All of these issues (valid proof of license, valid proof of identity, and no-longer-issued license classes) were addressed in either the original Anchorage VEC proposal or in the comments that were submitted by interested parties. In fact, the current grandfather situation (pre-87 Technicians) already has to address them. Yes it can get complicated with all the variations, but various solutions were proposed.

At this point (with the comment periods closed) all we can do is wait and see what the FCC decides to do.

Jim -

With all due respect, no it didn't (unless you are just counting business days).

According to the record of your application on the ULS (found here), you applied on 16 April 2011 (a Saturday), the application was entered as received on 18 April 2011 (the next business day), and your license was granted on 6 May 2011. Elapsed time from 18 April to 6 May was 18 calendar days. It was the 15th business day after you submitted, but that's not the typical context for this discussion.

Steve
W3HF

P.S. Sorry to tell you that your app will have problems. Your first choice is not available--it's currently assigned. And your second choice can't be assigned--it's not a valid callsign format under current FCC rules for the amateur service. (1x4 calls haven't been issued since the early 1930s.)

Recommendation: Follow Clint's suggestion and read all you can at VHQ. Then modify your app to add a valid-and-available choice.

Tom -

1. Regarding the speed of issuing a new license, any delay is "imposed" not by the government agency but by the VEC process and the specifics of each VEC. The FCC has delegated to 14 Volunteer Examiner Coordinators the entire process, not only of accrediting and supervising the Volunteer Examiners, but also of directly accessing the license database and triggering the issuance of licenses. So it all depends on which VEC was used, since they have some freedom to tailor the process. Without getting into the merits of each, some allow VEs to email results in; others require the actual paper and signatures in their hands. The "ultimate" is (IMO) the effort that the Laurel VEC goes to at the Dayton Hamvention. They bring the VEC itself to Dayton and process in near-real-time! So you take the test, have the VEs grade it, and then they hand it directly to the VEC group. Within a few hours your license is issued!

For the record, your VEs were accredited by ARRL VEC. That VEC requires the paper, so your application and test results were mailed (or FedExed) to Newington CT and processed there. And five days is pretty impressive for that process.

2. Regarding vanity calls and the 18-day wait, that delay is imposed to allow for applicants to mail in payment and then give time for checks to clear--there's really nothing that can speed this up. Not everyone who files an online application can use a credit card for payment--some might not be comfortable using a credit card online, and others may not even have one. So the FCC allows the applicant to print out a payment form and mail in a check. But they don't want to process the application before the payment arrives, so they have to allow time for mail delivery and for manual input of the incoming payment. And they also want to make sure the check clears--they don't want to have to "back out" an assignment due to a check bouncing. Since sometimes vanity callsign allocations are competitive--multiple applicants on the same day for the same callsign--the FCC does not want to preference applicants who pay online over those who pay by mail. How they came up with 18 days to allow for this isn't completely obvious, but that's why the delay.

Steve
W3HF

You're right that the collected fee is $15, but the FCC bases and defines that fee on an annual rate of $1.50. The ARRL's parenthetical note makes it clear that the annual fee is collected in advance for the full license term.

The official FCC R&O on fees for FY2012 is found here. (The R&O for FY2013 may not have been issued yet, and I couldn't find the NPRM.) Attachment B on page 14 has a table that lists regulatory fees. The intro to the table states "Regulatory fees for the categories shaded in gray are collected by the Commission in advance to cover the term of the license and are submitted at the time the application is filed." (All of the non-gray lines in the table are for one-year licenses.) The line for amateur vanity calls is in gray, so it is subject to the intro above. It quotes the regulatory fee as $1.50, and notes the term as ten years.

So yes, the collected fee is $15 at the time of application. But since the ARRL is using almost the same words as the FCC's official documentation, I can't fault them for the wording.

No. If that's what it seemed to you then I wasn't clear. Here's the long form version.

Somewhere on the FCC web site there is a document that describes all their fees for various licenses. This document covers everything--not just amateur licenses but broadcast licenses, commercial licenses, and all of the other services. Embedded within that document is the note that states what they charge for amateur vanity licenses, and that note defines an annual fee.

An amateur vanity application, though, will result in the issuance of a new station license with a full ten-year term. (It's considered a new license since the callsign changes, not a renewal or modification of your existing license.) They require you to pay the license fee in advance, and since you are getting a ten-year term, the required payment is ten years' worth of the annual fee. So the $15 fee you see charged is for ten years; the annual fee quoted in the official FCC "fee disclosure" is one-tenth of that.

The fee may be quoted as an annual rate, but the parenthetical note states that it is charged based on the full term of the license issued. Since any new vanity issue is for a ten-year term, the fee charged is ten times the annual rate. The same is true for any renewal. 

There is no way to pay only for a partial term.

