Subject: [NEXTEL-1] FCC Screwup - Why duplicate callsigns should never be issued (Duh!)

From: Alan Dixon <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2004 14:14:02 -0400

From:
***************
The ARRL Letter
Vol. 23, No. 16
April 16, 2004
***************

======================================
==>IOWA AMATEUR GETS BACK LOST, REASSIGNED CALL SIGN

The Easter Bunny was generous to Bill Sorsby of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Earlier this week, the FCC finally made official the reassignment to him
of N5BU, the call sign he'd lost in 2001 as a result of what the FCC has
termed "filing errors" in its Universal Licensing System (ULS)
<http://wireless.fcc.gov/uls/>. Not only did the FCC erroneously cancel
the ARRL member's call sign, it compounded the mistake by reassigning it
two years later to another amateur. When Sorsby realized some four months
ago that his ticket was gone, he immediately contacted the FCC to find
out
what had happened and to get it back.

"I am glad to see that the FCC has acted," said Sorsby, who's held N5BU
since 1976.

As the FCC tells it, in December 1999 it received requests to modify the
contact information for the amateur license from Sorsby to Dwana C.
Peters
of Aircraft Guaranty Title (AGT), the title holder of an aircraft with
the
call sign 5BU. In the process, AGT also inadvertently also associated its
FCC Registration Number (FRN) with Sorsby's N5BU Amateur Radio Service
license.

"This appears to have resulted from confusion between the aircraft
station
call sign and the aircraft's registration marking (or 'N number')," the
FCC said in an April 5 Order restoring N5BU to Sorsby.

In July 2001, the aircraft was sold, and AGT had the FCC cancel the
license for 5BU (as aircraft are permitted to identify). In a separate
action several months later, AGT requested cancellation of N5BU,
effectively canceling Sorsby's amateur license. When N5BU became
available
for reassignment under the vanity system two years later, ARRL member
David Willard of Ft Smith, Arkansas, filed for it and was granted the
call
sign last August.

Sorsby blames a "security flaw" in the FCC's ULS software for allowing
AGT's Peters to "inadvertently corrupt the database records" for his
license. Similar problems have affected a small number of amateurs with
N-prefix call signs in the past.

The Iowa amateur is philosophical about the four months he spent getting
N5BU returned. "It has been a very time-consuming and frustrating
ordeal,"
he told ARRL. "My consolation for the ordeal is that now I'll have a tall
tale to spin for years to come."

To reduce the likelihood of similar problems, ARRL strongly encourages
Amateur Service licensees to obtain an FRN via the FCC's Universal
Licensing System Web page <http://wireless.fcc.gov/uls> (click on
"REGISTER CORES/CALL SIGN") and then to associate their Amateur Radio
call
sign with their FRN. "This prevents other entities from inadvertently
making changes to your Amateur Radio license and call sign," said ARRL
Regulatory Information Branch Specialist John Hennessee, N1KB.

======================================
The ARRL Letter is published Fridays, 50 times each year, by the American
Radio Relay League--225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111; 
tel 860-594-0200; fax 860-594-0259; <http://www.arrl.org/>. 
Jim Haynie, W5JBP, President.

Material from The ARRL Letter may be republished or reproduced in whole
or
in part in any form without additional permission. Credit must be given
to
The ARRL Letter and The American Radio Relay League.

==>Editorial questions or comments: Rick Lindquist, N1RL, [email-masked]

==>How to Get The ARRL Letter
The ARRL Letter also is available to all, free of charge, from these
sources:

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