Subj : Other Ham Radio News
To   : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Wed Jan 23 2019 05:48 pm

Amateur Radio Applications Piling Up as Partial Government Shutdown
Continues

01/23/2019

Volunteer Examiner Coordinators across the US are continuing to receive
paperwork from Amateur Radio exam sessions held during the partial
government shutdown. While it's still possible to access the Universal
Licensing System (ULS) and file applications, the FCC is not processing
individual, club, and exam session - new and upgrade - Amateur Radio
applications. The FCC closed most operations on January 3, when available
funding ran out. According to the FCC public notice, aside from a few
emergency and auction-filing systems, all other Commission electronic
filing systems will be unavailable to the public until normal agency
operations resume.

"Nothing's moving until the FCC reopens," said ARRL VEC Manager Maria
Somma, AB1FM. "ARRL VEC continues to enter exam session, individual, and
club license data into the system, while we wait for the FCC to reopen,
and normal agency operations to resume. We have approximately 1,600
applications, and 125 exam sessions, waiting in the queue to be
processed. Everything's in there ready to go."

Somma stressed that, although license upgrade applications are still on
hold, current FCC Amateur Radio licensees who have successfully upgraded,
and hold a Certificate of Successful Completion of Examination (CSCE),
may operate, temporarily using the privileges of their new license class,
until their new licenses are granted.

Even though it's not possible for the FCC to grant a new license, a
license upgrade, a change of address, or other modification, or a vanity
call sign application, the Commission Registration System (CORES) remains
functional to allow critical radio services to obtain FRNs, and file
applications during the shutdown. Registering a user name, and logging
into CORES is required to apply for, and receive an FCC Registration
Number (FRN). An FRN is a unique 10-digit identifier necessary to conduct
business with the FCC, and to manage existing FRNs. The FCC said that
starting in March, users who already have an FRN from the legacy
Commission Registration System will need to create a user name to continue
managing their FRNs.

If an Amateur Radio license recently has expired, or is about to expire,
the licensee can apply for license renewal via the ULS, and continue to
operate while the FCC is closed. The filed application will remain in
limbo until the FCC is back to work. Licensee who wait until the FCC
reopens to apply, then will have 2 days to submit a renewal application
before the license is considered to have expired in the FCC database.

The FCC has said it would not automatically extend deadlines in cases
where the license has expired, and the 2-year grace period has expired,
but said it would "consider whether it is appropriate to do so, once
normal operations resume."
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