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ARLB033 Club rule changes sought
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ARRL Bulletin 33  ARLB033
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT  April 15, 1994
To all radio amateurs

Club rule changes sought

The ARRL has petitioned the FCC to increase the minimum number of
members necessary for granting a club station license from two to
four.  The FCC has designated the petition RM-8462.

The League said that the FCC's 1993 notice of proposed rule making
to reinstitute club licensing makes this a timely issue.

In 1990, the League, as part of a petition for rule making seeking
miscellaneous changes in the Amateur Service Rules, proposed the
same change.  At the time, no club station licenses were being
issued, but the League said that if that program was resumed, the
two-person criteria would invite applications from parties that are
not clubs, such as two or three licensees simply wanting an
alternative call sign.

The FCC at that time declined to change the criteria, since new club
licenses were not being issued.

The League said that the two-person criterion is insufficient to
distinguish bona fide clubs -- which should be encouraged and
provided the identity of a separate license and call sign -- from
two or three individuals who do not function as a normal Amateur
Radio club.

The League said, by way of example, that of 1,957 Amateur Radio
clubs that are ARRL-affiliated, only 10 have fewer than four
members.

Until 1976, the FCC required an application for a club station
license to file copies of the club's constitution and bylaws, which
helped ensure that the club was bona fide.

The FCC has not issued club station licenses since 1979.
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