I'm a new ham, been one for about 9 months at this point, and I sent my comments in to the FCC. It was very easy to do. I was wishy washy about getting into this hobby last year and if there had been a $50 fee I'd have been less likely to bother. I invested considerable money in the books and considerable time in studying, add in another cost and I may not have bothered. We need more people in this hobby, and putting up a pay wall will discourage it. We need better people in the FCC, the current head is a telecom industry shill.
THE ARRL SAYS THE FEE IS MANDATED by Federal law. Therefore, the FCC must charge it, whether it or we like it or not. Considering the FCC stopped hams certain fees in the past, I rather doubt the FCC is any more favor of this than we are! But the ARRL is merely grandstanding and tilting at windmills, merely appearing to be working for us. Colossal waste of time. K8JHR
I will gladly pay the $50 fee, but only if it is spent on ENFORCEMENT of Part 97 rules. The FEE would also reduce Call sign hoarding, and perhaps the ranks of some of the fowl mouthed abusers of our Amateur frequencies. Our Hobby is a privilege, not a right. Carry on.
Sigh, folks read a headline and react. Please read the details! There will be No Benefit to amateur radio, there will be No More Enforcement of our spectrum. Indeed there is No Logic behind this fee other than getting money from an untapped reservoir.
A bit of perspective from a 2019 post: In 1933, the FRC (predecessor of the FCC) proposed a fee of $5 ($100.17 in 2019 dollars) for amateur operator licenses. In those days operator license terms were 3 years. This proposal was strongly opposed and was not enacted. In 1954, the FCC proposed a fee of $3 ($28.93 in 2019 dollars) for amateur licenses. In those days, and until the early 1980s, license terms were 5 years. This proposal was strongly opposed and was not enacted. In the early 1960s the FCC again proposed fees for amateur licenses, and this time the proposal was enacted despite the opposition. The original effective date of January 1, 1964 was delayed a few months by a legal challenge, but by mid-March, 1964 the following fees were enacted: New or renewed license: $4 ($33.45 in 2019 dollars) Modified license: $2 ($16.72) Special callsign: $20 ($167.25) Novice and RACES licenses remained free. Effective August 1, 1970, the FCC raised the above fees for amateur licenses to the following: New or renewed license: $9 ($60.09 in 2019 dollars) Modified license: $4 ($26.71) Special callsign: $25 ($166.92) Novice and RACES licenses remained free. Effective March 1, 1975, the FCC lowered the above fees for amateur licenses to the following: New or renewed license: $4 ($19.27 in 2019 dollars) Modified license: $3 ($14.46) Duplicate license: $2 ($9.64) Special callsign: $25 ($120.46) Novice and RACES licenses remained free. Finally, effective January 1, 1977, FCC dropped all fees for amateur licenses. From then until now, all US amateur licenses have been free. Carry on.
HA.. gotta laugh ARRL. Why not just stop testing also. Its all about ARRL getting more potential money if there are no fee's. There should be fees and the fee should be 100 bucks every 10 years. The bands have been dumped on by to many cber's and people who just can't pass a code test because lets face it you're to lazy.
We account for 40% of all ULS activity, and approximately 73% of the personal radio service actions. Yet we don't pay a dime. What's wrong with paying our fair share? We have been freeloading for a very long time. I'm certainly no fan of higher taxes, higher fees, etc. Nobody wants that. If things remain free for amateur radio, fantastic. But at the end of the day, why are we really complaining about this? Because 4% of us volunteered our time with emergency services organizations? Get out of here with that!
The only fees allowed to be charged are application fees. Regulatory fees pay for the ULS and most other stuff at the FCC, like enforcement. But hams have always been exempt from regulatory fees. Are you suggesting that the exemption should end, and that we should pay perhaps thousands of dollars each year in regulatory fees? Application fees are supposed to cover the cost of processing the application, which may be around $5 or so. I don't think anyone would have a problem paying a true application fee, actually based on the cost of processing the application. The heavy lifting was done previous to the FCC ever getting the application, they are mostly a rubber stamp.
I'm not suggesting that at all, and I'm not sure how you got that from my post. The $50 fee is to cover the application processing. That is too high for sure. My figures come out to around $16, which is probably fairly accurate based on the numbers the FCC provided and some very good guesswork. Again, almost half of all application processing the FCC does within the ULS is for amateur radio licensing, yet we pay absolutely nothing for that. Stop being cheap.
ULS is paid by regulatory fees, not by application fees. Hams are exempt from regulatory fees, so if you try to sneak them into an application fee, it would be counter the exemption. Police, local governments, non profit TV and FM stations to name a few are exempt from regulatory fees and application fees. If this goes through, you will be paying more for your individual license than all of the religious and educational stations in the USA combined! Do you think these high powered broadcast stations (which are able to broadcast pledge drives and calls for donations) are better able to afford an application fee than some hams?
Correct. I'm showing how many applications/actions get processed on a yearly basis, and we account for 40% of those. That's a huge number. And once again, we pay nothing for that. There are real costs associated with that...costs that are being covered by something else or someone else. Stop being cheap.
Well, if they are costs that should be covered by regulatory fees, and hams are exempt from paying regulatory fees, then we are paying exactly what we should be paying. This proposal doesn't change that. The application fees go to the labor costs associated with filing the application. The other costs are borne by those who pay regulatory fees, and by our taxes. You would have to change the amateur exemption in order to legally include those costs into an application fee, since that fee would now consist of an application fee and a regulatory fee. Maybe $15 application fee and $35 regulatory fee? Problem is, once regulatory fees are allowed, there is no ceiling to what could be charged, since they are mostly arbitrary. Maybe the FCC would decide that we need to pay for the spectrum that we have (which is huge) on an annual basis. Perhaps they would assume that each ham should pay $500 annually for access to this huge amount of spectrum (and that would be cheap, compared to other regulatory fees). Now we have moved into an area where we are paying a portion of "our share", but still not an equitable portion. The truth is, there is no way that hams can afford to pay "proper" regulatory fees. The hobby (service) would fold in short order. For example, the FCC may decide that the ham service should pay a billion dollars a year for our access to spectrum. If you divide that by 750K hams, that would be $1333 per ham, per year. Problem is, next year the per capita fee would go up, since there would be radically fewer hams.
I feel just the opposite, The younger ones are most likely going to be playing ham radio keyboard, and not continuing traditional Ham Radio. Second they would be more likely to have the income to pay the $5.00 a year rather than a retired person trying to keep his head above water paying prosperity taxes and medical bills. But let's be honest, 99.9% of us can afford $5.00 a year, and why should people that are not interested in our hobby be the ones to pay for it. And lasts no matter your age if paying $50.00 for a ten year license keep you from joining this hobby, chances are they can not afford a ham Radio. And if a youngster want's to become a ham, there are plenty of hams and ham clubs can chip in if needed.
