<html><head></head><body><div class="ydp3be3c028yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: garamond, new york, times, serif; font-size: 16px;"><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><div><div>b. Personal Licenses </div><div><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><b>Amateur Radio Fee to be $35. Passed by FCC on 12/23/20 and released to public on 12/29/2020. The full 97 page text is available on the ZAARC website. This becomes effective by law on or about Jan. 29, 2021 except that the vehicles to collect the funds are not clear and they have to be sorted out. How this will affect the VE Sessions and the timely issuance of Call Signs is unclear at this time but it does give the FCC at least $2,625,000 and we do ALL of their work. </b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><b>I will post all 97 pages on the ZAARC website in the VE section soon.</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>John, KK4ITX</b></div><div><br></div><div>30. We adopt the categories of personal license application fees proposed in the NPRM. The</div><div>Commission proposed a fee of $50 for each of these applications. The Sonoma County Radio Amateurs,</div><div>Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL), and many individual commenters contend that the proposed $50</div><div>fee for Amateur Radio Service applications is too high and will prevent amateurs from joining the</div><div>amateur radio service; instead, they contend, the Commission should adopt no fee or a nominal fee.</div><div>58 We agree with commenters asserting this fee is too high to account for the minimal staff involvement in these</div><div>applications and therefore adopt a reduced amount of $35 fee for all personal license application fees.59</div><div><br></div><div>31. In 2019, the Commission received over 197,000 personal license applications. Several</div><div>services in the personal licenses category will be subject to new fees, such as Amateur Radio Service</div><div>licenses, which were not listed on the fee schedule in the prior version of section 8 of the Act, but are now</div><div>subject to fees under the RAY BAUM’S Act. In the NPRM, we sought comment on adopting cost-based fees for personal license applications.</div><div><br></div><div>32. Personal licenses include Amateur Radio Service licenses (used for recreational,</div><div>noncommercial radio services), Ship licenses (used to operate all manner of ships), Aircraft licenses (used</div><div>to operate all manner of aircraft), Commercial Radio Operator licenses (permits for ship and aircraft</div><div>station operators, where required), and General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) licenses (used for shortdistance, two-way voice communications using hand-held radios, as well as for short data messaging</div><div>applications).60 With personal licenses, an applicant’s initial application for authorization seeks shared</div><div>use of certain spectrum bands, or a permit required for operation of certain radio equipment. In either</div><div>case, these applications focus only on eligibility and do not require technical review. As such, there is no</div><div>construction requirement (or related filings) and renewal filings are non-technical as well. For these</div><div>reasons, applications in these services are highly automated and should be subject to the same assessment</div><div>of fees.</div><div><br></div><div>33. Numerous commenters suggest that amateur radio licenses should be exempted or are</div><div>exempt under section 8(d)(1) of the Act. We disagree and note as a starting point that the Commission</div><div>has no authority to create an exemption where none presently exists. Thus, if an exemption exists, it must</div><div>be contained within the wording of section 8(d)(1) of the Act.61 None of the listed exemptions apply to</div><div>exempt Amateur Radio Service licenses.</div><div><br></div><div>34. AGC argues that amateur radio licenses should be exempt under section 8(d)(1)(B) as</div><div>they are “operating for all intents and purposes as non-profit entities” because they provide public safety</div><div>and special emergency radio services in times of crisis on a volunteer basis.62 While we are very much</div><div>aware of these laudable and important services amateur radio licensees provide to the American public,</div><div>we do not agree that amateur radio licenses fit within the section 8(d)(1)(B) exemption Congress</div><div>provided.63 These specific exemptions do not apply to the amateur radio personal licenses. Emergency</div><div>communications, for example, are voluntary and are not required by our rules.64 Further, there is no</div><div>indication that most or all amateurs solely use their license for emergency communications; even the</div><div>section of our rules allowing certain amateur operators to broadcast civil defense communications limit</div><div>such authorization to periods of local, regional or national civil emergencies.65 As we have noted</div><div>previously, “[w]hile the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial</div><div>communications service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications, is one of the</div><div>underlying principles of the amateur service, the amateur service is not an emergency radio service.“66</div><div><br></div><div>35. We also disagree with commenters67 that argue that amateur radio operators are among</div><div>the “noncommercial” entities that fall under section 8(d)(1)(C)’s exemption68 for “a noncommercial radio</div><div>station or a noncommercial television station.”69 Although, under Commission rules, amateur radio is a</div><div>“voluntary noncommercial service,”70 we do not believe Congress intended to cover amateur radio</div><div>operators under the newly added exemption. That rule was based on the Commission’s determination that</div><div>Congress intended to exempt noncommercial educational (NCE) broadcast stations from the application</div><div>fees.71 Given that the Commission’s longstanding exemption rule of over 30 years covered only</div><div>noncommercial educational broadcast stations, Congress presumably would have more clearly indicated</div><div>an expanded exemption if it had intended one to cover amateur radio service. We see no such indication</div><div>here. To the contrary, we believe Congress’s inclusion of the term “noncommercial television station”</div><div>immediately following “noncommercial radio station” cabins the contextual meaning of that term.72 We</div><div>did not then 30 years ago, nor do we now, conclude that the exemption covers non-broadcast services.”</div><div><br></div><div>36. Lastly, while fees for amateur radio licenses were not previously listed on the fee</div><div>schedule in section 8 of the Act, the RAY BAUM’S Act directed the Commission to establish fees for all</div><div>applications and there is no specific exemption for this radio service under section 8 of the Act as</div><div>amended. If Congress had intended to exempt amateur radio licensees from payment of application fees,</div><div>it would have identified this service as exempt, as it did in section 9 of the Act, exempting “an amateur</div><div>radio operator licensee under part 97 of the Commission’s rules” from payment of regulatory fees.73</div><div><br></div><div>While the RAY BAUM’S Act amended section 9 and retained the regulatory fee exemption for amateur</div><div>radio station licensees, Congress did not include a comparable exemption among the amendments it made</div></div><br></div><div><br></div><div class="ydp3be3c028signature"><div align="center"><br></div></div></div></body></html>