Vanity Call Renewals

[N8BMB]

I was engaged in a QSO the other day when the question of renewal for a Vanity Call was brought up. The other ham I was talking to made the comment that Vanity Call renewals were NOT subject to a fee. I disagreed and told him so.

I, however, was curious and did not want an on air argument and simply stated that I would call the FCC to find out.

Today I did just that and found out that Vanity Call renewals ARE subject to a fee. There is no set fee either. If you payed $10.00 for your Vanity Call 6 years ago, you WILL pay whatever the the current fee is at the time of renewal.

Today, that fee is around $21.00.

So, for those thinking about getting a Vanity Call Sign, just remember that you are eventually gonna pay "through the nose" :oto keep it when you renew, unless you upgrade or just request another "sequential" issued call.

'73

N8BMB

[va3css]

Good info.

[va3css]

ARRL.ORG

NEWINGTON, CT, July 8, 2005--The regulatory fee to apply for an Amateur Radio vanity call sign will go up slightly later this year, an FCC Order indicates. A Report and Order and Order On Reconsideration (R&O) in the assessment and collection of regulatory fees for fiscal years 2004 and 2005 released July 7 increases the fee for FY 2005 to $21.90 for the 10-year license term. The FCC said it had adjusted FY 2004 "payment units" for each service to better reflect expected FY 2005 payment liabilities.

"We tied to obtain verification for these estimates from multiple sources and, in all cases, we compared FY 2005 estimates with actual FY 2004 payment units to ensure that our revised estimates were reasonable," the FCC said in the R&O. "Where appropriate, we adjusted and/or rounded our final estimates to take into consideration the fact that certain variables that impact on the number of payment units cannot be estimated exactly."

In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in the proceeding last February, the Commission had proposed keeping the vanity call sign fee at its current $20.80. The fee rose from $16.30 to $20.80 last August. A reevaluation in the number of anticipated vanity call sign applications--or "payment units"--accounts for the latest fee hike.