08/17/2017

With a revised FCC Form 605 - Quick-Form Application for Authorization in the Ship, Aircraft, Amateur, Restricted and Commercial Operator, and General Mobile Radio Services - soon going into effect, the National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC[1]) has updated its unofficial NCVEC Form 605 that's used at volunteer examination sessions. The revised NCVECÿForm 605 must be used at exam sessions starting on August 21. Both the new FCC and NCVEC forms ask applicants if they have been convicted of a felony in any state or federal court. This conforms with FCC requirements to evaluate an applicant's qualifications to hold any FCC-issued license. The FCC has been asking "the felony question" on other forms, and its omission on Form 605 was an apparent oversight.

An applicant's response and explanation to the felony question - now included on NCVEC Form 605 - will be used to determine eligibility to be a Commission licensee. If the answer to the felony question is "yes," the applicant must submit to FCC - separately from NCVEC Form 605 - a statement (the FCC calls it an "exhibit") explaining the circumstances. Such applications will be held for a basic qualification review, something the FCC already does for other licensed radio services. The FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau has said that an affirmative answer to the felony question does not mean that an application will be denied automatically. An applicant's answer to the felony question will be available via the Universal Licensing System (ULS), unless the applicant requests separately that it be kept confidential.

VECs will not handle exhibits and confidentiality requests; these must be filed with the FCC by the applicant.

Applicants must answer the felony question only when filing NCVEC Form 605 or FCC Form 605 for a New, Amendment, Modification (upgrade or call sign change), or Renewal/Modification (changes at renewal time). The question does not have to be answered if the applicant is filing a renewal or an administrative update (change of address, name, e-mail address, etc).

New NCVEC 605 Forms[2] and an Applicant information sheet[3] for use at ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator exam sessions starting on August 21 have been published. VEC teams should discard all existing versions of the NCVEC Form 605; they no longer will be valid and cannot be used going forward.

The FCC has indicated that all VECs must begin submitting this additional data starting on September 7. NCVEC decided to make August 21 the effective date to accommodate mail schedules and the Labor Day holiday.

NCVEC Form 605 has not been revised since the Commission restructured Amateur Radio license classes 17 years ago.

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[1] http://www.ncvec.org/
[2] http://www.arrl.org/files/file/VEs/NCVEC20Form20Sept.pdf
[3] http://www.arrl.org/files/file/VEs/Applicant20Qualification202017.pdf

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