The League’s request stems from last year s decision by a majority of the Volunteer Examiner Coordinators to incorporate a previously informal organization as National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators Inc. ARRL/VEC and some other VEC’s chose to not participate in the corporation. At that time, Sumner emphasized that ARRL Volunteer Examiner Department Manager Bart Jahnke, KB9NM, would continue to participate with other VEC’s on issues of common interest, and that the League did not want to change the cooperative relationship that existed between the ARRL and other VEC’s. NCVEC Inc. later removed Jahnke from the question pool committee (QPC), which had been the mechanism for VEC’s to cooperate in maintaining question pools for written ham radio examination elements.
In October, FCC Wireless Tele- communications Bureau Deputy Chief Ralph Haller confirmed that the NCVEC has no recognition in the Communications Act or the FCC Rules, and that the FCC views each VEC individually. He said the FCC expected all VEC’s to be able to participate in question pool activities. In December, the FCC’s McNamara asked NCVEC Inc. president, Dalton H. Tunstill, WB4HOK, to immediately reinstate the ARRL/VEC to a seat on the QPC. The conference so far has refused, but stated that, if certain conditions were met, Jahnke would be eligible for election to the QPC when the conference meets in July. The League now formally requests the FCC to advise Tunstill that the question pool committee operating exclusively under the NCVEC Inc. is no longer the mechanism through which question pools for Amateur Radio Service examinations are maintained and to issue public notice to that effect.
The League asks the FCC to terminate its agreement with any VEC that took part in the decision to exclude the ARRL/VEC or other VEC from cooperating in the maintenance of the question pools, as their action violated Section 97.523 of the FCC s rules. The League has invited all VEC’s to cooperate in creating a replacement Question Pool Committee, which would be open to all FCC-recognized VEC’s.
The ARRL said its exclusion from the QPC caused material appropriate for study by prospective Technician Class applicants to be left out of the Novice (element 2) and Technician (element 3A) syllabi the committee released February 1, 1996. The present syllabi are not acceptable to the ARRL because study guides prepared for these examinations won t include the missing material, and applicants won t be tested on it.
The ARRL said its exclusion also resulted in errors in the revised question pool for the Amateur Extra Class written examination, element 4B, released by the Question Pool Committee December 1 for use starting July 1, 1996. The League said VEC’s can correct this by simply not using the defective questions in their examinations.
The ARRL/VEC coordinates approximately two-thirds of all FCC Amateur Radio examinations.
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