FCC Restricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit

MachFly

MachFly

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MachFly
I am considering getting an FCC Restricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit for career purposes. Anyone know how hard is it to get it and what is the process?

Thanks
 
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How hard is it? Hmmm...how hard is it to fill out a form, write a check, and mail them together to the FCC? The process and on-line access to the form and other information can be found here. IIRC, the fee is currently $65. It was free when I got mine in 1969, and the price has always gone up, never down, so if you think you will need it in the future...
 
Thanks!

I thought I had to go through some training and take a test or something.
 
Ron Levy said:
How hard is it? Hmmm...how hard is it to fill out a form, write a check, and mail them together to the FCC? The process and on-line access to the form and other information can be found here. IIRC, the fee is currently $65. It was free when I got mine in 1969, and the price has always gone up, never down, so if you think you will need it in the future...
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Don't lose it. A replacement will cost you $60. Seems pretty ridiculous for something something they issue for the asking (and money), with no test or anything. If it costs the FCC that much to process the request and mail the piece of paper, they need contract it out. I bet there are a lot of companies that could do it for $15.
 
kkoran said:
Don't lose it. A replacement will cost you $60. Seems pretty ridiculous for something something they issue for the asking (and money), with no test or anything. If it costs the FCC that much to process the request and mail the piece of paper, they need contract it out. I bet there are a lot of companies that could do it for $15.
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I'll do it for $5 and a six-pak of Bud.

Jim
 
Radiotelephone Operator Permit: $65


FAA Aircraft Registration: $5
FAA CD with every STC, 337, registration document, and lien paperwork that made it to Oak City for a particular tail number: $10
Practical exam from a Fed: free

...I'm constantly amazed how cheap some of the FAA services are...
 
Luckily I still had mine from 1974 and it was still free then. You need one to operate your US airplane radio in a foreign land. And your airplane needs an FCC station license too.
 
BillTIZ said:
Luckily I still had mine from 1974 and it was still free then. You need one to operate your US airplane radio in a foreign land. And your airplane needs an FCC station license too.
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Ya', I'd guess you'd need one if you were going to fly into Canada and I assume Canadian customs might check to make sure you had it?
 
peerlesscowboy said:
Ya', I'd guess you'd need one if you were going to fly into Canada and I assume Canadian customs might check to make sure you had it?
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They might, or might not. Would not want to be asked for it and not have it.the fine would be much more than the cost to acquire.
 
hook_dupin said:
Radiotelephone Operator Permit: $65


FAA Aircraft Registration: $5
FAA CD with every STC, 337, registration document, and lien paperwork that made it to Oak City for a particular tail number: $10
Practical exam from a Fed: free

...I'm constantly amazed how cheap some of the FAA services are...
Click to expand...

Yep, go outside of the US and the fees start stacking up. I have to pay every 6 months to "renew" my ATPL, pay a fee every 3 years to "renew" my Radio License, and of course my medical every 6 months which must be taken by a government Doctor. And also paid to validate my US license, paid to take my English proficiency test, etc, etc.
 
Somewhere (back in my old broadcast days) I got a second class radiotelephone certificate sitting in a folder. I showed it to my instructor when i started my flight training back when they checked those things and he really suggested I get the restricted.

If you go back far enough, you may remember having to take the elements 1 and 2 on the FCC test to get the license.
 
flyingron said:
Somewhere (back in my old broadcast days) I got a second class radiotelephone certificate sitting in a folder. I showed it to my instructor when i started my flight training back when they checked those things and he really suggested I get the restricted.

If you go back far enough, you may remember having to take the elements 1 and 2 on the FCC test to get the license.
Click to expand...

The 2nd class radiotelephone operator license is analogous to the GROL, which still requires similar testing. The restricted radiotelephone operator permit is nothing more than a simple registration and has never required testing. They really are different things as far as I can tell.
 
its oneof the easiest licenses you will get in aviation. follow the links provided above
 
is that the one you need to fly to the Bahamas? sorry, I forgot and don't have my Banyan Bahama package with me to check.
 
MachFly said:
Thanks!

I thought I had to go through some training and take a test or something.
Click to expand...

Worse than that, you have to navigate and succesfully fill out a form on the FCC website. I've taken Differential Equations tests that were easier than using that website. And if I recall correctly there are a few questions to answer. Things like.

"Can you read and speak english?"
"Are you capable of taking rough notes?"

etc...

