LICENSE EXPIRED

If you have ever dug into the QRZ. com database to view Profiles, have you noticed the extraordinary number of Hams who have LICENSE EXPIRED notifications on their page?

These so-called Hams are no longer Hams.

Should QRZ.com retain these non-Hams in the database?

 

Presumably you are speaking of US-based hams, although it is not an exclusively US-based problem. However, for US amateurs, the data comes from the FCC, so if it remains in their database then it will remain in QRZ's. However, perhaps @KF8KI can shed a bit more light on the exact parameters that QRZ follows in deciding when to remove a listing.

 

Do remember that the primary way the FCC purges the database of SK hams is through expiry. There is value in being able to look up an expired call, IMHO.

 

And, there's the FCC's two-year grace period where technically the license is not active but is also not purged.

 

Why would you care? You don't have to be a ham to have a QRZ account.

 

It should be noted that, when it comes to FCC-issued Amateur Radio licenses, there are two meanings to "expired":

The first meaning is when a license has reached the end of its 10 year term and has not been renewed, but is in the 2 year grace period. Such licenses can be renewed by the licensee while in the grace period.

The second meaning is when a license has reached the end of its 10 year term AND the 2 year grace period, and has not been renewed. Such licenses cannot be renewed by the licensee. The only way for such a licensee to get back on the air is for them to start all over again, passing the required tests.

73 de Jim, N2EY

 

Except that general and extra expired licensees can regain that license by passing only the technician test. An expired advanced could obtain general by taking the tech test, but can't regain advanced.

 

3. Useless, Good for nothing... Retired.

 

Which is why I wrote "passing the required tests".

73 de Jim N2EY