Tuesday, April 05, 2022

More on the upcoming FCC license fee

 From Amateur Radio Newsline:

New FCC Application Fee Will Not Apply to Amateur Radio License Upgrades

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) staff has clarified in response to an ARRL request that the new $35 application fee will not apply to most license modifications, including those to upgrade an amateur radio licensee's operator class and changes to club station trustees. The FCC staff explained that the new fees will apply only to applications for a new license, renewal, rule waiver, or a new vanity call sign. As previously announced, the new fees take effect on April 19, 2022.


"We are pleased that the FCC will not charge licensees the FCC application fee for license upgrade applications," said ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC) Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM. "While applicants for a new license will need to pay the $35 FCC application fee, there will be no FCC charge for future upgrades and administrative updates, such as a change of mailing or email address. Most current licensees, therefore, will not be charged the new FCC application fee until they renew their license or apply for a new vanity call sign."


ARRL previously reported that the new $35 application fee for amateur radio licenses will become effective on April 19, 2022. Further information and instructions about the FCC Application Fee are available from the ARRL VEC at www.arrl.org/fcc-application-fee.


72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Saturday, April 02, 2022

So you fancy yourself the "Wordle" champ, eh?

To be honest with you, I'm not even sure how Wordle works. All I know is that it's some kind of word game where (I think) you have to guess the word of the day and you get a certain number of tries. All I know is that I see a ton of posts on social media about how people have done that day. Even my sister posts!

I've not tried, nor jumped into the fray, or think I ever will. At least the "conventional" game. There is a new one that I learned of today thanks to Dave Ring N1EA on the CW e-mail reflector. This version is called "Morsle".

https://morsle.fun/

Just for fun.

Morsle - the daily Morse code challenge

Welcome to the daily Morse code challenge

Brought to you by Remote Ham Radio

You have 21 tries to guess the word, which will be played aloud in Morse code.

Playback speed starts at 40 WPM, which is pretty fast, but don't worry! Every three tries, the speed decreases by 5 WPM.

Each time you play the word or submit a guess, you are deducted one try, so conserve those guesses until you are certain you have correctly guessed some letters.

You can guess at any time, even if there are some blank letters. Correct answers will be marked in green, but there are no other hints.

I got today's word on the second try at 40 WPM - so I guess I can still copy well enough. Good job on whomever came up with this! I look forward to rising to the challenge each day. In addition to the "main game", there's a practice session and you can change between regular words and call signs.

I'd like to see the "Wordle" champs take this one on!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!