Effective September 14, there’s a new address at Mellon Bank for vanity call sign paper application filers who submit Form 610V and FCC Fee Remittance Form 159 with the vanity fee via the Postal Service. The new address is FCC Wireless Bureau Applications, POB 358130, Pittsburgh, PA 15251-5130.
Electronic Form 610V Vanity Call Sign filers will continue to send Form 159 with the vanity fee to FCC Amateur Vanity, POB 358994, Pittsburgh PA 15251-5994.
A reminder: The vanity call sign filing fee drops from 50 dollars to 13 dollars for applications filed on/ or after Sept. 14, 1998.
The FCC reports it has processed vanity applications received through August 14.
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Starting in 1999, the ARRL Outgoing QSL Service will increase its fees from $4 to $6 a pound. ARRL Membership Services Manager Bill Kennamer, K5FUV, says the move is necessary to absorb the effects of a proposed postal rate increase and to bring the money-losing service a bit closer to a break-even basis. The rate for quantities of 10 cards will remain at $1.
Kennamer said the rate increase represents a cost of 4 cents per card (based on 150 cards per pound) to sort, package and mail QSL cards to the bureaus of the other IARU member societies. “Even with the increase, this still represents one of the better bargains in services to ARRL members,” he said.
Inaugurated in 1976, the Outgoing QSL Service provides an economical way for ARRL members to send their QSL cards to amateurs in other countries. Today, two fulltime employees handle the more than 2 million cards that show up most years.
“The ARRL has subsidized the Outgoing QSL Service since the beginning, and continues to do so today,” Kennamer explained. He said the League’s handling and mailing costs now run more than $9 a pound, leaving a shortfall of more than $5 per pound at the current rates. The last rate increase, to $4 a pound, was three years ago.