SB QST @ ARL $ARLB037 
ARLB037 Vanity call comments

ZCZC AG02
QST de W1AW  
ARRL Bulletin 37  ARLB037
>From ARRL Headquarters  
Newington CT  April 22, 1994
To all radio amateurs 

SB QST ARL ARLB037
ARLB037 Vanity call comments

Vanity call comments made

The ARRL has filed comments on an FCC proposal, in PR Docket 93-305,
to establish a ''vanity'' call sign program for amateurs.  The
League's comments are consistent with recommendations of its ad hoc
committee on the subject, as reported in an April 11 official
bulletin and in The ARRL Letter.

The League emphasized that an orderly assignment system is vital to
ensuring as much fairness as possible in the issuing of such call
signs, and to that end proposed a series of four steps, or ''gates,''
under which applications would be accepted.

The ARRL said that a one-time application fee for a vanity call sign
was preferable to an annual fee, since the processing takes place
only once, and that an ''up front'' fee would discourage frivolous,
frequent requests for new call signs.

The League's comments also asked that those seeking a call sign
formerly held, or the call sign of a deceased family member, not be
bound by another recommendation, that call signs be issued only in
the call area where the licensee lives.

Details will appear in June QST.
NNNN
/EX