Here is what the ARRL
is recommending for folks wishing to upgrade to General or Extra
without taking a Morse test:
Technician
Class Licensees
FCC
modifies the Amateur Radio Service rules by eliminating the Morse code
exam requirements.
The
effective date of the FCC's action will be 30 days after publication in
the Federal Register -- most likely in February.
In an
historic move, the FCC has acted to drop the Morse code test
requirement for all Amateur Radio license classes. The Commission
adopted the long-awaited "Morse code" proceeding (WT Docket 05-235),
and released it December 19. The FCC's action will eliminate the Morse
code test as a licensing requirement to operate on HF.
Technicians
Gain Operating Privileges
Once the
changes are in effect, all Technician licensees -- whether or not they
have passed a Morse code examination -- will have "Tech Plus" operating
privileges. This means you will have all of your current VHF/UHF and
above frequencies and also will have access to the Novice/Technician
Plus frequencies on HF.
No Morse
Code Test to Upgrade
Technicians
can upgrade to General by passing the General (Element 3) written exam
and to Amateur Extra by also passing the Extra (Element 4) written
exam. No Morse code test will be required. Visit the ARRL VEC exam search web page
http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/examsearch.phtml for test session locations.
Navigating
through the Upgrade Process
1. Technician Amateurs who wish to upgrade to General
have a couple of options.
a. We recommend that Technician licensees who have NOT
yet passed the General written exam (Element 3) wait until the new
rules take effect to upgrade. At a session, the
candidate must present a photo ID and their current license, pay the
$14 test session fee and fill out the NCVEC form 605. If
the Element 3 written exam is passed, the VE team will issue the
candidate a CSCE for the upgrade to a general class license.
b. Technician licensees who have already passed the
General written exam (Element 3) or wish to pass the General written
exam before the rules take effect, will then have to apply for the
upgrade at a VE session once the new rules are in place.
At a session, the candidate must present a photo ID, their
current license and the non-expired CSCE document, pay the $14 test
session fee and fill out a NCVEC form 605. If
the Element 3 written exam credit is valid, the VE team will issue the
candidate a CSCE for the upgrade to a general class license. If the CSCE for Element 3 credit has expired (a
CSCE is only valid for 365 days), you will have to retake the
examination element in order to receive the credit toward your upgrade.
2. Post Session Process
The VE Team must prepare and mail all session paperwork to the coordinating VEC. Once the session arrives at the VEC, in accordance with FCC rules, the VEC staff must verify all session documentation. All 605 forms and CSCEs must have the candidate’s signature and 3 VE signatures. The CSCEs used for General written exam element credit must be validated as being passed within the previous 365 days and/or the test documents must be confirmed as being passed. Finally, the session data and information from the 605 forms can then be keyed and submitted to the FCC. The upgrade should appear in the FCC database http://wireless.fcc.gov/uls/ within a few hours and a new license copy will arrive in the mail in 7 to 10 days.
VEC
Test Fee
As you can
see, much of the same work is involved in both types of General class
upgrades, therefore the administrative costs are embedded in the
process.
The FCC
has mandated that all paperwork only upgrades be done through a VEC via
their VE Teams. The processing and administration of
FCC "projects" such as this,
actually places a greater demand on all the VECs. This is not a
special case involving only a few people; we expect to receive a flood
of upgrades to General. The
paperwork only upgrade is not automatic for the amateur and the forms
may not be sent directly to the
FCC or the VEC office (again the upgrade must occur at a test session and follow FCC guidelines). The VEC test session fee is regulated
(per annual agreement) by the FCC.
A New
Era
When the
new rules are in place, we hope you explore your new band allocations,
enjoy your new privileges
and have
fun!
73,
Maria A.
Somma, AB1FM
Manager, ARRL/VEC
=====================================================================================================================