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FCC ALERT FOLLOW UP - Send Your Comments on the Importance of FM Listening Systems Directly to the FCC |
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John Flanders, Children's Rights Advocate at AG Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (http://www.agbell.org) sent me the following letter today. Please be sure to send your comments on the importance of FM Systems directly to the FCC. Instructions are included in this letter. On behalf of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and especially on behalf of children with hearing impairments all over the country I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of support for the protection of 216-217MHz from commercial sale. The response to our request has been overwhelming. As of this writing over 136 people have sent emails and letters supporting the protection of this band for the use of children and adults with hearing impairments. You messages were sincere, informative and poignant, and they expressed far better than any one person ever could, the vital necessity of protecting this tool that allows people with hearing impairment to function in the hearing world. You should all be congratulated for your concern and effort, and special congratulations go to the AG Bell state chapters who were so diligent and effective in getting the word out to all of you. There is, however one more step that will help to build the shield that will protect this band. The people who will be making the decision on whether to put this band up for auction should see your comments. We believe that it will be far more effective if those comments go directly from you to the Federal Communications Commission. This is not a difficult task. The Commission has set up a special web page that will allow you to submit your comments electronically. I have included a set of directions on how to use this page at the end of this message. You have already done the hard part by writing the messages that you sent to us. We now ask you to make those messages more effective by sending them to the FCC as well. You should also know that the FCC is not unmindful of the importance of this band to people with hearing impairments. When the Commission considers making a sale of this kind they are required by law to issue a public notice called a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. (You may download a copy of this Notice in the Federal Register for January 23, 2001 at : Scroll down the Federal Communications Commission, and click the link next to the sale of 27MHz of radio spectrum.) In the notice for this sale the Commission specifically asked for comments on ways to protect the existing uses of this band. We believe it is important to comment on this issue because the sue by people with hearing impairments is so important that it should not be exposed to any risk of loss or excessive interference. The only way to ensure that there is no risk is to refrain from selling the band. Your comments will help to make this point very clear. Directions for submitting comments to the FCC The FCC has established a web page that allows you to submit comments electronically. The process is reasonably easy to use, although everyone here thinks that the directions that they provide could be clearer. To help you submit your comments we have put together some instructions. These directions may look long, and complicated, but don't worry. I've broken the process down into very small steps for those of you who are, like me, not good with computers. 1. First, save your comments in a word processing file. The FCC can accept comments that are in the form of Microsoft Word, or WordPerfect files. 2. Go to the FCC's Electronic Comment File Submission page. You may click the link here: http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/websql/prod/ecfs/upload_v2.hts 3. Sending your comment is a 2-step process. The first step is to complete and send the coversheet. 4. Type the proceeding number in the first space. The proceeding number for this proposed sale is: 00-221. You must type this in exactly this way for the computer to accept your comments. 5. Unless you are an attorney who is submitting this comment for client you should click on the Name box on line 2. 6. Type your name in the space on line 3. 7. Unless you are an attorney who is submitting these comments for a client you may ignore lines 4 and 5. 8. You may type your email address in line 6. This is not required, and the computer will accept your comments without an email address. If you do include the address in this space the computer will send you an email acknowledging receipt of your comment. 9. Type your street address, city, state, and zip code in spaces 7-10. 10. Unless you are filing your comments after February 22, 2001 you should ignore space 11. 11. Line 12 has a pull down menu. The default choice is "COMMENT". You should leave that in place. 12. Make sure all of the information is correct, then click on the button labeled: "Send Cover Sheet to the FCC" 13. Computer will bring you down the page to the section labeled: "Send Comment Files to FCC (Attachments)" The space labeled: "File Description" should have the word COMMENT in it. 14. Click the Browse button, and find the file containing your comment on your hard drive. Click on the file, and then click the open button. The name of your file should appear in the space labeled "File". 15. There is a pull down menu below in the space labeled: "Select one of these file types or convert your file to one of these types:" Select the type of file you have used, Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, etc. 16. Make sure that you have chosen the right file, and the right file type then click the button labeled: "Send Attached File" 17. That's it! You have submitted a comment to the FCC! An acknowledgment of your comment should appear on your screen. I recommend that you print this out for your records. Note: If your comments are very brief, or if you prefer you may follow steps 2-12 and type your comment directly into the space labeled: "Send a Brief Comment to FCC (typed-in)" However, there is no spell checker feature when doing this. |
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