It's a joke.
 
hook_dupin said:
Radiotelephone Operator Permit: $65


FAA Aircraft Registration: $5
FAA CD with every STC, 337, registration document, and lien paperwork that made it to Oak City for a particular tail number: $10
Practical exam from a Fed: free

...I'm constantly amazed how cheap some of the FAA services are...
Click to expand...
Shhh.....

...don't tell Congress.
 
BillTIZ said:
Luckily I still had mine from 1974 and it was still free then. You need one to operate your US airplane radio in a foreign land. And your airplane needs an FCC station license too.
Click to expand...
Depends on the foreign land's rules. The Canadians don't require it, and neither do the Bahamians, but if you go past the Bahamas to the Turks & Caicos, it is required and you may be checked (I was). As for Mexico, I doubt the national rules make much difference -- a $20 bill or a carton of Marlboros may still be required or used as a substitute.
 
flyingron said:
Somewhere (back in my old broadcast days) I got a second class radiotelephone certificate sitting in a folder. I showed it to my instructor when i started my flight training back when they checked those things and he really suggested I get the restricted.
Click to expand...
Too bad your instructor didn't know the FCC's rules -- any class RTO license will substitute for any lower class RTO license requirement.
 
There's nothing 'easy' about the First Class Radiotelephone Commercial License [now GROL] unless one uses a cheat sheet / cheat book. If you take and pass the test, "legitimately", it means you have BS degree engineering level knowledge of radio electronics, circuit diagrams and troubleshooting abilities. At one time the First Class Radiotelephone Commercial License was the 'ticket' into broadcast engineering and many other genres of communications. Under the Reagan administration, many of those genres were deregulated to accommodate the fast-growing cellular industry which needed technicians but time didn't allow to train that many to acquire the FCC First Class Radiotelephone Commercial License - that's when a BS degree in electrical engineering became the new requirement.

jordane93 said:
its oneof the easiest licenses you will get in aviation. follow the links provided above
Click to expand...
 
Tantara said:
There's nothing 'easy' about the First Class Radiotelephone Commercial License [now GROL] ... Under the Reagan administration, many of those genres were deregulated to accommodate the fast-growing cellular industry which needed technicians but time didn't allow to train that many to acquire the FCC First Class Radiotelephone Commercial License - that's when a BS degree in electrical engineering became the new requirement.
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The real driver of the deregulation was vastly more stable transmitters and antenna systems in radio and TV. It started with changing the requirements for transmitter readings from every 30 minutes to three hours, and ended with the doing-away of the certificate requirements.

Much of the knowledge required to upgrade from the Second to the First had to do with NTSC TV signal standards, scan techniques, etc., all now obsolete. All holders of the First and Second-Class were downgraded to the General when they had to renew.

I now hold the General, but still have my First Class framed as a momento. I got it as a young DJ in 1978, because some AM stations with directional antenna arrays (multi-tower) were required by the regs to have someone with a First Class on duty 24/7. It was a great tie-breaker in a contested job opening for a night shift, especially as the engineers' unions faded, because station management didn't have to budget for a second person to be on duty.

The General supercedes the Restricted, making it redundant but, again, an inspector in a foreign country might not know our FCC regs. The FCC will probably issue you both, and the Restricted becomes the one you keep in the aircraft.
 
ChrisK said:
The 2nd class radiotelephone operator license is analogous to the GROL, which still requires similar testing. The restricted radiotelephone operator permit is nothing more than a simple registration and has never required testing. They really are different things as far as I can tell.
Click to expand...

Yes, they are different things. The GROL authorizes you to do repairs and adjustments in some radio services; the RROP does not.
 
flyingron said:
Somewhere (back in my old broadcast days) I got a second class radiotelephone certificate sitting in a folder. I showed it to my instructor when i started my flight training back when they checked those things and he really suggested I get the restricted.

If you go back far enough, you may remember having to take the elements 1 and 2 on the FCC test to get the license.
Click to expand...

Tantara said:
There's nothing 'easy' about the First Class Radiotelephone Commercial License [now GROL] unless one uses a cheat sheet / cheat book. If you take and pass the test, "legitimately", it means you have BS degree engineering level knowledge of radio electronics, circuit diagrams and troubleshooting abilities. At one time the First Class Radiotelephone Commercial License was the 'ticket' into broadcast engineering and many other genres of communications. Under the Reagan administration, many of those genres were deregulated to accommodate the fast-growing cellular industry which needed technicians but time didn't allow to train that many to acquire the FCC First Class Radiotelephone Commercial License - that's when a BS degree in electrical engineering became the new requirement.
Click to expand...

