FCC Proposes to Reinstate Amateur Radio Service Fees

The FCC has proposed in an NPRM to impose license fees on Radio Amateurs.  I urge you to send your comments to the FCC arguing against the reinstatement of those license fees.

You may not be aware of the public good this service provides in times of emergency, as it has during the recent hurricanes.  The decrease of new applicants in recent years is not helped by this mercenary proposal.

You may also not know that amateur radio is often a leading developer of new technologies.  Just one example is the recent development of a low-cost vector network analyzer — the NanoVNA.  Originally developed by and for radio amateurs, this breakthrough device is now being used in the broadcast and other wireless industries, as written up by broadcast engineer Doug Lung in the last two issues of IEEE BTS Magazine and in TV Technology.

The NPRM can be found at FCC MD Docket No. 20-270Comments are due by November 16, 2020.

The ARRL will be filing comments, and their position can be found at this link; you may be interested to see my filed comments.

73’s,

Aldo, W2AGC

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