[TNham] FCC Suspends Amateur Service License Grants to Unsnarl System Snafu

[Greg Williams]

NEWINGTON, CT, Nov 8, 2004--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 remain legal. 

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 stop processing 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. 

Jahnke said the ULS problem will have no effect whatsoever on volunteer
Amateur Radio examination sessions that have been scheduled or already
held. The only known impact at this point will be in how fast the FCC is
able to grant licenses (and assign call signs) resulting from
examination sessions. 

For some as-yet-undetermined reason the October 28 modification caused
all amateur applications from the nation's VECs to be shunted into
"Pending 2" status, flagging them for manual review without any
justification. 

By November 2, the FCC thought it had things under control again, and it
reprocessed all the applications in the queue. At first blush, all
looked to be in order, Jahnke said, but closer inspection revealed that
the system had failed to grant some routine requests for new sequential
call signs. "By the afternoon, we realized that the FCC had erroneously
begun issuing new Group D call signs in several districts from
altogether new call sign blocks--out of sequence from where processing
in those districts had last ended," Jahnke said. 

While the first and third call districts were unaffected, the FCC
apparently jumped from issuing call signs in the KC2Nxx sequence to the
WQ2Axx sequence, Jahnke said. It also had assigned WQ4xxx, WQ5xxx,
WQ7xxx and WQ9xxx call signs. In the eighth district, there was a gap
between KD8xxx to KM8xxx call signs, while in the tenth district the
Commission went from KC0Txx to WI0Axx. In the sixth district, the
sequence shifted from KG6Wxx to KI6Axx. 

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. He emphasized that any call signs the FCC issued are in the ULS
database and therefore are valid, and licensees may use them on the air.


"Just don't get too familiar with them," he advised. "It is our
understanding that at some point, the FCC will set aside the
out-of-sequence grants and issue new call signs to affected licensees." 

The FCC has announced that due to "scheduled maintenance," the ULS
on-line filing, application and license search and several other non
Amateur Radio-related functions will be unavailable starting Friday,
November 12, at 9 PM EST until Monday, November 15, at 6 AM EST.
Electronic batch file processing will stop November 12 at 5 PM, and VECs
will not be able to send and retrieve files during the down period. This
weekend's transaction files and Sunday's database public access files
will not be available until Monday morning, the FCC says.

Gregory S. Williams
k4hsm at knology.net