wrote in message
oups.com...
On Mar 4, 6:56 pm, "Dee Flint" wrote:
wrote in message

[snip]

Also keep in mind that the General test
of the past was much harder than today's General as they took a lot of
that
material and moved it to the new license classes.

No, it wasn't. It is substantially more difficult today. And don't
forget that half of the OLD General test is now called "Technician."


There were several changes. There was the change to the incentive licensing
where material was moved from the General to the Advanced and Extra. That
changed General test was the one that was the same for the Technician and
the General. Then a decade later or so, the General test was split to a
Tech written and General written.

Third, the Advanced and Extra Exams have been combined, thereby
dumbing down the Extra, bringing it closer to the present General
Exam,


Combining material does not dumb down a category. Dumbing down requires
removing material. The material has not been removed. It has made the
Extra harder because you cannot take the material in smaller chunks. You
still have to learn all the same material but do it all at once.

So what do you get when you combine questions from a lower license
class with that of a higher license class? You have REDUCED standards
for that higher license.

No you do not as no material was removed. It's actually more difficult
because you have to do it all at once.


Imagine the old Novice Q pool being combined with the Extra Q pool for
the Extra license... that should magnify my point so that even you can
see it.


Nope it does not make your point. Only if material is removed does it
become easier. If you just combine material without removing any, you make
it harder.

The
only "break" is that you end up taking one written test of 50 questions
instead of two tests of 40 and 50 questions for a total of 90 questions.
Today's Extra exam has an 800+ question pool to select from for that 50
question test.

Miccolis has covered this...

not pushing it toward an MSEE like some of you would like to
think.

I've never made that assertion nor implied it. That MSEE has to learn a
whole lot more than was ever covered in the Amateur radio exams.

Are you an MSEE?


Nope but as part of my degree, I had to take basic electronics courses and
they were more detailed than what is on the ham exams. I can't even begin
to imagine that MSEE level.

So if there is so little difference between the Technician and
General Exams, and the Extra has been dumbed down to Advanced level,
why do we still have people wanting more superfluous license classes
that are growing closer together in difficulty allatime?


That is not a valid conclusion. There was no material dropped so it was not
dumbed down.

I did not say there is so little difference between the Tech and General.

I believe you did, but will accept that is not what you meant (unless
you say it again).

Merely that it is reasonable for a person to study to go to General
either
right at the beginning or shortly thereafter.

That would be known as the "Old General." They were split in the
Spring of 1987.


I am talking about the General test as it exists since the changes in April
of 2000.

Nor has the Extra been dumbed down to the Advanced class.

Sure it has.


I've taught the material. It has not not been dumbed down. Either way,
whether you took the two tests separately or took today's single test, the
same quantity of material has to be learned.

If you were to
talk to any of the people who earned their Extra under the pre-2000
system,
they will tell you that the Advanced class written test was the hardest
of
all the writtens.

It was. I took and passed both.

So the Extra was already dumbed down, and now it is combined with a
lower class pool...

Sounds really, really dumbed down now.


See above.

[snip]

When the system was changed, all the material for both the
Advanced and Extra went into the new Extra question pool

Which is why it's dumbed down.


Not when all the material was kept.

And in the end, it's still allabout Morse Code with you.

That conclusion is not based on any of the opinions I have expressed in
this
thread or any other.

Dee, it's based upon all of the opinions that you express.


If you choose to believe that, not my problem. I'm into encouraging people
to explore the many facets of amateur radio.

[snip]

All government testing should be straight forward.

All of the testing is straight forward. The Extra is merely difficult
not
convoluted.

So all of the matierial is straight forward? Good.


[snip]

Why should anybody even bother with such a limited license? It would be
so
limited people would get bored and drop out or immediately upgrade. Not
worth the investment of time.

Not children, not scouts. I guess we don't want to attract newcomers
for a lifetime of amateur radio, just the retirees.


The children and the scouts seem to thrive on the challenges. It is the 20
somethings, 30 somethings, and 40 somethings that seem not to want
challenges.

[snip]

Although the "incentive licensing" had major implementation issues, it
did
have the benefit of bringing people into the hobby since they could take
the
material in smaller bites instead of having to learn everything all at
the
same time. It achieved that goal.

Smaller bites? That wasn't the purpose of Inventive Licensing.


That was exactly the purpose of Incenting Licensing.

Dee, N8UZE