WA State Amateur Radio License Plates – Follow Up

I've received some questions regarding the email I sent on June 12, 2019, regarding some 
Washington State Amateur Radio license plates being shown as MARS on vehicle registrations.

1. What is the Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL) Amateur Radio License Program? 
   Please review the information found at this URL:

      https://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/spham.html 

I will address the following questions based on previous professional work experience with 
DOL. The issue has just been discovered and too soon for them to give answers at this time. 
The first step is to determine the magnitude of the issue and devise a plan to make 
corrections. The number of staff employed in the section that will address this matter 
is rather small. Funding for this project is coming out of their normal biennial budget so 
DOL needs to correct the situation with the least financial impact of the agency. Please 
limit questions/comments to DOL as they don't have answers at this time and won't until 
they know the full impact of making the necessary changes.

2.  Will the Department of Licensing issue me a new vehicle registration?
    A. Being practical I will say the answer is no as it would require funding that hasn't 
       been previously allocated. Amateur Radio annotated vehicle registrations will 
       more-than-likely be issued at the next license renewal.

3.  Do I need to contact DOL myself?
    A.  No, DOL will be searching their records and making changes to affected records as 
        quickly as they can.

I will keep the section informed if I hear back from DOL.

Please be patient as this is going to be a time consuming project for DOL. The staff of 
DOL have been very cordial about correcting the problem.

Thank you very much for your membership in the ARRL.

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ARRL Western Washington Section
Section Manager: Monte L Simpson, AF7PQ
af7pq@arrl.org