FCC Denies Amateur Radio Vanity Call Sign Requests

NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 15, 2007 -- The FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) has turned down a request to waive a provision of the Amateur Radio vanity call sign rules and a petition asking the Commission to reconsider its dismissal of a vanity call sign application. The WTB released decisions in both cases today.

In a letter, the Commission told Emma Kostenbauder, WA2ZCQ, of Poughquag, New York, that it could not waive §97.19(c)(2) of the Amateur Radio Service rules as she'd requested so that she could be assigned her husband's former call sign. Scott Kostenbauder, W2LW -- an ARRL Life Member -- had surrendered the call sign W2AWX on April 25, 2006, when he obtained his current call sign under the vanity program. The FCC said that under the circumstances, W2AWX would have to remain unassigned for two years before it could become available.

"We note that when the rules for the vanity call sign system were adopted, the two-year hold period was shown to be necessary in order to, among other reasons, preclude situations where a licensee vacates a desirable call sign so that another licensee can immediately apply for it before its assignability becomes known generally," Scot Stone, deputy chief of the WTB's Mobility Division, wrote Emma Kostenbauder. "The Commission recently reiterated that a licensee may not direct the assignment of his or her call sign for use by another licensee prior to his or her death."

Stone said Emma Kostenbauder had not presented "any unique or unusual circumstances" that would keep her from waiting to apply for W2AWX when it becomes available after two years. "That you and your husband both want you to hold his former call sign is not, by itself, sufficient justification to waive the rule," Stone said.

In a separate action, the WTB turned away the request of a California radio amateur to reconsider its dismissal of his Amateur Radio vanity call sign application. Last year ARRL Member Kenneth Lamson, K6SI, of Livermore applied for the call sign K6BQ, but he filed for it one day too soon, the FCC has concluded. Lamson's dismissed application was dated February 22, 2006, the final day of the two-year waiting period. "At that time, the call sign was not yet available for reassignment, because the two-year period had not expired," the WTB's Stone told Lamson this week. "Consequently, we conclude that your application was properly dismissed."

The FCC canceled the license on February 23, 2006, and the Commission subsequently assigned K6BQ to another licensee who applied for it after the cancellation date.

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