Batboard

Hello,

We had 2 licenses modified on 8/20 that were accepted and has remained in a pending state every since. One is UHF and the other is VHF.

Should licenses remain as a pending application for this long?
Is it OK while it is pending to start switching to Narrow to use?
How can I find out a better status to find out when pending will become approved?

I cannot answer your licensing issues, but I do know it's okay to narrowband your system if you are ready. Git 'er dun.

So as long as its pending then we're good to go w/ Narrowband ?

No

Are they IG or PW ? PW AFAIK takes longer

IG for Both.

escomm wrote:No

Mind to explain?

KG4LHQ wrote:

escomm wrote:No

Mind to explain?

Me too! I never get to play in licensing world. So, it should be educational. As a tech, I do tend to go full steam ahead. Maybe I've been wrong.

Bill_G wrote:

KG4LHQ wrote:

escomm wrote:No

Mind to explain?

Me too! I never get to play in licensing world. So, it should be educational. As a tech, I do tend to go full steam ahead. Maybe I've been wrong.

Maybe we both will learn something today! LOL

If you already have a wideband license valid until the end of the year you can go narrowband NOW if you want to. You didn't even have to apply for the license to go narrowband.

The FCC does not require you to use the whole spectrum that you are assigned. So, using 12.5 instead of 25 is just fine.

as long as you generated a ULS file number you are safe from the 2013 FCC housecleaning/mass cancellations of WB licenses.You can switch to 12.5 before modification gets granted.
Did you just modify emissions to all 11k2F3E then?

Yes the only thing we had added was the narrowband emission.

then no worries.

Just curious why its taking so long to approve? Just to make sure the simplex freq that is used licensed to a business can be on narrow now and the other repeat freq pair can go to narrow now?

maybe due to backlog? Call them 1-877-480-3201

KG4LHQ wrote:

Bill_G wrote:

KG4LHQ wrote:
Mind to explain?

Me too! I never get to play in licensing world. So, it should be educational. As a tech, I do tend to go full steam ahead. Maybe I've been wrong.

Maybe we both will learn something today! LOL

Well I guess it depends on how technical you want to get. You are only allowed to use the emissions the license has designated. Since the license has not been issued, you technically can't use the emissions designators. Although realistically, I doubt anyone would make much of a stink for running narrowband on a wideband license.

But another designator, saying running TRBO when all you are authorized for is analog, that could lead to an NOV and/or NAL.

The FCC seems to take this stuff seriously, peruse through the enforcement actions for a real eye opener. I've seen them hit licensees recently for either not monitoring, or not having the capability to monitor, before transmissions.

Yeah, all we did was add narrowband and thats it.

What is the call sign?

What I've seen a couple different shops do is do the physical narrowbanding, new license or not; the wideband license is (my shorthand version) 'The emissions shall not fall outside the limits of wideband designation' - you can take up the full channel width. If you start transmitting narrowband, you're using less of the wideband channel, which is still OK. You're not going to go anywhere near the edge of a wideband channel;

Show me where it says that you CAN'T use narrowband modulation on a channel that is still licensed only for wideband...... esp. if you've applied for the NB license and are just waiting for it to show up in the mail.

And while FCC may have hit licensees for not monitoring before TX, right now, I'd tend to think they have other things on their mind. Like simply getting people to change their licenses. And then gigging them when they don't, or don't do it correctly, etc.

Just make sure that you get a narrowband license issued to you, on your same channel before Dec. 31.

If you used a frequency coordinator and you are not seeking a rule waiver with your license application; you are usually granted a "Conditional Authority" which lets you begin operating your radio system 10 days after your application is filed. A simple emission designator change falls into the "Conditional Authority" and you are good to go 10 days after you file it with FCC.

kb4mdz wrote:What I've seen a couple different shops do is do the physical narrowbanding, new license or not; the wideband license is (my shorthand version) 'The emissions shall not fall outside the limits of wideband designation' - you can take up the full channel width. If you start transmitting narrowband, you're using less of the wideband channel, which is still OK. You're not going to go anywhere near the edge of a wideband channel;

While this "might be true" for an analog emission change, it is not for migrating from 25KHz analog to something like P25 C4FM digital that by design doesn't go near the edge either.
Even though it is what they call a "minor" change to the license it is still a change and the OP should call them at 1-800-CALL-FCC.

