[ETS/PARC List] ARLB002 FCC Dismisses Two Petitions from Radio Amateurs

[Drew Moore]

Subject: ARLB002 FCC Dismisses Two Petitions from Radio Amateurs

SB QST @ ARL $ARLB002
ARLB002 FCC Dismisses Two Petitions from Radio Amateurs

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ARRL Bulletin 2  ARLB002
>From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT  January 6, 2017
To all radio amateurs 

SB QST ARL ARLB002
ARLB002 FCC Dismisses Two Petitions from Radio Amateurs

The FCC has turned down two petitions filed in 2016, each seeking similar
changes in the Part 97 Amateur Service rules. James Edwin Whedbee, N0ECN, of
Gladstone, Missouri, had asked the Commission to amend the rules to reduce
the number of Amateur Radio operator classes to Technician, General, and
Amateur Extra by merging remaining Novice class licensees into the
Technician class and all Advanced class licensees into the Amateur Extra
class. In a somewhat related petition, Jeffrey H. Siegell, WB2YRL, of Burke,
Virginia, had requested that the FCC grant Advanced class license holders
Morse code operating privileges equivalent to those enjoyed by Amateur Extra
class licensees.

"Thus, Mr. Siegell's proposed rule change is subsumed within the changes Mr.
Whedbee requests, so our analysis is the same for both proposals," the FCC
said in dismissing the two petitions on January 5.

The FCC streamlined the Amateur Radio licensing system into three classes -
Technician, General, and Amateur Extra - in 1999. While it no longer issues
new Novice or Advanced class licenses, existing licenses can be renewed, and
Novice and Advanced licensees retained their operating privileges.

"The Commission concluded that the three-class structure would streamline
the licensing process, while still providing an incentive for licensees to
advance their communication and technical skills,"
the FCC recounted in its dismissal letter to Whedbee and Siegell. It
specifically rejected suggestions that Novice and Advanced class licensees
be automatically upgraded to a higher class, concluding that it would be
inappropriate for these licensees to "receive additional privileges without
passing the required examination elements." The FCC cited the same reason in
2005, when it denied requests to automatically upgrade Technician licensees
to General class and Advanced licensees to Amateur Extra class, as part of a
wide-ranging proceeding.

The FCC said the two petitions "do not demonstrate, or even suggest, that
any relevant circumstances have changed that would merit reconsideration of
those decisions."

Whedbee had argued that automatically upgrading current Novice and Advanced
classes would simplify the rules and reduce the Commission's costs and
administrative burden, but the FCC said Whedbee provided no evidence that an
administrative problem exists.
"Moreover, such benefits would not outweigh the public interest in ensuring
that amateur operators have the requisite incentive to advance their skill
and technical knowledge in order to contribute to the advancement of the
radio art and improvement of the Amateur Radio Service," the FCC said.

"The Commission has already concluded that it will not automatically grant
additional privileges to the discontinued license classes,"
the FCC said. "Consequently, we conclude that the above-referenced petitions
for rulemaking do not warrant further consideration at this time."
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