Thank you to Dave Siddall for solving this mystery.
What happened was someone in one of our local clubs attempted to renew her license and got a return letter asking her to pay a fee and specify which fee.
The FCC has two mailing addresses for applications - one for fee based applications which goes to a bank to collect and process the fee, and another for no-fee applications.
This person had mistakenly sent a paper application for renewal of the license to the address for fee based applications. As such they were expecting a fee and bounced it back to her.
The good news is that the application didn't even hit the FCC, so she has since gone online to ULS and submitted a renewal application, free of charge.
So please don't panic, we don't have fees yet.
🙂
And it may be a good time to remind your Division's members that they can renew their license free of charge and hassle free using ARRL VEC.
73
Ria, N2RJ
From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> on behalf of Jairam, Ria, N2RJ (Dir, HD) <n2rj@arrl.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 5, 2022 11:57 AM
To: arrl-odv <arrl-odv@arrl.org>
Subject: [arrl-odv:33386] $35 fee update?
One of my division's clubs (SMARA) put out an email regarding the $35 fee. They claimed that one of their VE candidates received a return letter from the FCC saying they need to pay $35 to have their license processed.
Is there anything official regarding the FCC's start date for collecting this fee?
Or is this just misinformation and hearsay?
Thanks
Ria
N2RJ