This is making the rounds. Is it, or is it not true? And if not, we need to ensure that the message is clear. 73 Ria, N2RJ ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Eric Russell <ericprussell@hotmail.com> Date: Wed, Jun 30, 2021 at 9:59 AM Subject: The new FCC fee structure To: nparc@mailman.qth.net <nparc@mailman.qth.net>, SPARCclub@groups.io <SPARCclub@groups.io>, rrc <rrc@arcsquared.org>, NJElmers@groups.io <NJElmers@groups.io>, Joel Haberman <jihaberman@aol.com>, Ria Jairam <n2rj@arrl.net>, Ed Efchak <eefchak@gmail.com>, Bob Kasprak <bkasprak@aol.com> During Field day, I had an interesting chat with a fellow Ham. It seems the FCC's new fee schedule has to be cleared through Congress. That means that your Congressperson and Senators have the final say on whether they can implement it. Our best shot at stopping them from putting the schedule into effect is to write and talk to our representatives. Although the FCC charges "Service Fees," they provide no actual services. The ARRL does all of the work, including enforcing the laws on amateur radio operations. It gets no funding from the government for this. The FCC passes information from ARRL about all business relating to licenses through a computer and does nothing else. I believe the data are put into the computer by the ARRL. We provide a service, they don't; why should we have to pay to volunteer? The amount of the fee is not a relevant question. Their proposal has amateurs and professionals paying the same amount for their licenses. If our representatives hear nothing, they will assume that everything is alright and, in this case, will rubber stamp the proposal. Pass this to others around the nation. The wider our input, the better our chance of stopping it. See you on the air. 73 Eric KD2ONY