On 5/19/2015 10:44 AM, Kay Craigie wrote:
Second, please note that the clock is ticking, so if you have any input on what ARRL's position ought to be with respect to the FCC Proposal to Delete Historical address data from ULS for Amateur Licensees (see [arrl-odv:24137]), now's the time.
73, Kay N3KN
Hope you all are enjoying Memorial Day. We have perfect weather here on the East Coast (I’m in South Eastern PA). I'd like to weigh in on this topic. I may have missed any discussion on what we are doing regarding current information as opposed to just historical data. Though I am privacy advocate in many instances, I believe it is necessary that amateurs have a starting place for assisting in finding bootleggers, suspected malicious interferers and otherwise confirming that someone is actually licensed. Amateurs frequently have to do this footwork ourselves to assist the FCC in acting. FCC is considering current information as well it seems. One could argue that having a mailing address for a licensee doesn't help with such objectives, but one could start there. Deleting addresses seems more of a burden than advantage. Having current licensee addresses is a necessary convenience to us in being able to send the ham a note or track him or her down for legitimate reasons. I use QRZ.com (which is from the ULS data Fred uses as his source) to find hams to mail a request or otherwise contact someone I need to reach for a variety of reasons. For example, when sending mailers out to local hams who may need to know about an antenna case of interest in their area, (like in the WN3A tower case here in SE PA), we used the ULS to find the addresses of a couple hundred hams in the township area to send letters. Not sure how I would have reached them without the ULS data and search by zip code. I suppose we could live without the old address data, but the current contact address is necessary for QSL info and for OOs to operate unless I missed something here. The FCC does note the availability of a PO Box for those who are for some reason concerned. I have been at PO Box 9, Media, PA as my address of record since 1980 for federal licenses that do not need a physical location specified, like FCC or FAA. It's easy, effective and not expensive to rent a PO Box and use it for all kinds of other things as well if a ham really has an issue having his address discoverable. At least the licensee is likely close to the town where his PO Box is listed. In reality, many of the available paid or unpaid services on the internet will allow a searcher with nefarious intentions to find an address anyway. Paragraph 7 of the NPRM suggests FCC is possibly considering complete privacy for certain addresses, not just historical data for old addresses. Even for GMRS and other services mentioned in the NPRM, on occasion it may be necessary for a ham to know who to call to resolve an intermodulation or interference issue tracked down to a source in one of the other services. Been there and needed to do that before. With the FCC field offices closing, perhaps we need this information public more than ever. If such licensee addresses are not easily available to us, what then? I suggest the League either oppose or be neutral on the deletion of historical information (delete old addresses - but not earlier call or license class of someone as now provided on ULS) and strongly oppose deletion of current address information, address or otherwise, for any service. Perhaps I missed an angle or discussion on this, so I am interested in feedback myself. Happy Memorial Day, 73 and I’ll see you on the radio. Looking forward to see you all at the July board meeting as well. Bob Famiglio, K3RF Atlantic Div. Vice-director 610-359-7300 www.QRZ.com/db/K3RF