On May 13, the FCC posted the first list of enforcement actions since Laura Smith took over as FCC Special Counsel. The 11 RFI-related letters to energy providers were sent between February 18 and April 1, 2009, and the 7 warning letters to individuals were sent between February 18 and March
30, 2009.

The seven warning letters include five letters to people operating high-powered CB radios. Theses people are not licensed radio amateurs. The other two letters were issued to licensed radio amateurs for using repeaters after they were requested not to do so.

I got this via an ARRL maililng list.

We can argue about whether or not the tests should be more difficult, and I think a case could be made that the Extra Class test should be tougher, but I’m a bit aghast that the FCC says in this denial that,

the purpose of the examinations is not to demonstrate an applicant’s comprehension of certain material, but rather to determine whether he or she can properly operate an amateur station.

If that were the case, then why even bother with having three different classes of license? This just doesn’t make any sense to me. How about you?

Dan

QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 16 ARLB016
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT March 20, 2009
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB016
ARLB016 FCC Denies Petition to Increase Size of Amateur Radio Question Pools

In April 2008, Michael Mancuso, KI4NGN, of Raleigh, North Carolina, filed a petition with the FCC, seeking to increase the size of the question pools that make up the Amateur Radio licensing exams.Mancuso sought to increase the question pool from 10 times the number of questions on an exam to 50 times more questions. On March 19, 2009, the Commission notified Mancuso that it was denying his petition.

In his 2008 petition, Mancuso claimed that the current question pool is too easy to memorize and “that there has been a significant increase in the number of Amateur Radio operators receiving their licenses over at least the last decade or more who do not appear to possess the knowledge indicated by the class of license that they have received. Most discussion about this topic, both on the air and on Internet forums, generally refers to these widespread observations as the ‘dumbing down’ of Amateur Radio. It has been widely assumed that the cause of this observed situation is based upon the subject material addressed by the license examinations, that the material requirements specified for the examinations does [sic] not meet some minimum level of knowledge expected by some or many in the Amateur Radio community.”

The FCC pointed out to Mancuso that each applicant for a new or upgraded Amateur Radio operator license “is required to pass a written examination in order to prove that he or she possesses the operational and technical qualifications required to perform properly the duties of an amateur service operator licensee, i.e., that he or she is qualified to be an amateur service licensee.”

The Commission summed up Mancuso’s petition, saying, “You argue that the current question pool size is no longer adequate, because online practice examinations enable examinees to memorize a question pool without fully comprehending the subject matter being tested. Consequently, you propose to increase the size of the question pools, in order to hinder memorization.”

The Commission concluded that Mancuso did not present grounds for the Commission to amend its rules: “As noted above, the purpose of the examinations is not to demonstrate an applicant’s comprehension of certain material, but rather to determine whether he or she can properly operate an amateur station. Moreover, your contention that there has been ‘a significant increase in the number of Amateur Radio operators…who do not appear to possess the knowledge indicated by their class of license’ is not supported by any data or facts.”

The FCC pointed out to Mancuso that the Commission’s Rules only dictate the minimum number of questions for each question pool for the three Amateur Radio license classes. This, the Commission told Mancuso, “does not prevent the National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC) from increasing the number of questions in a question pool should it decide that this is appropriate. We conclude, therefore, that the petition presents no evidence of an existing problem or other reason for a rule change.”
NNNN
/EX

It’s too bad that Ms. Smith doesn’t have an amateur radio license, but perhaps someone close to Washington, DC can rectify that situation……Dan

ZCZC AG08
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 8 ARLB008
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT January 26, 2009
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB008
ARLB008 Laura L. Smith Named to Amateur Radio Enforcement Role

Laura L. Smith of Pennsylvania has been named by the FCC to fill the vacancy created when Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, retired in 2008 as Special Counsel for the Spectrum Enforcement Division of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau. Hollingsworth served in that position for morethan 10 years as the FCC’s enforcement watchdog over the AmateurRadio Service.

A 1990 graduate of the Pepperdine University School of Law, Smith began her legal career with the FCC, working in the Mass Media Bureau and Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. She also served as Deputy Division Chief of the Public Safety and Private Wireless Division. Smith is currently licensed to practice in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

In 1998, Smith left the FCC to become Executive Director of Governmental Affairs for the Industrial Telecommunications Association (ITA), now Enterprise Wireless Alliance. In that role, she monitored FCC and legislative proceedings and participated in all regulatory proceedings relevant to the private wireless
industry. In 2001, Smith became ITA’s President and Chief Executive Officer. While in that position, she was instrumental in the formation of the Consensus Group, a group of public safety and private wireless entities responsible for drafting the “Consensus Plan,” a proposed resolution for interference in the 800 MHz band; this was adopted by the FCC in 2004.