That's only for vanity callsigns. Sequentially-assigned callsigns are still free. Current fee for a vanity assignment is $15, which gets you a 10-year license term. Another $15 (or whatever the fee is at the time) is due for renewal of a vanity callsign. VanityHQ is a good resource for learning about the US vanity program.
There are about 15 VECs (Volunteer Examiner Coordinators) that accredit and monitor the Volunteer Examiners (VEs) in the US. Each VEC can establish its own policies. Some (like Laurel VEC) charge nothing; others (like ARRL and W5YI) charge a fee to cover expenses. Some of that fee can be retained by the VEs to cover their expenses, but most of it is sent to the VEC.
Sorry, not me.

Chris -

Yes, everything changed just about two years ago. It used to be that callsigns became immediately available upon retroactive cancellations (where the death occurred more than two years earlier), so the common practice was to submit for the cancellation and apply immediately, "betting" that the cancellation would be processed prior to the vanity app. And if the cancellation did NOT occur on time, the FCC would dismiss the vanity app for precisely the reason you stated.

That all changed when WT Docket 09-209 was implemented, effective in Feb 2011. The rules now state that any cancellation due to the death of the licensee imposes a minimum 30-day wait after cancellation before the call is available to the vanity program, even if the date of death is more than two years ago. The sole exception is if the cancellation occurs less than 30 days prior to the natural expiration date of the license; in that case, the call becomes available on the day after the expiration date.

Since the FCC DID inject one (and only one) exception case explicitly, I concluded that no other exception case (like the close relative situation) applies.

Steve
 

Hey, come on guys! Just because GOOGLE has hits on KC4TBZ doesn't mean that he's saying TBZ on the air. It just means that many people are hearing TBZ and entering it on line.

- KC4TVZ is licensed to someone named Todd.
- He lives in a suburb of Atlanta.
- Without knowing what phonetics (if any) he is using, "V" and "B" could be easily confused.
- All but one of the posters on dxfor.me have callsigns from countries that are typically non-native English speakers.
- A random sampling of the callsigns on the dxfor.me listing, when entered into KC4TVZ's online log search (on QRZ) show hits.

I think it's pretty clear that for whatever reason, many hams are mis-logging KC4TVZ as TBZ.

With all due respect, that is not correct.

1. Since his father died in January of 2013, the call won't be available to anyone other than close relatives (or clubs in memoriam, with family approval) until 2015, so there is no risk in waiting.

2. The new rules (as quoted by VA3CDG) do NOT include a provision for a "close relative" to "jump" the 30-day wait. They simply state that the call is not available to the vanity program. Since there is no qualifier, the implication is that it applies to ALL vanity apps. A "close relative" app is only an exception to the two-year wait.

3. If the FCC is going to bother to ask for proof of being a relative, it's possible that including it with the initial application may eliminate one step. But I doubt that there will be much contention for an N 1x3--most of the serious issues with potentially-fraudulent close relative vanity apps deal with scarcer 1x2 calls. And given that the deceased and the applicant have the same surname, I don't expect any problems.

So merging this all together...

1. Any kind of letter to the FCC with suitable proof of death will get the callsign/license cancelled. It does not have to be a death certificate--VA3DCG lists the types of proof acceptable.

2. Wait 30 days after the cancellation occurs.

3. Submit a vanity request for the call, using the "close relative" option. You do NOT have to submit proof of being a relative with the application, but the FCC can request it. Watch the progress of your app on the ULS site to see if it's put on hold for any reason.

Clint -

Congratulations on the upgrade. And yes, the additional privileges (and the peace of mind they bring) are key.

As you have effectively pointed out, your resistance of the upgrade was really only hurting yourself.

Steve
W3HF

P.S. There's always Sweepstakes next year!

Not true. You could have received a medical waiver for the 13 wpm code test. Your Advanced only proves definitively 5 wpm, just like the Novice.

To actually prove 13wpm from the license itself, you'd have to document having received it prior to medical waivers being available. But that's no different than a General (or in fact, an Extra).

Dang, I missed the change in middle initial. Sorry about that; I was rushing.
No one can determine that, which I'm sure is your point. But if that were the case, you really would not have received credit for it with the FCC which is the way I interpreted "what code test did I pass for my license class." If you had just said "what code test did I pass?", you would have been asking a more general question than "what code test did the FCC credit me with?"
As N2EY points out, you could have used the medical waiver for every license class above Tech. So the only thing definitive is the 5 wpm.

The "problem" is that your relevant license transactions occurred before the ULS was tracking things. So I actually can't see using that tool what your call was prior to K2DLZ.

But VanityHQ's Unique Call Lookup comes to the rescue and reveals KC7RKK, which turned into K2DLZ by 1997 while still a Tech (or maybe Tech+). There's no record of a General license there, so it must have been quick. And again, since your upgrade to General/Advanced processed after medical waivers were availalble, we can't tell if you passed 13 wpm or used a medical waiver to skip it.

So my conclusion stands. Only 5 wpm is definitive. 13 wpm may be likely but can't be proved because of medical waivers. The same is true for 20 wpm, though arguably the FCC never credited you with a license that required it.

And for the record, I agree completely with your position.