SB QST @ ARL $ARLB071
ARLB071 ARRL supports changes
 
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QST de W1AW  
ARRL Bulletin 71  ARLB071
From ARRL Headquarters  
Newington CT  July 17, 1995
To all radio amateurs 
 
SB QST ARL ARLB071
ARLB071 ARRL supports changes
 
The ARRL has filed comments on FCC WT Docket 95-57, a notice of
proposed rule making on five items of importance to amateurs.  These
items, described in detail in page 82 of July 1995 QST, are:
 
1.  A lifetime amateur operator license, originally proposed by the
League in a petition filed January 6, 1994.  The ARRL said in its
comments that it believes a ''relatively substantial'' number of
amateurs would benefit from such a lifetime license.  However, the
League said that the Commission's proposal is not quite what the
1994 petition requested, but, rather, that former licensees be given
credit for examinations passed in the past.  This would create an
unnecessary burden for volunteer examiners, the League said, and
would assign to them a function contrary to the Communications Act.
 
2.  On April 4, 1994, the League petitioned the FCC to change the
number of bona fide members necessary to constitute an Amateur Radio
club from two to four, for the purpose of applying for a club
station license.  The FCC has recently resumed issuing of club
station licenses after a 15-year hiatus, and the League said that
since the FCC no longer requires the filing of organizational
documents from clubs, that increasing the required number of members
to four (as the FCC has proposed in WT 95-57) is more important than
ever.
 
3.  The League strongly opposed the creation of a ''session manager''
for volunteer examiner test sessions, as proposed by the FCC based
on a petition by the Rules Committee of the National Conference of
Volunteer Examiner Coordinators.  The League said, among several
arguments, that there is no reason why the (required) three VEs
should not be held jointly responsible for the proper conduct of an
examination, and said that the FCC's plan would undermine the
integrity, both perceived and actual, of the VE program.
 
4.  The League supported a proposal that the FCC issue special
one-by-one call signs for certain special event stations.
 
5.  The League also supported allowing portable indicators to be
sent before, after, or both before and after the station call sign,
as the operator chooses.
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