Smith returns to the FCC after serving Of Counsel with the Maryland law firm of Shulman Rogers. While there, she dealt with telecommunications matters and provided counsel to numerous entities in the private radio and public safety communities. Smith has served as an industry consultant and written columns for a variety of trade publications including Mobile Radio Technology Magazine and The Private Wireless Magazine.

In an October 2008 letter to then-FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN, urged Martin to name a successor to Hollingsworth: “The appointment of a replacement Special Counsel in this position is of critical importance to the Amateur Radio Service, as the delay in finalizing the appointment stands to undermine in very short order an exceptionally successful and low-cost program of enforcement in the Amateur Service.”

Calling the FCC’s Amateur Radio enforcement program “spectacularly successful,” Harrison reminded Martin of the “long period in the late 1980s and 1990s during which the Commission was essentially uninvolved in enforcement in the Amateur Service. The Amateur Service, consisting of some 680,000 licensees of the Commission, is in essence a self-regulating service; however, due to the shared frequency allocations in the Service and the long distance propagation of amateur communications, a very few rule violators can cause severe disruption in the Service. On the other hand, even a minimal Commission presence has a very strong deterrent value.”

When Hollingsworth was appointed as Special Counsel for Amateur Radio Enforcement, Harrison said that Hollingsworth “established a visible presence in the Service and very quickly, and with very little investment of Commission resources, using little more than the awareness of an enforcement presence, created strong deterrence against rule violations.”

Upon learning of Smith’s move to the Amateur Radio enforcement role, Harrison remarked that he was “very pleased to see the Commission move forward with the hiring of a new Special Counsel responsible for enforcement of the Amateur Radio Service rules,” said Harrison. “Ever since Riley Hollingsworth announced his retirement, we have met with the Enforcement Chief numerous times and corresponded with FCC Chairman Martin to ensure this position remains intact at FCC. The Commission acknowledges the self-regulating environment we maintain, but also understands that we need their assistance occasionally to resolve a few situations. They have continually reassured us that this is an important matter for them, and Ms Smith’s hiring confirms that.”

From today’s ARRL Letter:

William Cross, W3TN, a staff member in the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, and Riley Hollingsworth, Special Counsel for the Spectrum Enforcement Division of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, spoke at the FCC Forum on Saturday afternoon at the 2008 Dayton Hamvention. Cross opened by explaining just where Amateur Radio falls in the FCC’s bureaucracy.

“The Mobility Division of Wireless Telecommunications Bureau has the oversight of the Amateur Radio Service,” Cross said. “We handle the day-to-day administration of the Amateur Service and some of the rulemaking activities that affect the Amateur Radio Service. The Gettysburg office handles applications, licensing — including vanity calls — and the ULS. Within the Commission, other bureaus also make rules that affect you. The Office of Engineering and Technology handles spectrum allocations and equipment issues. Our Managing Director’s Office is the office that handles matters relating to fees, such as the fees relating to vanity call signs, Debt Collection Improvement Act matters, the need for Federal Registration Numbers.”

Cross divided comments into two areas: Proceedings where the Commission has issued a decision and rulemaking requests that have been filed with the FCC, but which are pending resolution by the Commission.

Calling the past year “interesting, because it has been a quiet year on the regulatory front,” he said that no big rulemaking items were released. “This being an election year, there doesn’t seem to be any legislation on Capitol Hill that is of direct interest or impact on the Amateur Service. This year is a good time for Amateur Radio to be flying ‘below the radar,’ and that’s where ham radio is right now in terms of the big picture — below the radar,” Cross said. “We wrapped up a couple of Petitions for Rulemaking [PRM] that were pending and it doesn’t look like (at least in the near future) there will be anything else coming out.”

One of the cases the FCC issued a decision on was what Cross referred to as the Miller Order. This Order, released May 7, dismissed a PRM from Mark Miller, N5RFX. Miller sought three points: To delete the FCC’s 2006 addition to how it defines data, to amend the rules to prohibit automatically controlled stations from transmitting on frequency segments other than those specified in Section 97.221(b), and to replace the symbol rate limits in Section 97.307(f) with bandwidth limitations.

“The effect of these changes,” Cross explained, “when taken together, would have been, as [Miller] said, ‘A small number of wider bandwidth modes, including Pactor III, would no longer be authorized.’ Translating that into English, what he was asking for was ‘bye-bye Winlink.’ Don’t get me wrong — Winlink as a communications system seems to have become the ‘Brussels sprouts of ham radio’ — you either love it or you hate it. And trying to bury it under ketchup or hollandaise sauce hasn’t changed the basic like or dislike for Winlink. Most of the controversy here seems to swirl around how certain licensees use it. Some use it for a radio e-mail system. Others use it for getting weather maps while they are on sailboats in places the brave dare not go. Others use it for their personal business activities, such as buying and selling stocks. These uses are really a Section 97.113, a ‘prohibited communications’ question, not a technology question.”

