FCC proposes new filing fee structure, new fees for ham radio

Maybe the arrl will save us...lol

 

They would lose alot more money i think. But yeah alot of inactive people out there. Sad

 

Well said, well said!
You're absolutely right. But no one seems to be following the play by play.

 

From KM6EVP:

Well Issac you seem to be well equipped with several radios, antennas, a fancy car plus a fancy degree likely paying the big bucks.

So what is your problem besides still a General?

You seem to be describing yourself and certainly have no respect for other opinions.

 

" I am a Computer Scientist and a HAM radio operator."

Guess I've been out of the workforce for too long. I just assumed a computer scientist would earn a decent living.

 

Maybe he is working for free and donating his salary to some charity seeker.

 

They certainly wont stop a jammer like w6wbj or anyone who wants to operate with or without a license. They have revoked some felons licenses. And have denied others. If a guy wants to study and pass the test, should he be judged by criminal history or credit score or whatever bs they come up with. Have you people been on the bands listening? I mean 80m sounds like cb radio or worse. Rude grumpy nasty ops with kilo bucks into equipment. Not following rules. Will they pay the $50? I wonder.

 

Geez, 26 pages of whining about a fee that sets you back less than 1.5 cents a day... Operating your rigs costs more than that on your energy bill.

 

WTF??? Ajit Pai was a previous lawyer for Verizon and served as FCC commissioner in 2012 by the OBAMA administration! That doesn't mean he was appointed as FCC chairman! That was done by Trump in 2017!! so in what reality do you live??? You Must be a Trumper to make that claim!!

 

Yes, that could be one explanation. Who knows?

I did a quick check and did find this for California.
Average base salary

58 salaries reported, updated at Aug 19, 2020
$126,623
per year
The average salary for a computer scientist is $126,623 per year in California.
18% higher
than national average
https://www.indeed.com/career/computer-scientist/salaries/CA

 

I am not speaking for myself, I do have a decent job and I make good decent money. I do respect others opinions, but in your view what makes me disrespectful to say what others can't? It is also an opinion, just like you are giving me yours I am giving you mine.

 

To Carl KM1H, I have no problems just giving my 5 cents on this topic. What my general license has to do with all this? I can guarantee I can pass the extra if that is what you mean? I see no need to do upgrade or feel better to have what? a few more frequencies? like I said, this hobby is becoming more dead by the day.... just like this conversations.

 

Can we please stop making this a partisan issue? This is a process argument at its core.

Could Trump have designated Ajit Pai as the FCC chairman, if he was never nominated to be a FCC commissioner (by Obama, nor rubber-stamped unanimously by the Senate) in the first place & was still in private practice from 2012-2017?

As I understand it, Obama had to nominate a Republican commissioner. He could have nominated almost any Republican but Ajit Pai. Then Trump would have had a different choice of Republican commissioner to designate FCC chairman, instead of Ajit Pai.

 

You just moved your goal post. You actually said: "I don’t agree with your analysis that amateurs are exempt from administrative fees."

I never said amateurs are exempt from administrative fees. I did say, amateur stations fall into the category of [non-commercial radio stations]. And this is true. For example:

47 CFR 97.1

The rules and regulations in this part are designed to provide an amateur radio service having a fundamental purpose as expressed in the following principles:

(a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service...

==

47 CFR 97.3(a)

(4) Amateur service. A radiocommunication service for the purpose of self-training, intercommunication and technical investigations carried out by amateurs, that is, duly authorized persons interested in radio technique solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest.

==

So, here's the difference between regulatory and application fees:

47 U.S.C. §159 establishes four broad categories of Commission activities as regulatory. These are all "enforcement activities, policy and rulemaking activities, user information services, and international activities." The statute then requires the FCC to "assess and collect" fees to recover the costs of these activities. Thus, the fees that cover the costs of these four types of activities are called regulatory fees.

Section 9 of the new law exempts amateurs and other non-commercial and non-profit radio stations from regulatory fees, which are distinct from application fees, which are authorized under 47 U.S.C. §158.

47 U.S.C. §158 (2)Cost of collection
If, in the judgment of the Commission, the cost of collecting an application fee established under this section would exceed the amount collected, the Commission may by rule eliminate such fee.

Application fees cover the FCC's costs related to licensing communication service providers. This includes activities such as issuing permits, testing applicants, certifying licenses, authorizing transfers, assigning or transferring call signs, and adjudicating disagreements.

An amateur radio station is clearly a non-commercial radio station and is exempt from regulatory fees in section 9, but for some reason, an amateur station is not exempt from proposed application fees in section 8, although only 5 years ago, the FCC said it would cost more to process certain fees than the amount they could collect, and in the FCC Report and Order (15-59) issued in 2015, they seem to conflate application fees and regulatory fees, due to a quirk in the law, as follows:

(Page 9) 21. The Commission often receives multiple applications for the same vanity call sign, but only one applicant can be issued that call sign. In such cases, the Commission issues refunds for all the remaining applicants. In addition to staff and computer time to process payments and issue refunds, there is an additional expense to issue checks for the applicants who cannot be refunded electronically. The Commission spends more resources on processing the regulatory fees and issuing refunds than the amount of the regulatory fee payment. As our costs now exceed the regulatory fee, we are eliminating this regulatory fee category.

(Page 53) In the House of Representatives, the Energy and Commerce Committee recently highlighted the need to reform regulatory fees in draft legislation.67 Among other things, that legislation would correct a quirk in the law in order to allow application fees (which are intended to offset the FCC’s costs) to offset regulatory fees rather than just being deposited in the Treasury as they are now.

===

The 2018 statute (Ray Baum's Act) excludes the Amateur Service from annual regulatory fees, but not from application fees.

“[A]pplications for personal licenses are mostly automated and do not have individualized staff costs for data input or review,” the FCC said in its NPRM. “For these automated processes — new/major modifications, renewal, and minor modifications — we propose a nominal application fee of $50 due to automating the processes, routine ULS maintenance, and limited instances where staff input is required.”

The same $50 fee would apply to all Amateur Service applications, including those for vanity call signs. “Although there is currently no fee for vanity call signs in the Amateur Radio Service, we find that such applications impose similar costs in aggregate on Commission resources as new applications and therefore propose a $50 fee,” the FCC said.
==

This is a reversal of their findings, which were widely reported only 5 years ago, e.g. 'it costs more to process than collect.' Therefore, I think comments should focus on their earlier findings; the fact that other non-commercial and non-profit stations are exempt in the US Code, which supersedes the Code of Federal Regulations (law vs. rules); and the clear language that allows the FCC to drop application fees when collecting them would cost more than the amounts collected.

47 U.S.C. §158 (2)Cost of collection
If, in the judgment of the Commission, the cost of collecting an application fee established under this section would exceed the amount collected, the Commission may by rule eliminate such fee.


http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2015/db0521/FCC-15-59A1.pdf
http://www.arrl.org/news/view/fcc-proposes-to-reinstate-amateur-radio-service-fees

 

yeah, you should come to California and see where all that goes after taxes... lol I am not trying to make a fuzz about this, just giving my own opinions since I have nothing else to do today.