Q. Section 97.19(a) says that effective February 14, 2011, the person named in
a club station license grant that shows on the license a call sign that was selected by a trustee is not eligible for an additional
vanity call sign. (The person named in a club station license grant that shows on the license a call sign that was selected
by a trustee is eligible for a vanity call sign for his or her operator/primary station license grant on the same basis as
any other person who holds an operator/primary station license grant.) What does this mean?
A. It likely means
that too many of our good call signs were being stockpiled by some creative hams under a combination of the club station call
sign administrator system and the vanity call sign system. The additional rules are apparently intended
to plug that loophole.
Q. Our club station has a vanity call sign. Our license trustee has moved away.
So we are in the process of selecting his replacement. The person we want for our next trustee is
an Amateur Extra Class. He is agreeable to take on the job, but he is already the license trustee for another
club that also has a vanity call sign. Does Section 97.19(a) mean that if we designate him as our club station licensee, we will have
to give up our vanity call sign?
A.
Yes. He is a person already named in one club station license grant that shows a call sign that
was selected by a trustee. As such, he is no longer eligible for an additional vanity call sign.
Your club will have to either forgo its vanity call sign for one from the sequential system, or designate as your next
license trustee another amateur operator who is eligible for your vanity call sign.
Q. What purpose, other than to obtain more call signs, is there for a club station license?
A. Club stations are an artifact left over from the earliest days of radio. Our
regulators’ original perception of what constituted a radio station was much different than their contemporary understanding.
A century ago, the concept of a radio station was a mystifying building filled with unexplained ozone-smelling apparatus
and haughty operators with their amazing ability to communicate over long distances without interconnecting wires.
It and its towering antenna structures were permanently fixed for all time, intended to withstand almost any environmental
calamity.
Building such massive installations was beyond the resources of most
individual amateur operators. But groups of those hardy individuals were able to pool their resources and
construct modest club stations. High schools and colleges were magnets for this activity. Thusly,
for them, a club station license was granted.
Now that a very affordable amateur station can be carried in one’s shirt pocket, the need for pooling resources
has dwindled down to special operation station applications, most notably, repeaters. The club station
license, however, having taken on a self-perpetuating life of its own, continues solely for the function of making additional
call signs available to licensees who want them for various personal reasons, but who don’t actually need them in order
to carry out their regulatory obligations.
Q. What exactly is a ham radio club?
A. As defined in
Part 97, a club is simply an assemblage of at least four persons. It must have only a name, a document
of organization, management, and a primary purpose devoted to amateur service activities consistent with Part 97. Read Section 97.5(b)(2).
It is most often is some type of social group of amateur operators, somewhere between a casual lunch bunch and a highly
organized association. Many have unique interests. Some sponsor hamfests, offer educational
scholarships, pursue technological specialties, etc.
Q. Do all of the club’s members have to be hams?
A.
That is up to the particular club to decide. To receive a club station license grant, however, there
must be a license trustee. The trustee must be a person who holds a FCC-issued amateur operator/primary
station license grant.
Q. Does a club have to obtain a club station license grant?
A. No.
An amateur station license grant carries no operating privileges whatsoever. There is nothing an
amateur operator can do over that which he or she is authorized to do with only their operator/primary station license grant.
Operating privileges
are authorized only by an amateur operator license. Every amateur operator also has a primary station license
grant. The primary station license is granted together with the amateur operator license. One,
but only one, operator/primary station license grant may be held by any one person. Except for a representative
of a foreign government, any person who qualifies by examination is eligible to apply for an operator/primary station license
grant. Read Section 97.5(b)(1).
Q. What, then, is the
function of a club station? A. The club station license
is for the sole function of making additional amateur station call signs available to licensees who want them for various
personal reasons, but who don’t actually need them in order to carry out their regulatory obligations.
There is one provision
in Section 97.113(a)(3)(iv) that enables a specific financial transaction to be conducted
at a club station that is otherwise prohibited at all other types of amateur stations. It is an exception
to the prohibition against transmitting communications in which the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest,
including communications on behalf of an employer. The control operator of a club station may accept compensation
for the periods of time when the station is transmitting telegraphy practice or information bulletins, provided that the station
transmits such telegraphy practice and bulletins for at least 40 hours per week; schedules operations on at least six amateur
service MF and HF bands using reasonable measures to maximize coverage; where the schedule of normal operating times and frequencies
is published at least 30 days in advance of the actual transmissions; and where the control operator does not accept any direct
or indirect compensation for any other service as a control operator.
Q. Who selects the club station license trustee?
A.
The club station license trustee is selected by the club in accordance with procedures for doing such, as codified
in the club’s document of organization. The appropriate officer of the club then certifies on the
application form for a club station license the name of the person who is the license trustee selected by the club.
Read Section 97.5(b)(2).
Q. Does the trustee-designating club officer have to be a ham?
A. No, not a FCC-licensed amateur operator, anyway. The only
club member that must hold a FCC-issued amateur operator/primary station license grant is the license trustee.
One family member who is a licensee, for instance, can enroll his non-ham siblings or parents into the club to round
out the four-person minimum membership requirement. Unlike the number of possible amateur operators, which
is bounded absolutely by our World’s total population, the possibility for club stations is unlimited theoretically.
Q. Our club has three vanity call signs: one for our repeater, one for our field
day station, and one for our clubhouse station. Do we have to forgo any of them?
A. No. Your club obviously obtained them before February 14, 2011.
So as long as you renew them every ten years, they’re yours to enjoy for the foreseeable future.
Read Section 97.19(a).
Q. Can we obtain another club station call sign from a Club Station Call Sign Administrator?
A. Yes, but only a call sign from the sequential system. Your club officer, moreover, must designate a different
member as the license trustee for the new club station license. Section 97.17 says that effective February 14, 2011, no club station license grant will be
issued to a licensee who is shown as the license trustee on an existing club station license grant.
Q.
Can our club members form another club for the purpose of obtaining another vanity call sign?
A. Not for that stated primary purpose. Section 97.5(b)(2) says the club must have a primary purpose devoted to amateur service activities consistent
with Part 97. Once a club station license is obtained for your new club, however,
it would be eligible for a vanity call sign. Your group would also have to select a different member for
the new club station license trustee.
Q. Would we have to assemble another station just for the new club station call sign?
A. No. There is no requirement that an amateur
station must actually physically exist just because of holding an amateur station license grant.
Q. Can we obtain from a Club Station Call Sign Administrator a new club station license with a former club member’s
call sign?
A. No, not directly. There are two separate transactions
required to obtain a new club station license having a vanity call sign. Only the first transaction is
processed by the CSCSA. With that transaction, your club obtains a club station license grant.
It is only after that grant appears on the FCC ULS database may your club apply to the FCC for a vanity call sign. See
Call Sign Systems Vanity for the procedural details.
Q. It doesn’t appear that all of the club call sign loopholes have been plugged.
A.
Obviously. It doesn’t appear, moreover, they may even be completely pluggable.
Q. Who are the club station call sign coordinators?
A.
Visit Licensing Club Stations on the FCC web site. At this reading, the following are listed:
American Radio Relay League, Inc.
225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111
Contact: VEC Department; 860-594-0300; vec@arrl.org
W4VEC Volunteer Examiners Club of America;
P. O. Box 41, Lexington, NC 27293-0041
Contact: Rae Everhart; 336-249-8734;
raef@lexcominc.net
W5YI- VEC
P. O. Box 565101
Dallas,
TX 75356-5101
Contact: Larry Pollock; 800-669-9594; NB5X@w5yi.org
June 24, 2011
Supersedes all previous editions