ARLA/CLUSTER: FCC promove alterações à legislação radioamadoristica americana

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

FCC okays changes to Amateur Radio exam credit, test administration,
emission type rules

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.

The Report and Order may be found on the web in PDF format at,
http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2014/
db0609/FCC-14-74A1.pdf

"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

Source: The American Radio Relay League <http://www.arrl.org/>
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