[AMRadio] FCC app fees

[Rob Atkinson]

There's pros and cons to the fee.  ARRL is against it for honest
reasons but they're also probably against it for other reasons they
aren't telling us.   Of course it's political in that most hams seem
to be against it so ARRL is, in order to not lose any members,   But
they also likely don't want to see that 750,000 licensees in U.S.
statistic go down which it would.  They point to that stat. every time
they want to defend some band that no one uses like 5 GHz.  On the
other hand, I would rather have a population of real hams who are
active, competent and serious about radio, even if it is 30,000 rather
than an inflated bogus population of paper hams who don't even have a
station set up and have never even been on the air.   $50 would
probably eliminate everyone who doesn't use their licenses, freeing up
call signs and it would end the nut cases who have 10 vanity call
signs.  If they assessed the $50 just to file an application to take a
test it would be better because it would eliminate the memorizers who
learn nothing and just keep testing until they manage to pass.  I had
to pay a fee and travel to FCC tests and you bet that made me make
damn sure I was going to pass each time.

The last thing we want is for FCC to delegitimize ham radio to the
level of CB or Part 15.   What little interference protection we have
would be gone.  I'm sure they'd love to get rid of the burden, but
imagine calling CQ and have people come back to you with no call
signs, just made up names like Kentucky Bill or made up calls like WBT
because they don't know any better.

73
Rob
K5UJ