KXHB:

I sympathize...

That is too drastic a change.

Most here probably remember the big stock market crash and the depression of
the 30's (I wasn't born yet--two decades later.) People jumped out of windows
and committed suicide in terrible ways--just imagine all the hams doing
this--would be anti-productive--end up with fewer licensees as a result of such
action by the FCC!

John

"KXHB" wrote in message
ink.net...

"Bill Sohl" wrote

I would personally oppose any such move and, I believe, I
am familiar enough with the other NCI directors to safely
say that none of them want relaxation of test requirements
for written.


Bill,

Just to make sure I had not mis-characterized the NCI position, I checked
their comments to RM-10867, on file at FCC's web site. My recollection was
accurate, in that it expressed unconditional support of the proposal for free
upgrades.

In my veiw such granting of instant upgrades from Technician to General for
almost a third-of-a-million licensees would make a mockery of the written
examinations..

Today the General exam requires passing two 35-question written examinations,
and the Technician requires passing only the simpler of those two exams.

The ARRL petition would essentially grant a one-time waiver of the second
(harder) of the examinations, in effect holding a one-day sale of
"half-price" General licenses to these 330,000 licensees. This is not some
trivial "one-time adjustment" --- in fact if it were adopted, the vast
majority of the General licensees would never have successfully passed the
test required for that license class!

In the world of "unintended consequence" the effect of this give-away would
be that the commission would have ipso-facto established that today's
Technician examination is perfectly adequate for a General class license, and
the credibility of the qualification structure in the Amateur Radio Service
would be destroyed (especially since these "new" Generals would presumably
now receive credit for the "General" written element when they proceed to
upgrade to Extra).

73, de Hans, K0HB