SB QST @ ARL $ARLB051
ARLB051 Gate 3 grants soon

ZCZC AG51
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 51  ARLB051
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT  September 5, 1997
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB051
ARLB051 Gate 3 grants soon

As more than a thousand vanity call sign applicants wait anxiously,
the FCC in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is edging ever closer to
processing Gate 3 August 6 vanity receipts.

Gate 3 opened August 6 for Advanced class amateurs. As of late
August, the FCC had cleared the decks of any ''work in process'' or
WIPS applications from applicants who had filed prior to August 6
under earlier vanity gates. The FCC reports it received 1613 vanity
call sign applications between August 6 and August 20. That total
could include applications filed under earlier vanity gates,
however.

An FCC spokesperson said this week that personnel are very carefully
matching up fees paid with applications filed to ensure that any
call sign request that can be granted, will be granted. In
particular, the FCC wants to be sure that no fees for electronic
filers go astray.  Most of those who are seeking new call signs
under Gate 3 filed electronically, but payments still had to be sent
by mail.

The fee-handling procedure initiated with Gate 3 is a change from
how fees were handled under earlier vanity gates. Under the current
procedure, the FCC requires fees accompanying electronically filed
applications to be paid (and received by the FCC bank contractor,
Mellon Bank) within 10 days of filing. The FCC will not process an
application before the fee is received. The fee for a vanity call
sign application increases from 30 dollar(s) to 50 dollar(s) on September 
15, 1997.

The FCC still has not given any indication when it plans to open
Gate 4.
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/EX