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$///FCC 95-165,4/27/95///$


                                Before the
                 FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION     FCC 95-165
                         Washington, D. C.  20554
                                                          


In the Matter of                   )
                                   )
Amendment of the Amateur Service   )    PR Docket No. 93-267
Rules to Extend Temporary          )    RM-8288
Operating Authority to New         )    
Amateur Operators.                 )


                       MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
                          (Proceeding Terminated)


Adopted: April 19, 1995       Released: May 2, 1995


By the Commission:


                             I.  INTRODUCTION

     1.  In the Notice of Proposed Rule Making (Notice) in this
proceeding, we proposed to amend the Commission's rules to 
provide temporary operating authority to a person who passes the
examination for a new amateur operator license.  For the reasons
given herein, this Memorandum Opinion and Order terminates the
proceeding.


                              II.  BACKGROUND

     2.  An amateur operator who has passed the required
examination, and who has submitted an application to the
volunteer examiners (VEs) for a higher class of operator license, 
is authorized to operate his or her station using the greater
privileges immediately.  A Certificate of Successful Completion
(CSCE) is the visible evidence of the examinee's operating
authority until receipt of the license document.  There is no
comparable procedure for a successful examinee who does not
already hold a license.  To remedy this situation, the Western
Carolina Amateur Radio Society/VEC, Inc. (Wescars) filed a
petition for rule making (RM-8288).  That petition provided the
impetus for our proposal in this proceeding.




                             III.  DISCUSSION

     3.  The commenters generally oppose the concept of a
temporary operating authority for new amateur operators because
they fear that it will be abused by persons who would fabricate
false call signs and operate without any license.  This is in
direct contrast to those upgrading, as they already have an
FCC-issued call sign.  In addition, the commenters assert that
the waiting period before receiving a license is not too long and
affords a new licensee the opportunity to observe how to
communicate in the amateur service.  In its comments, The
American Radio Relay League, Inc. (ARRL) noted that electronic
filing would save application processing time because the
volunteer-examiner coordinators (VECs) would enter the data from
the applications they receive into an electronic format that can
be sent at high speed over telephone lines to the Commission's
processing facility.  No manual reentering of data by the
Commission's staff would be required.  Because a license could be
received in a relatively short time, less than two weeks, ARRL
sees no need for a temporary license procedure.            

     4.  A number of other commenters also recommend that the
Commission introduce electronic filing into the licensing
process.  In an Order dated October 17, 1994, the Commission,
by the Chief, Private Radio Bureau, amended the amateur service
rules to permit electronic filing by the VECs.  Electronic filing
has now been implemented on a voluntary basis by the VECs that
handle ninety-five percent of the amateur service applications. 
It is significantly reducing the time required to receive and
process applications for new amateur operator licenses.  Time is 
conserved because there is no need for manual reentry of the data
at our licensing facility.  Finally, authorization to operate the
amateur station now commences when our license processing
facility grants the license by entering the appropriate data in
the amateur service licensee data base.  These procedures often
allow a new amateur operator to begin operating an amateur
station within a few days after the electronically-filed data is
received by the Commission.

     5.  Accordingly, we conclude that the implementation of
electronic filing of applications has made the proposed temporary
operating authority unnecessary.  Therefore, we decline to
implement a temporary operating authority.


                           IV.  ORDERING CLAUSES                   

     6.  For the reasons given herein, and pursuant to the
authority contained in 47 U.S.C  154(i), this proceeding IS
TERMINATED.

                            FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION



                            William F. Caton
                            Acting Secretary