One other possible reason for a delay was brought up here a few months ago. Gent filed a simple emission mod for NB, but also claimed a fee exemption. As I understood the thread, the FCC will waive fees on NB emission mods for licensees like a business that would normally pay a fee. (Governmental entities are exempt from fees anyway so there should be no delay on their NB emission mod applications.)

His application was delayed for a month or two for the FCC to process the fee waiver. IIRC, it was the only reason for the delay.

I have filed several NB emission mods on behalf of governmental agencies. The whole process usually takes less than 24 hours from the time I submit online to the time that the FCC mails out the approved and modified license.

FWIW....I am going thru this with a couple of my licences. I called the FCC and was told they are backlogged but working as fast as they can. They were 2 months out when i talked to them on a particular licence.

Of the licenses I've processed for various entities,

Public Safety (PW) are almost automated. 3-4 days.
Anything else (business IG, etc) are 60-90 days.

tpg

The Pager Geek wrote:Of the licenses I've processed for various entities,

Public Safety (PW) are almost automated. 3-4 days.
Anything else (business IG, etc) are 60-90 days.

Agree. I tracked a couple of my more recent PW ones. They were approved and in the mail in less than a day.

Doesn't make a lot of sense that business and IG's would take that long unless they really have a back log of processing the fee exemption requests.

SteveC0625 wrote: Doesn't make a lot of sense that business and IG's would take that long unless they really have a back log of processing the fee exemption requests.

I think the fee exemption is the issue. I submitted an application on 4/16 with a Fee Exemption attachment. it was "Offlined for Attachment Review" on 4/17 and sat in that status until 6/08 when it changed to "Attachment Review Completed" and it was granted that day.

It would be interesting to see if IG applications paying the fee get immediate approval.

My status on both of these IG licenses.

08/21/2012 IRAC Screening Completed
08/21/2012 Coser Screening Completed
08/21/2012 Offlined for Engineering Review
08/21/2012 Offlined for Engineering Review
08/21/2012 Offlined for Attachment Review
08/21/2012 Redlight Review Completed
08/20/2012 Modification Received

KG4LHQ wrote:My status on both of these IG licenses.

08/21/2012 IRAC Screening Completed
08/21/2012 Coser Screening Completed
08/21/2012 Offlined for Engineering Review
08/21/2012 Offlined for Engineering Review
08/21/2012 Offlined for Attachment Review
08/21/2012 Redlight Review Completed
08/20/2012 Modification Received

And everything but the Attachment Review appears to be complete. That pretty much confirms that the attachment claiming the fee exemption is the single item holding up the application.

Well they need to get on the ball LOL

Granted yet on the modifications?

Nope - Nothing has changed.

Called FCC they said very backed up on modification for narrowband licenses and gave a 90 day blah blah however I'm past the 90 days lol

IDK what their deal is.

Just an update:

Both licenses are still in pending state no progress made on either. I understand as long as its pending there is no issue but good grief this is crazy that it is taking this long.

I just modified the hospitals on 12/12 and it appears that this is following the same route. Sigh.

did they ever grant or get approved? I have one UHF FB2 IG that is still pending...all 39 others cleared.

An itinerant I filed on January 10 just got kicked back to me on June 21. Somehow I specified a banded frequency of 469.55 to 469.55. Not sure how their computers let you ask for a band of frequencies that start and stop at the same place. Anyhow, that's damn near 5 and a half months for processing

Some that were filed as Modification to narrowband back in NOV and DEC are just coming thru.

Most of the licenses have other errors such as transmitter locations that are way off by miles and wrong control point contact info, telco numbers.

I see I am not alone in some of the snafus I have been seeing from my Oct/Dec NB modifications to licenses.Have you been getting customer Johnny Come Lately requests to modify and narrow band emission designators? Been busy here doing some of those too.11K2F3E keys are worn down on my keyboard now

The narrowbanding tool the FCC has now makes it a breeze to modify the license and it's usually processed within 24 business hours. No waiting time

nice sharing.