[CQ-Contest] ULS difficulties

[Ford Peterson]

AL - W6LX wrote...

>I have been trying to update the address for my club call for nearly 1 year
>using the FCC Universal Licensing System (ULS), but problems on their end
>have prevented me from doing so. A few of my friends on e-mail know all the
>details of this tragically comic story, but suffice it to say that I have
>logged numerous attempts on the web, multiple phone calls, multiple
problems
>logged with their technical support folks, retries, etc., and I'm still not
>updated. (The latest unbelieveable statements from FCC tech support were,
>"We can't do anything to your record because you're  registered in the
>system," and, "Oh, you can't use Microsoft Internet Explorer. You have to
>use Netscape, reboot, let it download, reboot, reboot, then register. Oh,
>wait. Can you modify a club call on ULS or do you  have to use a paper
>application?") It's now a private joke between us and honestly, I don't
know
>if I will ever "be legal" again. I will probably lose the call before I can
>update the address.

I feel your pain...  The ULS is a perfect example of your tax dollars,
buying a consultant's time to figure out a web site, only to fire the guy
the instant it is "done."  It will never work correctly.

When I used it to upgrade my call, I was agast to find out that I had to
download not only Netscape, but an Old version of netscape at that!  I could
have filled out a form 610 in about 10 minutes, licked a stamp, and been
done with it once and for all.  But noooooo, I had to get into the ULS and
get it done today.  I must have spent at least 6 to 8 hours of computer time
and countless hours on the phone with FCC tech support to get it set up
correctly so it would issue my new call.  What a joke.  Now that I am "in"
the database correctly, I could process a million callsigns in seconds.
Alas, I know nobody that does more than one at a time--and then only once
every blue moon.

I was notified a couple of weeks later that I would have to go through the
process again if I ever needed it.  Seems as though they changed the login
sequence and trashed the database that contained my application.

What a joke!

Ford-N0FP
ford at cmgate.com


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