I got the Third Phone w/ Broadcast Endorsement in late 1970 / early 1971 when I was working on a campus radio station. Didn't need it legally, but the position of the comm dept was that if you were interested enough in radio, you were interested enough to get the ticket. Easy written exam - rules, regulations and can you read a meter. IIRC, it allowed me to operate an AM radio station transmitter up to 5 kW with a non-directional antenna and something similar for an FM station. Too many decades ago to remember fully. I let it expire (after 5 years) as I haven't done any radio DJ work since that year (first year in college). The only FCC ticket I have now is my Amateur Extra ham license.
 
It's unreal that the website of a large government agency of the most powerful and technologically advanced country in the world has a website that looks like it was designed in 1997. Talk about a difficult website to navigate and use!
 
kurtsnyder said:
It's unreal that the website of a large government agency of the most powerful and technologically advanced country in the world has a website that looks like it was designed in 1997. Talk about a difficult website to navigate and use!
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And this is the FCC's new and improved web site. :confused:
 
RotorAndWing said:
Yep, go outside of the US and the fees start stacking up. I have to pay every 6 months to "renew" my ATPL, pay a fee every 3 years to "renew" my Radio License, and of course my medical every 6 months which must be taken by a government Doctor. And also paid to validate my US license, paid to take my English proficiency test, etc, etc.
Click to expand...

Where? We go all over the world, and regularly to Canada and Mexico and I have never had to renew and ATP (which doesn't expire) nor renew an FCC radio license.
 
Inverted said:
Where? We go all over the world, and regularly to Canada and Mexico and I have never had to renew and ATP (which doesn't expire) nor renew an FCC radio license.
Click to expand...

Do you hold a foreign ATP?

I'm not talking about US certificates. I was replying to a poster that was commenting on how inexpensive FAA certificates were compared with other countries.
 
kurtsnyder said:
It's unreal that the website of a large government agency of the most powerful and technologically advanced country in the world has a website that looks like it was designed in 1997. Talk about a difficult website to navigate and use!
Click to expand...

As someone who got ****ed off and quit after accepting a position 4,000 miles away to write a government website (an important internal one for the DoD at that). The only thing unreal about it is that it actually works.
 
MachFly said:
Thanks!

I thought I had to go through some training and take a test or something.
Click to expand...

No, not for the Restricted, GMDSS and Technician ratings require classes and tests. GMDSS was about the most boring 2 weeks I've spent.:rofl:
 
Ron Levy said:
Depends on the foreign land's rules. The Canadians don't require it, and neither do the Bahamians, but if you go past the Bahamas to the Turks & Caicos, it is required and you may be checked (I was). As for Mexico, I doubt the national rules make much difference -- a $20 bill or a carton of Marlboros may still be required or used as a substitute.
Click to expand...

Interesting, my research showed that it is required anywhere outside the US. Even if you are still in US and talking to a foreign station across the border. Both Radiotelephone permit and Station License for the airplane.

True I was never challenged or asked for the FCC paperwork on my trip through Canada, but then all of my contacts with Canadian Customs (CANPASS) and NAVCANADA was by telephone.
 
Just complied the application.

How long does it normally take for the actual thing to arrive?
 
ChrisK said:
The 2nd class radiotelephone operator license is analogous to the GROL, which still requires similar testing. The restricted radiotelephone operator permit is nothing more than a simple registration and has never required testing. They really are different things as far as I can tell.
Click to expand...

Nope. The restricted was an "easy to get" reduction of the original third class radiotelephone operators license (which required elements 1 and 2 to be passed, plus element 9 if you need the broadcast endorsement). My second, and your GROL required element 3. The first class (I didn't need it for the broadcast station I was working at) element 4. If you needed the radar endorsement, element 8. I don't recall what they used 5..7 for.

My second class and your GROL should legally suffice for an aviation station if you could convince whatever non-FCC guy checking such to know what it is you were presenting him.
 
I've heard that if you've lost your card, just log on to the website and change your address and they'll send you out another one for free. Even if you live in the same place, have them mail it to a friend and then a few days/weeks after getting it, do another address change back to your original address and save $60!
 
What does it look like? Is it a plastic card?
 
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