SB QST @ ARL $ARLB021
ARLB021 Vanity call sign application fee to rise slightly

ZCZC AG21
QST de W1AW  
ARRL Bulletin 21  ARLB021
From ARRL Headquarters  
Newington CT  March 25, 1999
To all radio amateurs 

SB QST ARL ARLB021
ARLB021 Vanity call sign application fee to rise slightly

The cost of applying for an amateur vanity call sign is expected to
rise slightly this fall. In a just-released Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking involving assessment and collection of regulatory fees
for Fiscal Year 1999 (MD Docket 98-200), the FCC has proposed
increasing the vanity fee to $1.42 per year or $14.20 for the
10-year term.

The current vanity fee is $13. That figure, originally proposed at
$1.29 per year (or $12.90 for the 10-year term) was "rounded up" to
$1.30 per year by the FCC when it was implemented last fall, so it's
possible the FCC might adjust the final number up or down to an even
dollar figure this time as well.

The FCC projects 6800 vanity applications in FY 1999 for a total
revenue figure of more than $96,000.

The vanity call sign business has continued to be brisk over the
past year and picked up slightly after the vanity call sign fee
dropped from its high of $50 to $13 last September. The FCC reports
it received a total of 12,152 vanity applications during
1998--slightly more than 1000 a month; however, not all applications
have resulted in call sign grants. That trend continued in January
and February. The FCC got more than 1400 applications in each of
those two months.

The vast majority of applications last year were filed
electronically. The FCC reports that fewer than 20% of last year's
applications arrived on paper. The Commission's Gettysburg office
currently takes approximately three weeks to process a vanity call
sign application.  
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