FCC fees for amateur radio - updates on implementation

I'm not sure I buy that, and I'm not sure the "previously covered" rhetoric answers that question. Compared to the revenue generated by wholesale spectrum auctions, the monies generated by a few amateur license fees collected at 30 bucks a pop is nothing. The requirements to enforce part 97 is relatively small as well. "Future FCC work" would not get very much mileage on amateur fees. Just an observation.

 

I "buy" it and here's why. Government runs on taxes, fees, tariffs, and other revenue streams. All levels of government find it difficult to implement fees, due to push back by citizens who are disinclined to pay fees for services they had gotten for "free" prior. Governments look for opportunities such as what exists today, to implement fees and employ more employees to grow the bureaucracy.

Once an agency eliminates a revenue stream, no matter how small, it is much more difficult to bring it back at previous levels. If the fee is elevated to an even higher cost, it becomes even more of a battle. In my estimation, the FCC is doing this to reclaim those fees and have the potential for more fee-based income in the future.

 

Amateurs are still exempt from "regulatory fees" but we are not exempt from "application fees", and never have been, AFAIK.

 

The FCC is more than Amateur Radio. There is a whole lot of government usage that the FCC deals with. They can gt their funds from the already collected taxes. Cut the Study of Shrimp on a Treadmill and programs like that.

 

$4, $9... The part of left off is the conversion to today's dollar value. Let me help:
New or renewed license: $9 ($60.09 in 2019 dollars)
Modified license: $4 ($26.71)
Special callsign: $25 ($166.92)

 

I included the conversion in a previous post.

 

Your bitch is not with FCC but with the congress critters.

 

You don't understand the background.

FCC was perfectly fine with no-license-fees-for-amateurs. Heck, some years back, they did away with the vanity call fee because they figured it cost them more to collect the fees than it was worth!

BUT THEN

The Congress passed a law requiring ALL FCC licenses have fees attached. No more freebies.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/4986/text

73 de Jim, N2EY

 

Excellent post, N2EY!

To add to your comments:

I'm one of those hams. My biggest objection is that I am sick and tired of governments at all levels - federal, state, county and city - looking at me like I'm a walking ATM. Tax for this, fee for that. And its private organizations too. Heck, I can't even go to a doctor without having to pay for parking anymore. All those taxes, fees and whatever you call them add up. Sort of like a dripping faucet doesn't look like much, but it shows up as an increase on your water bill.

Folks are rationalizing it to say "its $3.50 per year", but the FCC doesn't take installment plans. You pay one lump sum or you don't pay at all. There have been times in my life where I couldn't have afforded an extra $35, and I know there are folks out there like that now.

Also, your post listed that RACES licenses were free in the past. However, with this new fee schedule, those licenses won't be free, although, IMHO, they should be. I specifically mentioned that in my comments to the FCC, but apparently to no avail. So with my ARES group, that doesn't collect dues, we're going to have to figure out how to pay for our station callsign. Again, potentially more money out of our pockets.

The only thing I am getting from the FCC is the ability to operate on amateur radio frequencies. I won't be getting anything else. Again, pay more with no expectation of anything additional or better.

The fee would be easier to swallow if we were getting something additional in return.

It is just the beginning. From reading their NPRM, the fee for our licenses is going to be tied to inflation, and increase every two years. So what cost $35.00 today will cost more in two years. And there's no cap, so it will keep going up. FWIW, the article I read this morning says to expect about 8% inflation for 2021.

As another ham commented, we need to work with our legislators in Congress to get the fee removed for amateur radio operators and ARES/RACES organizations.

 

were lucky nothing like that has happend in the uk YET, but beware when one starts others will follow like blind sheep lol

 

During my Union days in the early/mid 90s, I sometimes had the misfortune to encounter "management consultants" which mostly were the type of people that you counted your fingers after shaking hands with.

One thing that was not so uncommon was to make a presentation where they put their hand over a square in the organisational map and ask "what happens if this disappears".

It may be appropriate to make this exercise with the FCC.

Looking from the outside in, the US would not be represented any more at the World Radio Conferences. This may however not make much difference, as the spectrum policies without the FCC might best be described as "chaotic".

In the attractive parts of the spectrum, a "terror balance" would likely be reached between the broadcasters, the fixed and mobile networks and the military.
They would most likely carve up the spectrum among themselves, and solve conflicts by force; literally QRM:ing away users they do not like, or in benign cases buying them out.

If the NTIA still would exist as a parallel spectrum regulator for military and Government users, they may take some less wealthy users under their wings, such as air traffic control and air navigation.

In less attractive spectrum parts, such as MF and HF, it is likely that a "free for all" would exist.
If someone wanted to operate on a certain frequency with a certain power level, no-one but other spectrum users would have the possibility to object, and then by either buying out the user, or by overriding their emissions.

Unregulated amateur radio could, at least in theory, continue to exist, until a more powerful actor claimed the frequencies. In principle, the pre-1924 spectrum policies would be restored, or something resembling the global spectrum situation immediately before the outbreak of WW2.

The rest of the world would look at this with some disbelief and shock, and be thankful that the laws of propagation largely contains the mess on a sub-continent. How countries with a land border may react is a very open question, as there will be no FCC to make complaints to.
Having less population density, they may just redesign their terrestrial networks in the border areas trying to cope with the interference.

Without the NTIA, there could be a "military takeover" of very large portions of the spectrum, where the military claims sovereign rights not to be interfered with. This would reset the spectrum policies to the 1919 state.

Maybe we will find out, sooner or later.

73/
Karl-Arne
SM0AOM

 

Thank you for the correction.

 

They will start with this, then start taxing you for other things...They will collect these fee's and the bands will still be filled with left over CB trash. The bands wont improve just like I said when they dropped the code and made it easier to get a license. May as well just give them a license.....Bring back the code!

 

Arrogance is never an attractive quality. We need more hams, not less.

 

If I'm reading you right, it doesn't sound like you value the privilege of operating on the amateur bands very highly.