SB QST @ ARL $ARLB085
ARLB085 Vanity program online
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ARRL Bulletin 85 ARLB085
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT November 27, 1996
To all radio amateurs
SB QST ARL ARLB085
ARLB085 Vanity program online
Happy Thanksgiving. The FCC has granted approximately 700 new vanity
call signs after turning down several petitions for reconsideration
that had held up the program for a few weeks. Several hams whose
Gate 2 applications arrived too early and were dismissed had
petitioned the FCC to reinstate their applications. The petitions
were dismissed, according to an FCC spokesman. The latest call signs
issued are from applications received by the FCC between September
24 and 27. An estimated 20 per cent ended up in the WIPS, or ''works
in process,'' stack for special handling--in some cases because the
FCC was unable to grant any of the applicant's call sign choices, in
others because there was a problem with the application.
Applicants can check for new call signs using the FCC Transaction
Engine on the ARRLWeb page, http://www.arrl.org/fcc/fccld.html.
The FCC now gives equal weight to all vanity applications from any
of the vanity gates opened to date. This means that a Gate 1
applicant trying to regain a former call sign who applied after the
September 23 opening day for Gate 2 could miss out if that call sign
already has been issued to a Gate 2 applicant. The FCC considers all
vanity applications from all open gates in order of day received.
Meanwhile, the FCC also has worked its way through the estimated 550
first-day Gate 2 applications that ended up in WIPS. Following the
initial wave of Gate 2 vanity call signs on November 4 (released to
the public the following day) and before the most recent wave, the
FCC granted another 176 call signs in all vanity categories, most,
if not all, among the estimated 550 Gate 2, day-one applications
that ended up in the WIPS stack at the FCC.
Applications for vanity call signs continue to show up at the FCC.
From October 21 through November 7, the FCC had received an
additional 459 vanity program applications. The FCC reports that 210
were hard-copy applications, while the other 249 were filed
electronically. A spokesman in Gettysburg advised hams filing new or
modified applications to be extremely careful in completing their
paperwork. ''We are seeing a lot of errors,'' he said. Among the
common ones are a name that does not agree with the FCC's database,
call sign incorrect, or a license that expires within a year and the
renewal box is not checked. ''Please double check before you
submit,'' he advised. ''It creates a lot of extra work for us and
delays the issuance of the license if you don't.''
The FCC has not announced when it plans to open Gates 3 and 4 of the
vanity program.
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