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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "ARRL Web site" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2015 10:08 AM
Subject: ARLB004 FCC "Paperless" Amateur Radio License Policy Goes into 
Effect on February 17


> SB QST @ ARL $ARLB004
> ARLB004 FCC "Paperless" Amateur Radio License Policy Goes into
> Effect on February 17
>
> ZCZC AG04
> QST de W1AW
> ARRL Bulletin 4  ARLB004
> From ARRL Headquarters
> Newington CT  January 29, 2015
> To all radio amateurs
>
> SB QST ARL ARLB004
> ARLB004 FCC "Paperless" Amateur Radio License Policy Goes into
> Effect on February 17
>
> Starting February 17, the FCC no longer will routinely issue paper
> license documents to Amateur Radio applicants and licensees. The
> Commission has maintained for some time now that the official
> Amateur Radio license authorization is the electronic record that
> exists in its Universal Licensing System (ULS), although the FCC has
> continued to print and mail hard copy licenses. In mid-December the
> FCC adopted final procedures to provide access to official
> electronic authorizations, as it had proposed in WT Docket 14-161 as
> part of its "process reform" initiatives.
>
> Under the new procedures, licensees will access their current
> official authorization ("Active" status only) via the ULS License
> Manager. The FCC will continue to provide paper license documents to
> all licensees who notify the Commission that they prefer to receive
> one. Licensees also will be able to print out an official
> authorization - as well as an unofficial "reference copy" - from the
> ULS License Manager.
>
> "We find this electronic process will improve efficiency by
> simplifying access to official authorizations in ULS, shortening the
> time period between grant of an application and access to the
> official authorization, and reducing regulatory costs," the FCC
> Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) said. According to the WTB,
> the new procedures will save at least $304,000 a year, including the
> cost of staff resources.
>
> In comments filed November 5, the ARRL had strongly recommended that
> the FCC "give serious consideration to continuing a default
> provision for sending an initial paper license document to new
> licensees in the Amateur Radio Service, along with detailed, simple
> instructions for how to make the elections set forth in the notice
> relative to future modified or renewed licenses."
>
> The FCC said that applicants or licensees who include a valid e-mail
> address under "Applicant Information" in the ULS will receive an
> official electronic authorization via e-mail. New license applicants
> who do not provide a FCC Registration Number at the examination
> point will receive a printed license as well as an FRN and a
> temporary password to access the Commission Registration System
> (CORES).
>
> The ARRL and other Amateur Radio commenters also worried that unless
> a license document is printed on distinctive paper stock, its
> authenticity could be questioned in such situations as obtaining
> vanity call sign license plates. To address this, the FCC said the
> watermark "Official Copy" will be printed on each page of an
> official authorization that a licensee prints out from the ULS. The
> WTB recently stopped using distinctive paper stock to produce hard
> copy licenses and has been printing these on "standard, white
> recycled paper." The Bureau noted that the distinctive paper stock
> it had used was six times more expensive than the plain recycled
> paper it now uses.
>
> The ULS License Manager now includes settings that allow licensees
> to notify the WTB that they prefer to receive official
> authorizations on paper. Once the final procedures go into effect
> designating electronic access as the default, licensees can change
> the ULS License Manager setting so that the Bureau will print and
> mail a license document. Licensees also may contact FCC Support via
> the web at,
> http://esupport.fcc.gov/index.htm?job=contact_fcc_support , or via
> telephone or mail to request paper licenses.
>
> The FCC rejected as "outside the scope of this proceeding" an ARRL
> argument that Section 97.23 of the Amateur Service rules be amended
> to replace "licensee mailing address" with other alternatives,
> including e-mail, for use in Commission correspondence. The rule,
> which requires that any licensee mailing address be in an area where
> the licensee has US Postal Service access, has precluded FCC
> issuance of location-specific call signs in such areas as Navassa
> Island (KP1) and some Pacific islands.
> NNNN
> /EX