[BCVHFA] Fwd: ARLB034 FCC suspends Amateur Service license grants

[K8CM]

>Date: Mon, 08 Nov 2004 16:45:37 -0500
>From: ARRL Web site <memberlist at www.arrl.org>
>Subject: ARLB034 FCC suspends Amateur Service license grants
>To: K8CM at cinci.rr.com
>Cc: Subscribed ARRL Members: ;
>Original-recipient: rfc822;k8cm at cinci.rr.com
>
>SB QST @ ARL $ARLB034
>ARLB034 FCC suspends Amateur Service license grants
>
>ZCZC AG34
>QST de W1AW
>ARRL Bulletin 34  ARLB034
> From ARRL Headquarters
>Newington CT  November 8, 2004
>To all radio amateurs
>
>SB QST ARL ARLB034
>ARLB034 FCC suspends Amateur Service license grants
>
>The FCC has stopped issuing Amateur Service license grants while it
>attempts to unravel an apparent computer programming glitch. The FCC
>posted a public alert on the Universal Licensing System (ULS) site
>on November 5. At this point, no one seems to know when the problem
>will be fixed.
>
>''The granting of Amateur applications has been temporarily
>suspended,'' the FCC announcement says without further explanation.
>''We apologize for the inconvenience.'' The Commission has given no
>indication when processing might resume, but when it does, the FCC
>likely will pull back more than 125 Group D (2x3) amateur call signs
>it mistakenly issued out of sequence and grant the applicants new
>in-sequence call signs. Although they eventually may be set aside
>and replaced, all call signs showing up in the ULS database are
>legal to use on the air.
>
>The difficulties began October 28, when the FCC implemented a ULS
>software change that caused applications to be processed improperly.
>ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator Manager Bart Jahnke, W9JJ, says
>the FCC was forced to halt the processing of amateur applications
>after attempts to correct the initial error only seemed to make
>things worse. ''The FCC is still trying to get its arms around the
>problems,'' he said this week.
>
>The ARRL VEC has been working with personnel in the FCC's licensing
>branch to identify where the FCC had been in the call sign
>sequences, where it had jumped to and where it was supposed to be.
>
>Jahnke says the problem appears to have affected only Group D call
>signs.
>NNNN
>/EX