Cross mentioned that there are “some things coming down the pike that you want to keep track of. The ARRL has a pending petition — RM 11325 — that requests that we amend the rules that apply to the power stations may use when transmitting spread-spectrum emissions — BPL. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the FCC’s final BPL rules. The Court did not vacate the rules, so they are still in effect. There will be another proceeding to address what the Court told the Commission it had to address.”

The Northern California Packet Association has filed a request for clarification that the FCC define what is meant by the term “simultaneously” as it is used when defining a repeater. “The issue here is that in California,” Cross explained, “D-STAR repeaters have been coordinated on channels that are set aside for auxiliary stations, on the basis that, because there is a delay in retransmission of the signal, the retransmission is not simultaneous, and therefore the repeating station is not a repeater.” Cross said others have advanced what he calls “the duck argument: If the station looks like a repeater, if it functions like a repeater, and it sounds like a repeater, it should be treated as a repeater — and confined to the repeater subbands. A decision on this will be coming [from the Commission] shortly.”

When Hollingsworth stepped up to the podium, he spoke about what he called “the magic of radio,” saying, “we need to realize the debt we owe to those who work so hard to further the goals of Amateur Radio, whether it’s the Emergency Communications participants, club members, teachers, VEs, the League. One of the richest rewards in doing something is to experience joy in doing it. And with so many people working so hard on their own time to further the goals of Amateur Radio, we’re all a little more free to enjoy radio and to make it fun as well as a public service.”

Saying that “things have calmed down a lot in the Amateur Radio Service,” Hollingsworth explained, “[that] when it comes to the Amateur Radio Service, there’s one enforcement tool we need very badly and we just don’t have it — and that’s straitjackets,” he deadpanned, eliciting guffaws from the crowd of more than 150 people. “Some days I want to ask, ‘Why can’t everybody just get along?’”

Hollingsworth noted that since the 75 and 80 meter phone band has been expanded, “a lot of these regular small groups, ragchews and some of the Nets should consider “spreading out, because a lot of the regular operations every night are clumped together. Yes, there are still interference issues and interference allegations, but if everybody would spread out a little bit, now, it’s going to take a real change of habit by a group that has used the same frequency for 40 years to talk across the state, but you really need to spread out and take advantage [of the band] expansion.”

He also noted that interest in Morse code “seems to be higher than ever before.” On the enforcement side, Hollingsworth said he has noticed “no difference in enforcement problems related to no-code, and I think I’m seeing more young people at events that I go to.” He reminded audience that only 1 percent of Amateur Radio licensees filed comments in the Morse code Proceeding. “I see the new code keys for sale here, and I always see a big crowd of people around anything related to code or code keyers. I think the interest has really peaked.”

Hollingsworth pointed out a 12 year old boy who sat in the front row. When asked, the boy responded he received his license three years ago when he was 9. “The future President of the League might be sitting right there,” Hollingsworth explained, pointing at the boy. “That’s our future, right there, and we’re depending on you. We need a lot more young people and I think that Morse code seems to interest young people — hopefully they’re getting tired of instant messengers and the Internet. Last night someone told me about a 14 year old Net Control Operator on a national Net.”

Calling for “more courtesy” on the Amateur Radio bands, Hollingsworth said, “This fighting amongst yourselves is the worst thing that you can do. You have some rude operators and operators who don’t care and who are hateful and bitter about life in general, but every group has that, whether it’s doctors, electricians, lawyers, plumbers, whatever, every group has a certain percentage of people like that. What you have to do is to remind yourself every day to stay on the high road and report to us if you can’t resolve a problem after you’ve given it a chance to go away. There are plenty of ugly situations in the world and you don’t have to add to them. Now, there are a few idiots in your Service who know all the answers, only because they haven’t thought of all the questions. They just want recognition and reaction. Don’t give it to them. Don’t be baited. Don’t feel insulted — they are their own worst punishment. Don’t dignify them with a response.”

Hollingsworth implored the audience to “never let the Commission get by again with handing you 10 to 12 years of neglect. You have to stay vigilant. Even though the bands may sound better to you, you have to be vigilant to protect your Service, and be part of the solution — not the problem — and operate as if the whole world is listening, because generally it is.”

You can listen to the FCC Forum in its entirety on the ARRL Web site.