News

Come join us on June 24th & 25th at the Kalamazoo Red Cross Chapter House for
Field Day!

Phone and Digital stations are planned with both HF and VHF operations available to cover all license classes. For new hams it’s a great opportunity to get hands on experience; learn how to setup a station, experience HF contesting, and get on the air with mentorship.

Station and Antenna Setup will begin on Saturday at 9am, contest operations kick off at 2pm (18:00 UTC) and will run through 2pm Sunday.

The KARC board has developed a brief survey to learn more about YOUR interests and needs for the club meetings and activities. We would really appreciate it if you could take a few moments to complete the survey so we can plan topics and activities that match your interests. We distributed the survey at the last KARC meeting and want to followup with the rest of the membership so we get as many opinions as possible.

Below is a  link to the 2022 KARC Club Survey . The online survey is a quick and easy form that would be the easiest way to answer the Survey. However, if the link causes problems we could get you a PDF copy of the survey as needed, just contact an officer and we’ll be happy to send you a copy.

We appreciate your help by completing the survey. 

Survey link: KARC 2022 Survey

Thanks to everyone who came out last month and operated with us at the W8VY Club shack at the Red Cross for the MI QSO party. We had a great turn out, lots of food and good conversations were had. We met some new friends and had lots of fun operating together for the first time in the shack since the start of the pandemic 2 years ago.

We tried to get a scheduled QSO with our friend and club member Jim Gorka (N8JG) in FL but time and conditions didn’t allow for it unfortunately. We’ll have to try harder next time! We look forward to more operating events and activities at the club shack in the coming future.

The LoSTeam or Line of Sight Team Schedule for 2022 has been created. You can download it below.

LoST is an event held on specific Wednesday evenings (from April through August) to practice portable and emergency communications techniques. Hams deploy to various locations throughout Kalamazoo County and use portable equipment to “check-in” to the Kalamazoo County Public Service Corps Net.

Scott (KD8RCI) organizes the events. Thanks Scott!

The FCC is implementing a new Fee Schedule that will go into effect April 19th, 2022. The ARRL has done a pretty good job at explaining the changes overall in the following article: http://www.arrl.org/fcc-application-fee 

However, there were some questions that came up locally regarding the overall process and total costs involved for prospective hams, and out of the conversation arose some good advice for all Hams at renewal or upgrade time that we wanted to share with the group. 

One thing not being advertised as much about this change is that there is also a new version of the FCC registration system (CORES). This system allows for better management of FRNs (as it allows one account to manage multiple FRN’s) and will eventually replace the old system as it’s phased out. More info about the old vs new systems: https://www.fcc.gov/licensing-databases/commission-registration-system-fcc

For Prospective Hams

Overall Costs 

The FCC fee for Amateur Radio licenses is now $35, this fee will be paid directly to the FCC via their website after successfully passing one or more exam elements. However the provisions for VEC testing fees have not changed, so a VE team may still charge up to $15 for a testing session. 

This means that the overall cost to a prospective Amateur is now between $35 -$50 depending on the VE team they choose to test with. 

The Process

1). The overall process, when ready to test, will start by creating a new account with the FCC in the CORES system and to request an FRN. This FRN request/registration is free. 

CORES Site:

https://apps.fcc.gov/cores/userLogin.do

2)Once assigned an FRN the prospective Operator will take the FRN to the VE testing session, if applicable pay their $15 testing fee, and sit the exams as normal.  

3) Provided they pass one or more of the exam elements the VE will proceed through the normal process of submitting information to the ARRL/FCC. 

4) Once the FCC has processed the application they will email the prospective licensee regarding their pending application. The $35 fee will then need to be paid within 10 days of this FCC email notification of pending license grant.

For current Hams

New FEE Schedule

$35 FEE: new, renewal, rule waiver, and modification applications that request a new vanity call sign. The fee will be per application.

NO FEE: administrative updates, such as a change of name, mailing or email address, modification applications to upgrade an amateur radio licensee’s operator class or to request a sequentially issued call sign and license cancellation. 

Advice

Since the legacy CORES system will be going away in the future, Our advice is to go to the new site below and register with the new CORES system and associate your old FRN to the new account. It only takes a few min to complete and there are a number of ways to associate your FRN with your new account, but the easiest is to have your old FRN and Password handy.  The old registration system will go away eventually, so you’ll want to do it before the legacy site disappears or you might run into more trouble at renewal time associating your FRN with a slower method.

New CORES Site:

https://apps.fcc.gov/cores/userLogin.do

More Information

The FCC Docket regarding these changes is located here if you would like to see the new fee schedules as well as the reasoning behind the changes from the FCC itself.  

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-184A1.pdf

They did a lot of re-work to the licensing fees across the board in both Personal services such as GMRS and Amateur Radio as well as Commercial services. Some groups like GMRS pay less now and some others like us pay a new fee depending on where you or your organizational entity fall in the fee structure.