$35 FCC Fee coming soon

Post date: Mar 20, 2021 3:6:15 PM

As many of you are aware, though FCC licenses for the Amateur service have always been free, the FCC decided to change that and begin charging a $35 service fee for every transaction. They are implementing it sooner than I expected, beginning April 19, 2021. We are therefore down to 30 days to file new licenses, upgrades, and vanity applications without having to pay the new fee.

Mike Ritz, the NW ARRL Div Director, sent the correction below. My previous source was wrong, and I'm sorry for propagating misinformation.

Contrary to what you may have heard or read, the collection of application fees

for the amateur radio service and certain other services will NOT begin on

April 19, 2021.

Although April 19, 2021 is the date the rules in the FCC Report and Order

adopted last December generally take effect – i.e., one month after the R&O

was published in the March 19, 2021 Federal Register – certain parts of those

rules, including collection of the application fees for the amateur radio

service, will NOT begin on that date.

The effective date for new amateur radio fees has not yet been established.

The FCC explicitly states in the published Notice that the fees will not

take effect until:

* the requisite notice has been provided to Congress; AND

* the FCC’s information technology systems and internal procedures have

been updated; AND

* the Commission publishes [FUTURE] notice(s) in the Federal Register

announcing the effective date of such rules.

The League’s counsel for FCC matters estimates that the effective start date

for collecting the fees will be some time this summer, but regardless of the

exact timing we will have advance notice. Stay tuned for further developments

on this.

Keep in mind that one can only renew their amateur license within 90 days in

advance of the expiration date. If you, or a club station license you are

trustee for, are within that 90 day window now, I'd renew as soon as possible

to avoid the new fee.

If you are thinking of switching to a vanity callsign, I'd also seriously

suggest you apply for that special callsign sooner rather than later. (Of

course, if you are an Extra class seeking a new shorter 1X2 or 2X1 callsign,

competition for those calls in the future MIGHT be a bit less due to the new

fees! We'll see...)

73;

Mike

W7VO

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ARRL Northwestern Division

Director: Michael T Ritz, W7VO

w7vo@arrl.org

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