Yesterday, one of the hams I follow on Twitter posted a link to FCC Public Notice DA-21-9, titled, “WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS BUREAU SEEKS INPUT ON EXPANDING THE NUMBER OF AMATEUR OPERATOR LICENSE VOLUNTEER EXAMINER COORDINATORS” (all caps theirs). The first paragraph concludes, “The Bureau seeks to determine whether the existing 14 VECs provide adequate support to volunteer examiners or whether additional VECs are needed.”
After a couple of paragraphs explaining what the Amateur Radio Service is, and the current way in which VECs administer amateur radio license exams, it asks the following questions:
- Are the existing 14 VECs sufficient to coordinate the efforts of volunteer examiners in preparing and administering examinations for amateur radio operator licenses, or are additional VECs needed to support the amateur community?
- What needs are currently being met, and which needs, if any, are currently unmet?
- If the Commission were to allow additional VECs, how many additional VECs are needed to satisfy the existing amateur service operator license examination needs?
- Given VECs use a collaborative process to create the question pool and operating protocols for how volunteer examiners administer exams, would additional VECs enhance or hinder this collaborative process?
- Finally, we seek comment on how increasing the number of VECs will address the unmet needs, if any, of the amateur community, as well as on what obstacles or complications could be created by increasing the number of VECs?
I was honestly quite surprised by all this. I hadn’t heard anything at all about a desire to add more VECs. Anyone know who’s behind this? It seems to me, that even during this pandemic, folks are able to get their licenses easily enough.
I think what the FCC might want to do is to determine how active the current VECs are and set some minimum amount of activity as a requirement for keeping VEC certification. I recently polled some of the VECs for another blog post. Several did not respond at all, while one simply replied that their VEC was no longer really active.
As far as whether or not more VECs would enhance or hinder the question pool process, I don’t think that’s the right question. The NCVEC is in charge of the question pools, and the process is only as collaborative as the Question Pool Committee allows it to be. I don’t think that there being more VECs will make one whit of difference to the question pool process.
Anyway, I’d love to hear what you all think about this, especially if you’ve been involved as a VE at all.