In article . net, "KØHB"
writes:

"Bill Sohl" wrote

Not the same since there are distinct privileges with those licenses
which differentiate them from the others. IF the FCC had made Advanced
privileges exactly the same as Extra, then I fully believe they would have
just changed all Advanced to Extra when they were individually
renewed.

From 1951 till 1968 the privileges for four license classes, Conditional,
General, Advanced, and Extra were all exactly the same.

No, that's not exactly correct.

The period described started in February of 1953, not 1951.

Before then, hams needed an Extra or Advanced to use 'phone on the HF bands
between 3 and 25 MHz. This is one reason 10 meter 'phone was so popular.

More important, however, is the fact that the basic concept of "incentives"
wasn't a new '60s idea, but a rehash of a much older practice from at least the
1930s. Except that the 1930s version had only two levels (Class B/Class A) and
was by mode, not subband.

We all used the
same frequencies with the same authorized power, and from our call sign you
couldn't tell one from the other.

You could, however, usually tell the oldtimers from the newbies by the license
class, but that was about all. Except that there was a very limited program
where hams could get specific callsigns.

Life was good.

So they tell me!

Then some dump huck social-engineering gummint dudes, cheered on by a radio
club in West Hartford, CT., decided to set up a bunch of arbitrary
exclusive
band segments as 'rewards' for advancing amongst the various classes, and
then later drove wider wedges between the classes with the 'reward' of
distinctive call signs for the higher licenses. Whatever good came of this
is long since lost in the damage caused by 'class wars' which still rage.

All of which was only done after over 5 years of debate and discussion. I think
the whole thing was a case of "Sputnik fever" by those guvmint dudes, who had
seen one too many hamshacks owned by QCAO charter members.

My proposal is based first on the notion that there should be two classes of
license --- "Learners Permit" and "Fully Qualified", and second on the
notion that those learners should operate in the mainstream with experienced
hams, not segregated off into little ghettos populated with mostly other
learners.

Exactly!

73 de Jim, N2EY