benefit over and above what I am getting now. Otherwise, it's just a tax increase.

Finally, I don't think the lack of enforcement is a matter of insufficient funding. It's a matter of lack of will on the part of the FCC. The egregious violations that have taken place by very few people have persisted for years. Volunteers and concerned passerby have submitted logs, tapes, and other evidence to no avail. Even though the individuals are small in number, if this malicious nonsense is allowed to continue without consequence, it will expand.

 

All present vanity calls grandfathered. One time charge of $20. for a new vanity call. And leave it at that!

 

$ 25 every 5 years. ..... Hell NO, make it $25 a year and put 90% of the funds into the Enforcement budget. I'd like the death penalty for these A-holes who QRM all the DXpeditions I need. I spent over a week listening to jerkwads making every noise imaginable while I tried to work 7O6T. I think every amplifier in Hamdom is now so precisely tuned to 14.024 that it could set a new accuracy metric!!!! I know because I heard every damn one of them being tuned in my headset!!!!

 

But Joey .... with your $50, you got control of 6M propagation

So how about turning it on once in a while for us West Coasters

73

Gene W5DQ
fellow 6-Club'er

 

Again !

I mentioned / brought up the database issue five or more years ago . Once in the ' base ' it is no more a click to renew for

non-vanity or vanity calls ...

It really is not the additional expanded charge , it is that once it has been changed , the intial charge should not be assessed again
for each renewal .

This fee is a ' cash cow ' for the government .


I cannot opt out by going back to my sequential call because it would also be a vanity to get it back !

The point is ..... once you pay for the vanity , that should be the last time you pay .....

The FCC keeps their servers up and running just FINE when non-vanity calls are renewed . Previously issued vanity calls should
and DO NOT require any intervention .


That is the truth .



J.

 

While that may sound enticing, there's currently no way to accomplish that. Fees collected by the FCC go into the U.S> Treasury general fund. There's currently no legal way to channel such funds into FCC enforcement. THAT would take an act of Congress, and (quite honestly,) Congress has more important matters to consider, if they are doing their job.
While an increased fee for a vanity call might be possible or even reasonable, it should be a "one-time" fee, possibly spread perhaps over a 5 year period. It does NOT really make sense that any other Amateur license can be renewed without a fee, but vanity calls have a renewal fee. Once in the FCC database, renewal shouldn't co$t the FCC any more if a license is a sequentially issued call sign, or a vanity call. The logic would give Mr. Spock apoplexy.