Craig- Best of the

best

Craig Miller, W8CR [This is a reprint from 2011’s April 1 edition. My favorite. We even had phone calls from high-up-ARRL- types in a panic, looking through Part 97 for the citation. Man, did this cause a stir. Later, Craig was presented a hat with his new callsign to commemorate the event.]

What is Washington up to?

It’s not my intention on using the opportunity to contribute to the DELARA newsletter to rant on about politics – that’s the realm of 75 meters on Saturday nights (and the rest of the week for that matter). But, I feel I’m compelled to bring to light what our honored representatives are doing in that malfunctioning berg known as Washington DC. I’ll apologize in advance if this article offends the reader but it does pertain to the state of Amateur Radio, its survival and the all mighty dollar. About a month ago, I received a notice that my call sign, W8CR, was being relinquished and I will be reassigned a new call in several weeks. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. The letter referenced new legislation that was passed (I later determined) during the Christmas Eve flurry of bills, amendments and riders that our beloved Congress sneaks through unbeknownst to those affected and without outside review. The FCC Rules and Regulations Part 97.19 (j) (3) describes a new licensing procedure “…whereas any Federal or State office holder or employee who wishes to obtain, or presently holds an amateur radio operators permit, not under suspension, may request and will be granted any call sign whether active or inactive”. Well, it appears, someone wants my callsign that I’ve had for about 15 years now and there is not a darned (I so wish I could use much stronger language) thing I can do about it. Or so I thought… I immediately got on the internet and Googled everything I could find regarding this. I just can’t believe what was happening here. Where was the ARRL during all of this? I’ve never heard nor read anywhere this type of legislation was pending. Well it turns out the ARRL was knee deep behind this. They knew about it but failed to notify their membership. The dirty little secret is they proposed an amendment that allows a current license holder, whose call was to be “confiscated” (my term) would be able to retain it by paying a “retention fee” (their term) of $200. $100 of which goes directly to the coffers of the ARRL. They sold us out! On a side-bar, in the same legislation, with the advent of digital communications and the demise of A1 (CW/Morse Code) mode, “non- alphabetic characters are now permitted to be part of future callsigns as long as they are within the ASCII character set. I’m not quite sure what that means. Well, I honestly didn’t have time to track this down any further. I have been traveling an awful lot lately and just didn’t have an opportunity to see what I had to do to retain my call. I did send an email to both Sherrod Brown’s and Rob Portman’s offices complaining. I got back form letters from both offices thanking me for contacting them … blah, blah, blah …. I’m back home now, and sifting through weeks of mail I found a letter from the FCC. Upon opening, I have received my new license which will expire on 04/01/2021. QRZ.COM shows my old call, W8CR, now is owned by Charles Riley, who works for ODOT in SE Ohio. Hope he enjoys it. Thanks for letting me vent. Craig Miller, KG8*%& Ex WN8TLC, WB8TLC, W8CR