Friday the 13th struck the FCC Universal Licensing System (ULS) electronic batch filing (EBF) system. It has not processed any VEC license and examination session files since early that day. ARRL VEC Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM, said her office has alerted the FCC IT staff, which are said to be looking into the issue but did not estimate how long the system would be down. Somma said it was the second time the EBF system has gone down since late September, when the FCC said a process had stopped running on an FCC server.

“We transmit the exam sessions to FCC as soon as possible, which is usually 24 to 48 hours from the day received in our office,” Somma said. “We make every effort to process each session quickly and efficiently while following FCC rules. Unless there is missing candidate information or paperwork, we normally aim to send the session to the FCC within a few days, because most of the VEC staff understands what it feels like to wait for your call sign to be issued.”

Somma said ARRL VEC has more than 400 applications and nearly 150 exam sessions in the queue waiting to be processed by FCC. Another 40 to 50 received in the office are ready to be put in the queue, she added.

She expressed the hope that applicants will be understanding and patient while the FCC resolves the problem that has been delaying the processing of applications.

The W5YI-VEC has told ARRL that it has been experiencing the same issue and also has been in contact with FCC IT staff.

FCC website maintenance in early September put the ULS and and other public applications offline for more than 5 days.