RadioBanter - View Single Post

June 18th 05, 12:36 AM

wrote:
wrote:

Which was in a much different regime than we have today. The Novice
license was a stick and carrot ticket with the emphasis on the stick.
We had 365 days from the date the license was issued to upgrade to a
13WPM General or get booted out of ham radio.

Or you could get a Technician ticket - but that had no HF and the
written
was the same as General.

The Tech ticket was next to useless in the mid-'50s because VHF/UHF ham
radio didn't exist for all practical purposes. There were a few far-end
experimenters on the air and a few hams using some commercial gear on
6M and some using WW2 surplus gear on 2M like the SCR-522 TX. Novices
had acess to 2M phone but Techs were restricted to freqs above 220Mhz.
It was a really scewball situation. The result was that probably 98% of
the Techs were Novices who took the test for the General and passed the
writtens but flunked the 13WPM code test.

Of the dozens of local
Novices I knew I don't recall of any who failed to upgrade or bitched
about the code tests.

Me neither. In my time the Novice was 2 years but the same one-shot
no renewal no second chance ticket.

Biggest cause of dropouts in those days was lack of gear.

I didn't see much of that. The norm then was to have a station already
up and running before one went for the test. The 365 day window of
opportunity was tough and wasting time by not being ready to roll when
the ticket arrived was not a good idea.

Im convinced that events in the future will prove us right. Today we
have a "bloat the numbers at any cost" game which is doomed to backfire
eventually. The big question is how badly it will backfire and how much
damage will have been be done before it happens. The history of this
country over last couple decades is chock full of eamples of backing
away from failed giveaways. It's only a matter of time until ham radio
gets it's turn.

We're seeing it already. The restructuring of 2000 reduced both the
code
*and written* test requirements. Net result was a short-term peak in
numbers followed by a drop to below where we were in 2000 or even 1997.

Maybe FCC sees that - they could have dropped Element 1 back in 2003,
or any
time since, but they haven't seen fit to do so.

The longer they sit on the upcoming NPRM . . . !

A local oldster was inquiring as to when his license expired, because
he couldn't find his F.C.C. Wallpaper. We help him figure it out. We
need to keep the geezers on the air. I love talking to them. I hope
someone is looking out for me when I'm 91!

They're all treasures we have a responsibilty to protect. Often from
themselves. Heh.

Yep.

Is 'CNP online or should I use regular mail?

QRZ.com doesn't show an e-mail address for him. On the other hand that
info could be 'way out of date. I wouldn't mess with snail mail, he's a
local, I'd look up his phone number and call him then take it from
there. All he should need is the hard-copy renewal package which you
can order for him via e-mail or phone.

73 de Jim, N2EY
w3rv

w3rv