Optionally require phone number for registrations in a session

27 votes

Make a phone number a hard edit, that the form can not be completed without a phone number.

EDIT by KD7BBC: This will never be made mandatory for everyone, so I'm modifying the feature request to be to allow setting an option for registrations on a given session to require a valid phone number)

Under consideration Suggested by: Chuck Tyrell (19 Feb, '22) • Upvoted: 21 Nov, '24 • Comments: 17

Comments: 17

19 Feb, '22
Alwin N6ATF
Some may not want to have their phone number submitted to the FCC as long as it's not their required field...
21 Feb, '22
Richard Bateman Admin
Hi Chuck, there are two parts to this: the first is that like Alwin was indicating it's not a required field for your license, so it's never going to be required from that perspective -- however, I am considering adding some optionally mandatory (based on team settings) "exam specific" contact information fields to make it possible to share contact information with a team that you don't necessarily want on your license.
21 Feb, '22
Heather KM6ZQB
Maybe a check box which the applicant selects to allow tge phone number to pass to the FCC.
23 Feb, '22
Janet wb9zph
I’ll agree with that, Heather. I need the phone numbers to contact people when they don’t receive my emails. But I don’t have a problem with them saying that it shouldn’t be on the 605 to send on to the FCC. I just want it to make sure they get the test info ok.
24 Feb, '22
Allan Batteiger
Just a comment both email and Phone numbers are considered private information by the FCC and are not in the Public DB
12 Oct, '22
Richard Bateman Admin
"Mandatory Phone Number required by ET" (suggested by Robert Vosper on 2022-10-12), including upvotes (1) and comments (1), was merged into this suggestion.
2
05 Jul, '23
AL2GR Laura Moran
Not agree
FCC only accepts us phones and the foreign candidates DON'T have it
24 Jan, '24
Kent Petty, Chairman, Anchorage ARC VEC
Require applicants to provide a good phone number for Exam Administration purposes, ESPECIALLY for remote exams. Too often, the only thing we have to work with is an email address when we need to actually get this person on the telephone. It is maddening when we can't reach candidates.

Suggest requiring the phone number for ET registration, and of course, keep it optional for the FCC just as it is now.

This is a very much needed feature.

Thanks.
4
24 Jan, '24
Mike
I understand the desire to reach out to the candidate. However, everyone is an adult and if they miss their test session, that's their problem. If all you have is email and they don't respond in a reasonable amount of time. Lock the door and turn off the lights.
25 Jan, '24
Richard Bateman Admin
This is something we'll probably add in the new registration flow, but it will be *optional* and need to be turned on by the team listing the session
4
16 Mar, '24
Dave AE7TD
Yes. There are two items here: 1) exam administration and 2) 605 "send to the FCC". Concerning exam administration. For candidates of a certain age, everything is done via text. I cannot tell you the number of times that I have tried to communicate something important, but it fails because I have no phone# to text. However, for the 605 field, there also needs to have a checkbox that says that the phone number should *NOT* be submitted to the FCC (i.e. blank on the 605) . . . and the candidate controls that one.
2
29 Mar, '24
Scott Irwin
This would be fantastic. I've had two candidates over the past two weeks who "no-showed" and didn't provide a phone number. Having one would improve the experience for the volunteers and the candidates.
1
29 Mar, '24
Mike Ramsey
Requiring a phone number will assist the teams to reach a candidate that doesn't respond to their emails.
1
20 Apr, '24
Allan Batteiger
For Amateur License the Phone number is NOT a required field like it is for Commercial exams. W5YI Never submits the phone number for Amateur Licenses.
20 Apr, '24
Richard Bateman Admin
To be clear, if we make it possible to require the phone number we would absolutely make it possible to specify if it should be sent to the FCC. I'm not willing to make something required for submission that the FCC doesn't require, but requiring contact information for exam / scheduling purposes is acceptable to me
20 Apr, '24
Laurie Keane
Agree with Richard 100% as above. If it's not compulsory with FCC, then shouldn't be compulsory with examtools. I didn't have a US # to offer FCC during my exams but do have a postal address.
20 Apr, '24
Heather KM6Z
I usually grab the phone number from their payment info.