[ETS/PARC List] FCC Okays Changes to Amateur Radio Exam Credit, Test Administration, Emission Type Rules

[drew Moore]

NEWSFLASH - - - THIS JUST IN - - - 

In a wide-ranging Report and Order (R&O) released June 9 that takes
various proceedings into consideration, the FCC has revised the Amateur
Service Part 97 rules to grant credit for written examination elements 3
(General) and 4 (Amateur Extra) to holders of “expired licenses that
required passage of those elements.” The FCC will require former
licensees — those falling outside the 2-year grace period — to pass
Element 2 (Technician) in order to be relicensed, however. The
Commission declined to give examination credit to the holder of an
expired Certificate of Successful Completion of Examination (CSCE) or
to extend its validity to the holder’s lifetime.

“Our decision to grant credit for written examination Elements 3 and
4 for expired licenses that required passage [of those elements] will
provide some relief for former General, Advanced, and Amateur Extra
class licensees,” the FCC said, “and is consistent with how we
treat expired pre-1987 Technician class licensees who want to reenter
the Amateur Service.” Pre-1987 Techs can get Element 3 credit, since
the Technician and General class written examinations in that era were
identical. The Commission said current rules and procedures that apply
to expired pre-1987 Technician licenses “are sufficient to verify
that an individual is a former licensee under our new rules.”

The Commission said that requiring applicants holding expired licenses
to pass Element 2 in order to relicense “will address commenters’
concerns about lost proficiency and knowledge, because a former
licensee will have to demonstrate that he or she has retained knowledge
of technical and regulatory matters.” The FCC said the Element 2
requirement also would deter any attempts by someone with the same name
as a former licensee to obtain a ham ticket without examination.

In 1997 the FCC, in the face of opposition, dropped a proposal that
would have generally allowed examination element credit for expired
amateur operator licenses. In the past, the FCC has maintained that its
procedures “provide ample notification and opportunity for license
renewal” and that retesting did not impose an unreasonable burden.
The issue arose again in 2011, with a request from the Anchorage
Volunteer Examiner Coordinator.

The FCC pulled back from its own proposal to reduce from three to two
the minimum number of volunteer examiners required to proctor an
Amateur Radio examination session. The ARRL, the W5YI-VEC and “a
clear majority of commenters” opposed the change, the FCC said. The
FCC said it found commenters’ arguments persuasive that that the use
of three VEs “results in higher accuracy and lower fraud that would
be the case with two VEs.” In a related matter, though, the
Commission embraced the use of remote testing methods.

“Allowing VEs and VECs the option of administering examinations at
locations remote from the VEs is warranted,” the FCC said. The
National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC) in 2002
endorsed experimental use of videoconferencing technology to conduct
Amateur Radio testing in remote areas of Alaska. The Anchorage VEC has
long pushed for the change, citing the expense to provide Amateur Radio
test sessions to Alaska residents living in remote areas.

The FCC declined to address “the mechanics” of remote testing,
which, it said, “will vary from location to location and session to
session.” The Commission said specific rules spelling out how to
administer exam sessions remotely “could limit the flexibility of VEs
and VECs.” The FCC stressed the obligation on the part of VECs and VEs
“to administer examinations responsibly” applies “in full” to
remote testing.

The FCC amended the rules to provide that VEs administering
examinations remotely be required to grade such examinations “at the
earliest practical opportunity,” rather than “immediately,” as
the rule for conventional exam sessions requires.

Finally, the FCC has adopted an ARRL proposal to authorize certain Time
Division Multiple Access (TDMA) emissions in the Amateur Service. The
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau in 2013 granted an ARRL request for
a temporary blanket waiver to permit radio amateurs to transmit
emissions with designators FXD, FXE, and F7E, pending resolution of the
rulemaking petition.

“Commenters strongly support amendment of the rules to permit these
additional emission types,” the FCC noted. “The commenters assert
that the proposed rule change ‘is consistent with the basis and
purpose of the Amateur Service,’” and will allow repurposing
surplus mobile relay equipment from other radio services in the Amateur
Service, the Commission added.

The FCC said it also will make “certain minor, non-substantive
amendments to the Amateur Service rules.” It is amending Part 97
“to reflect that the Commission amended its rules to eliminate the
requirement that certain Amateur Radio Service licensees pass a Morse
code examination,” the FCC said in the R&O. It also said it was
correcting “certain typographical or other errors” in Part 97.

The new rules become effective 30 days after their publication in The
Federal Register, which is expected to happen this week.

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ARRL Hudson Division
Director: Mike Lisenco, N2YBB
n2ybb at arrl.org
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