[CW] FCC degrades Radio Officers

[Gene Buckle]

>
> A FCC First Class Radiotelegraph License has the requirement that the
> applicant "be employed at a radio station that employes radiotelegraphy for
> at least ONE year."
>
If the regulation only specifies 1 year and not a number of hours
equalling a years' worth of average operating, he would have technically
qualified and met the FCC requirement even if he worked part time on the
"ship".  Now if he was doing this for a shady reason, such as trying to
obtain employment by short-circuiting the licensing process, he should get
slammed for it.  However, it seems that he was doing this strictly for
personal improvement and had no real pecuniary interest in it.

If the FCC is considering dropping the license, that would indicate to me
that the demand for that class of license was nearly (or at) zero.  If
this is the case then one could reasonably expect that there was zero
commercial demand for such a license holder.  If _this_ is the case, it
would be impossible for him to fulfull the work requirement to your
satisfaction simply due to the lack of ships needing that kind of
qualified person.

He must have provided some kind of proof to the FCC examiner that
illustrated his one year of "work" towards license qualification.  If this
was not the case or the examiner ignored the requirement, then someone
needs to have their ass nailed to a wall.  At that point it's fraud, plain
and simple and I'll agree with you until the cows come home.  (on this
issue anyway hihi)

> I don't know about you, but when they haven't changed the requirements, and
> someone gets something without meeting those requirements, it isn't right.
>
I agree.  However, if he me the requirement to the satisfaction of the FCC
examiner, his license is no less valid than any other of that class.

> Having this license - on some ships - meant an increase of pay.
>
Is that still true today?  Can you even get a job aboard a ship that would
require you to have this class of license?

> Are the people who were as qualified as this man, now entitled to sue the
> FCC for back wages?  If so it might add up to hundreds of thousands of
> dollars?
>

Any judge worth his or her weight in pig snot would throw it out as a
frivilous (sp) lawsuit.

g.