FCC fees go up - BoatU.S. Reports

Boat/US Magazine, July, 2003

For those boaters required to have a ship station license for a VHF radio, it will now cost $50 more--$200 instead of $150 (including the $50 processing fee).

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently published its annual fee schedule in April and the ship station license was among the 50 or so licenses to see an increase this year. The rate increase will apply only to newly issued licenses and those that come up for renewal. The license term remains 10 years.

According to sources in the FCC, this is the first increase for the VHF license in about four years. Every year, fees are either rounded up or down, in increments of $5 per year, depending on the number of license holders and, in the past, the ship station license has been rounded down.

Boaters should remember that the FCC eliminated the requirement for a VHF ship station license in 1996 for most boaters. Only those boaters who plan on transmitting in a foreign port, have boats over 65 feet, or are licensed by the U.S. Coast Guard to carry more than six paying passengers must have a ship station license. For more information on the FCC ship station license, call 888-CALL-FCC or visit their Web site, www.fcc.gov.

Meanwhile, the FCC announced in May that it would start collecting more complete personal safety data from boaters applying for a license required under international rules for issuing a Mobile Maritime Service Identity (MMSI) for use on a DSC radio. The information, such as emergency contacts and description of the vessel, is already collected by BoatU.S. in order to register a boater with a DSC radio who is not required to have an FCC license. The data is then transferred into the Coast Guard search and rescue database.

For more on DSC radios, see related story on page 28 or go to BoatUS.com/mmsi.