FCC proposes new fees for ham radio

[J.W.]

The FCC is proposing a $50 fee for new and renewal licenses. Change of address would still be free but upgrades and vanity licenses would also be $50. The proposal also lowers the fee for GMRS to $50 (down from $70).

I want to hear what others think about this.

From the REC Networks article:

Proposed new fees for Amateur Radio and reduction in GMRS fees


Section 8 of the RAY BAUM’S Act does not provide any kind of statutory exemption for filing fees in the Amateur Radio Service, which, historically has had no filing fees. Citing the costs involved in the automated processes, routine maintenance of the Commission’s Universal Licensing System (ULS) and limited instances where staff needs to be involved in the application process, the FCC is proposing an across-the-board fee of $50 for new and modified licenses in the personal radio services, which includes Amateur Radio and the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS). For GMRS, this is a reduction of the current $70 fee. The FCC also proposes these fees for license renewals and requests for vanity call signs, the latter which had its filing fee eliminated several years ago. The FCC is proposing to still not charge for administrative updates, such as mailing address changes on amateur or GMRS applications. Amateur Radio will remain exempt from annual regulatory fees under Section 9 of the RAY BAUM'S Act.

 

[Oranger]

Cash grab is what is smells like to me. I do not believe it is that costly to process renewals etc that a fee that high is justified.

 

[Sparksalot]

Cash grab is what is smells like to me. I do not believe it is that costly to process renewals etc that a fee that high is justified.

Yep. There was a proposal in 89-90 to do a similar fee. It ultimately failed that time.

 

[Kent R]

I doubt this will happen due ham being part of emergency communications in disasters. Also my prediction is the GMRS licence will go away eventually, much like the marine band licence of the late 70's. Just my opinion and nothing more.

 

[J.W.]

Very true, this proposal from the FCC comes up about every 5 years. The only reason this one is getting noticed is because the FCC (even more than usual) is hurting for money. I agree with @Kent R about the regular licensing fee not passing. I don't think it will be because of ARES and RACES/emergency comms though. I think it is because the FCC would have to start actually enforcing the bands if they charge for the license. They just simply don't have the manpower to do it at this time and they aren't going to go out and fox hunt pirates in the middle of a pandemic while they are under-funded.

I could, however, see them reinstate the fee for vanity call signs. That would generate revenue and cut back on the online users plowing through call signs and tying them up for 2 years each pass.

 

[Jedi]

This would be a huge barrier for many young people who might be interested in amateur radio. I have elmored (mentored) a number of scouts who, if the "cost of entry" was $50 wouldn't have been able to get their ticket. Heck, my daughter worked hard doing chores to get the $15 testing fee so that she could get her ticket at age 9.

 

[Brian Glendenning]

To be contrary, even at $50 it would seem a bargain. The barriers to entry are the testing requirements, equipment costs, and inherent complexity.

 

[R Rudder]

I would say that $50.00 is a bargain for a 10-year license, that breaks down to $5.00 per year / $.41cents per month

 

[M Rose]

So why aren’t they bringing back a fee for the civilian band and the marine bands?

As Kent said, I don’t see it happening, too many agencies rely on ARES, and RACE, Salvation Army, and other a mature radio operators... with more fees, comes less interest, with less interest it’s harder to get volunteers to help in emergency operations...

for those of you who think amature radio operators aren’t really needed in today’s electronic age, think again. Last week SkyWarn was activated in the northwest. Several ARES organizations were called upon to monitor severe electrical storm systems as the passed through the region. We, I say we because I was among them, set up relay stations along the rout of the storm. We counted cloud to cloud lightning as well as ground to sky. We reported every 15 minutes the conditions at our preassigned locations over 72 hours. We reported over 5,000 ground strikes, over 100 fires, and assisted fire crews reaching most of the fires. We saved roughly 3,000,000 acres of forest and grassland that would not have been possible without SkyWarn, ARES, and RACE.

 

[M Rose]

This proposal is going to be a huge damper on the Amateur Radio community. Digging dealer it’s going to look like this...

guy walks into a VE session and wants to take his test for the Technichians License. The VE says ok that’s $15 to cover your filing fee. Guy hands over his money and takes the test. The VE says he passed and asks if tester wants to try taking the General Exam. The Tester says sure and takes his next test. He passes that one and moves on to the Extra. He ends up passing all three exams in one setting. The VE now says that’s $150.00. So the guy just payed $165.00 for all three tests. Now he doesn’t like his call sign, so he applies for his vanity call. Another $50.00 he waits several weeks only to find out he didn’t get any of the Call signs he wanted... so another $50.00. So on and so forth. So that’s a minimum of $265.00 for a ten year license and a 2 year call sign.

Now this said tester is 13 years old. How is he/she supposed to come up with that kind of money? On top of having to buy his own equipment.
Before any of you say this a 13 year old in today’s world isn’t interested in a mature radio, I personally talk to a 13 year old General Licensee, who is taking their EXTRA in the next few months. He bought his own gear and pays for the hobby by doing odd jobs. If it cost him almost $300.00 just to get his license he would never had gotten into the hobby.

The Ray Baum Act is very bad for amateurs radio. We hams are trying to promote amature radio use, and technology expansion. The other part of the ACT not even being discussed is the application fee increases for radio and antenna manufacturers. They are also getting more filing fees introduced... so let’s take the Yaesu FTM-300DR as an example. It’s a new entry class radio released only a couple of months a go by Yaesu. It has a very affordable price for all the options at just over $460.00. Now with the new fees incurred in the fine print of the Ray Baum Act, this radio is now a $1500.00 radio worth more than my IC7100 all band all mode.

Now this doesn’t stop there...
The act also goes after public broadcasting stations (AM/FM/ and TV) so people are going to have to start paying to listen to the radio and to support their local over the air television. You car radio is going to become worthless.

