The FCC has decided to
drop all fees for issuing vanity call signs to hams. In a ruling issued on May
21, the Commission explained that the costs of processing the payments and
issuing refunds to amateurs whose requests cannot be met exceed the revenue
from vanity call fees, currently $21.40 for a 10-year license term.
According to the ARRL,
the change will not take effect until after the FCC has formally notified
Congress of the move, which in the halls of federal bureaucracy takes at least
90 days. So the earliest effective date would be late August to early
September. If you're planning to apply for or renew a vanity call in that
timeframe, and won't risk having your license expire in the interim, then it
might be best to wait, since the FCC also says it will not refund fees paid
prior to the formal elimination.
