ARRL Seeks Partial Reconsideraton of Restructuring

The ARRL will seek partial reconsideration on two points in the Amateur Radio license restructuring plan announced by the FCC on December 30. Both points involve the way the plan deals with Technician-class licensees. The new FCC rules go into effect April 15. The League will ask the FCC to continue to maintain records that indicate whether a Technician licensee has passed a Morse code exam to earn Novice/Tech Plus HF privileges. Under the current system, the license class of Technicians is designated by a "T" in the FCC's amateur database, and of Tech Plus licensees by a "P". Under FCC's restructuring plan, Technician and Tech Plus licensees will all be known simply as "Technician". The ARRL asserts the change will eliminate any easy way to tell which licensees have passed the Morse code exam and which have not. "We're going to try to persuade the FCC that it made a drastic error in deciding to change all those P's back to T's in the database," said ARRL Executive Vice President David Sumner, K1ZZ. The FCC has said that it would be up to Technician licensees, if asked, to prove that they have successfully passed the 5 WPM cod test. The ARRL plans to ask the FCC to stipulate that any amateur who provides proof of having passed an FCC-recognized Morse code exam prior to April 15 would be entitled to receive credit for the Morse code exam element when applying to future upgrades. The FCC has indicated to the ARRL that after April 15, code credit for technician applicants passing the 5 WPM test would not survive beyond the 365-day term of a Certificate of Successful Completion of Examination - or CSCE. Under both the present and new rules, anyone who held a technician license before February 14, 1991, has permanent credit for the Morse code element, but others do not. The ARRL Board of Directors approved a motion to file the Petition for Partial reconsideration at its January 22 meeting in Memphis, TN.

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