Like I said this goes way deeper than just amateur radio use and GMRS radio use. This is going to affect every one of us wether it be we are radio operators or not.

 

[M Rose]

I would say that $50.00 is a bargain for a 10-year license, that breaks down to $5.00 per year / $.41cents per month

Is it a bargain? Your cable bill will increase, your phone bill, Normal radio will suffer... Read the entirety of the RMA

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-116A1.pdf

 

[Boostpowered]

This proposal is going to be a huge damper on the Amateur Radio community. Digging dealer it’s going to look like this...

guy walks into a VE session and wants to take his test for the Technichians License. The VE says ok that’s $15 to cover your filing fee. Guy hands over his money and takes the test. The VE says he passed and asks if tester wants to try taking the General Exam. The Tester says sure and takes his next test. He passes that one and moves on to the Extra. He ends up passing all three exams in one setting. The VE now says that’s $150.00. So the guy just payed $165.00 for all three tests. Now he doesn’t like his call sign, so he applies for his vanity call. Another $50.00 he waits several weeks only to find out he didn’t get any of the Call signs he wanted... so another $50.00. So on and so forth. So that’s a minimum of $265.00 for a ten year license and a 2 year call sign.

Now this said tester is 13 years old. How is he/she supposed to come up with that kind of money? On top of having to buy his own equipment.
Before any of you say this a 13 year old in today’s world isn’t interested in a mature radio, I personally talk to a 13 year old General Licensee, who is taking their EXTRA in the next few months. He bought his own gear and pays for the hobby by doing odd jobs. If it cost him almost $300.00 just to get his license he would never had gotten into the hobby.

The Ray Baum Act is very bad for amateurs radio. We hams are trying to promote amature radio use, and technology expansion. The other part of the ACT not even being discussed is the application fee increases for radio and antenna manufacturers. They are also getting more filing fees introduced... so let’s take the Yaesu FTM-300DR as an example. It’s a new entry class radio released only a couple of months a go by Yaesu. It has a very affordable price for all the options at just over $460.00. Now with the new fees incurred in the fine print of the Ray Baum Act, this radio is now a $1500.00 radio worth more than my IC7100 all band all mode.

Now this doesn’t stop there...
The act also goes after public broadcasting stations (AM/FM/ and TV) so people are going to have to start paying to listen to the radio and to support their local over the air television. You car radio is going to be worthless.

Like I said this goes way deeper than just amateur radio use and GMRS radio use. This is going to affect every one of us wether it be we are radio operators or not.

The fm/am on your radio is already worthless most folks under 50 in this day and age are using xm, pandora, Spotify, etc the same with over the air tv stations we use roku, and use the free Pluto app along with paying Netflix and using Amazon prime since we pay for it.

There are other options for radio coms, truckers don't use cb radio anymore yet they still sell em in truck stops, you'd think being free from fees cb with repeaters would be more popular. Whenever I get on my cb I get nothing but crickets. Same thing on ham locally if your not listening to the Leo or emergency service channels you wont hear much of anything in my area. Gmrs frs is pretty much a joke unless your using a good hf radio and not the little cheap walkie talkies the sell as gmrs frs radios.

I can tell ya I'll never get a license for the super limited use I'd have for ham. Also yall ought to know you don't need a call sign nor a license for ham in an emergency

 

[M Rose]

The fm/am on your radio is already worthless most folks under 50 in this day and age are using xm, pandora, Spotify, etc the same with over the air tv stations we use roku, and use the free Pluto app along with paying Netflix and using Amazon prime since we pay for it.

There are other options for radio coms, truckers don't use cb radio anymore yet they still sell em in truck stops, you'd think being free from fees cb with repeaters would be more popular. Whenever I get on my cb I get nothing but crickets. Same thing on ham locally if your not listening to the Leo or emergency service channels you wont hear much of anything in my area. Gmrs frs is pretty much a joke unless your using a good hf radio and not the little cheap walkie talkies the sell as gmrs frs radios.

I can tell ya I'll never get a license for the super limited use I'd have for ham. Also yall ought to know you don't need a call sign nor a license for ham in an emergency

It’s affecting all communications... internet, radio (does matter if satellite or air wave, or run can and string), phones (landline and cell coverage) if it’s a form of communication it’s getting a tax on it.

 

[AA1PR]

most likely ham radio will be exempt
there is supposed to be the amateur radio spectrum preservation act that protects us
if we are forced to buy a license than we are assumed to be "pros" no we are "amateurs" that volunteer our services...or at least 1% do
what they need to do is charge for vanity calls, not everyday calls

 

[Offroadnutz]

There are other options for radio coms, truckers don't use cb radio anymore yet they still sell em in truck stops, you'd think being free from fees cb with repeaters would be more popular. Whenever I get on my cb I get nothing but crickets.

I think it might be your location. Where im at there is usually to much traffic on the cb. Never a hard time finding someone to chat with.
I also hear lots of truckers talking when im on the main interstates so they are still beng used by some.

 

[The Lorax]

Oh great! I just paid 70 for that GMRS!!
WRJJ849

 

[M Rose]

Oh great! I just paid 70 for that GMRS!!
WRJJ849

Yup, and you will be seeing an increase in your cell phone and internet bills In January if the legislation goes through... the 20 you might save is going to cast another 25-50 per month on your normal untilities.

 

[M Rose]

most likely ham radio will be exempt
there is supposed to be the amateur radio spectrum preservation act that protects us
if we are forced to buy a license than we are assumed to be "pros" no we are "amateurs" that volunteer our services...or at least 1% do
what they need to do is charge for vanity calls, not everyday calls

It’s not exempt, that’s why there is a petition floating around to squash it... the exemption is up in February if I remember what I read correctly.