FCC Intensifies W5YI Probe

FCC HAS MORE QUESTIONS FOR W5YI-VEC

The FCC has posed more questions to Fred Maia, W5YI, of the W5YI-Volunteer Examiner Coordinator as part of a continuing FCC audit of the VEC. The FCC gave Maia 60 days to reply to its latest inquiry.

The FCC told Maia May 11 that his April 12 reply to its earlier inquiry didn't go far enough. "Your response is inadequate and does not answer the concerns raised about the integrity of your testing program," FCC Special Counsel for Amateur Radio Enforcement Riley Hollingsworth said. The FCC has been looking into allegations that licenses and upgrades were sold by W5YI-VEC volunteer examiners and that examination irregularities occurred at W5YI-VEC sessions in Puerto Rico.

In its May 11 inquiry, the FCC said it wants to know if Maia's April 12 letter was his "final report" on his fact-finding trip to Puerto Rico that month and his investigation into licensing irregularities there. Among other things, Maia had told the FCC in his reply that he'd uncovered apparent irregularities regarding code tests at a March 18 test session in Salinas, Puerto Rico. He also reported that an applicant listed on the session roster subsequently said she had not taken any examinations at all.

The FCC questioned if Maia had contacted other applicants alleged to have been at the Salinas session and for whom paperwork was submitted, if he had met with the VEs involved in the session, and if he intended to furnish additional session details and documents.

Citing a "lack of confidence" in the integrity of his Amateur Radio examination program, Maia in April discontinued the services of all Puerto Rico VEs but the Arecibo Observatory Amateur Radio Club. Maia told the FCC that the W5YI-VEC would put in place "special examination procedures" to ensure integrity. "All VEs would have to be reaccredited and new VE teams re-established," Maia told the Commission.

In the May 11 follow-up inquiry, Hollingsworth said the FCC wants to know if Maia had ever previously decertified any of his Puerto Rico VEs, if any such examiners later were reinstated, and if any previously decertified VEs were still with the W5YI-VEC as of March 30, 2000. The FCC also asked if Maia intends to reinstate any VEs decertified in the past.

The FCC said it wants a list of W5YI-VEC volunteer examiners in Puerto Rico as of April 8, 2000; asked why only about a third of the 100 W5YI-VEC volunteer examiners then on the rolls in Puerto Rico turned out April 8 at Maia's VE meeting there; and asked if Maia was attempting to contact the VEs who failed to show.

Hollingsworth also questioned Maia's report of a 1995 examination session that allegedly had not been publicly announced, for which only one VE was said to have been in attendance, where an applicant said he was turned away for not having an appointment, and where no Morse code tapes were available, even though tests were being given for licenses above Technician. The FCC asked which, if any, Puerto Rico testing sessions since January 1, 1998, had been held without required public announcement.

Hollingsworth also enclosed complaints about the W5YI-VEC from amateurs in Texas and Vermont and asked Maia to respond to the individuals.

The FCC recently canceled the licenses of 24 Puerto Rico licensees who had been examined through the W5YI-VEC after the licensees failed to appear for retesting as requested.

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