wrote in news:1114118689.984407.281600
@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:


Alun L. Palmer wrote:
wrote in news:1113743129.236382.299700
@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

Mel A. Nomah wrote:
"Hamguy" wrote in message
...

: http://www.hamwave.com/cgi-bin/index...iewnews&id=689

That link supposes that the fcc will delete the Morse requirement.

Other insiders suggest fcc will NPRM will delete Morse only for
General license, and will INCREASE the test to 20WPM for renewed
Extra class, downgrading all current "Extra Lite" licenses to
resurrected Advanced license (the second time this license has
risen from the ashes). ARRL giveaway program will be denied.

All it really says is that the FCC is working on an NPRM that may be
out as soon as next month or as late as July. That NPRM will
obviously contain what FCC wants to do as a result of WRC 2003 and
the 18 restructuring petitions.

Once the NPRM becomes public, there will be a comment period, then a
reply comment period. Couple of months at least, maybe longer.
Probably the end of 2005 before comments close.

This is based on what FCC has done in the past.

Then FCC will decide what to do and formulate a Report and Order.
Last time they did this it took almost a year. Which translates to
fall 2006. Then a couple months before the new rules become
effective - maybe end of 2006.

Of course it could take even longer, or maybe a bit less. But I
wouldn't expect any changes before summer 2006 - and wouldn't be
surprised if it were summer 2007.

73 de Jim, N2EY


You're being a Jonah again, Jim.

Hello Alun,

I'm not sure what you mean by "being a Jonah".

Does it have anything to do with the bible story of Jonah and the whale
- aka "You Can't Keep A Good Man Down"?

It means someone preaching doom


the announcement guesstimates all done within a year, i.e. by spring
'06.

So they meant *next* summer (2006), not *this* summer (2005).

Sounds about right to me. Granted that the comments about what the FCC
might do (and the title of the post) were all the poster's own, and
not Hamwave's.

Exactly.

My time estimates are based on what FCC has done in the past on a
number of issues. FCC doesn't seem to be in any big hurry to change the
rules - heck, it's been over 5 years since the last restructure, over
21 months since WRC 2003 ended, and yet there's no NPRM on the street
yet.

My own crystal ball guess is that the FCC will just delete the code
test and rearrange some subbands around this time next year. That's
still much longer than I originally thought.

My guess is there will be some more-substantive changes, and that the
code test deletion isn't a done deal - yet.

I base the above on the fact that FCC could have simply dumped Element
1 back in summer 2003, without an NPRM, comments, or any of the rest.
They received at least two proposals to do just that. All it would take
is for FCC to say, in effect: "This subject was discussed thoroughly
back in 1998-1999, and we kept Element 1 only because of the treaty.
Now the treaty's gone, so we're dropping Element 1." Or some such
verbiage - the basic idea is still the same. There's a procedure for
such changes.

Yet there have been no changes yet, just proposals *to* FCC, and
comments.

Last time FCC did a restructure, the comment period was what -
six-seven months or more? Then it took about 11 months for the Report
and Order, and another four months or so before the rules changed.
That's over 20 months from NPRM to new rules in effect. 21 months from
summer 2005 is spring 2007.

Maybe FCC will say something at Dayton. Maybe not.

73 de Jim, N2EY