N2EY wrote:
In article , Mike Coslo
writes:


I'll bet you have a headache now, Jim!


Not at all, Mike. I'm used to the rules having all sorts of twists like that.
You should have seen what the FCC rules for the ARS looked like in the early
'70s! Particularly to put a repeater on the air.

Didja know that there was a considerable period of time (started in the early
1950s) when, if a General or Advanced class ham could document heving held an
amateur license before WW1 (USA entered WW1 in May 1917) the FCC would give you
an Extra with no tests at all?

Its kind of like what I was
saying about actions and their consequences. Any time you change a rule
there are plenty of consequenses - like removing Element one without any
other changes. (which I think is impossible anyway, BTW)


Sure. It's called "The Law of Unexpected Results". Change something, and a
other things will change, too.

For example, look at traffic light timing. It used to be the standard that when
the yellow interval ended in one direction, the green for conflicting traffic
would display right away. Traffic engineers noticed that sometimes accidents
would result from drivers "crowding the yellow" too closely. ("It was orange,
Officer!")

So they decided that there should be a 3 second interval of "all red" to give
time for the intersection to clear.

Green= go like crazy
Yellow= foot to the floor
Red= only 3 more cars through the intersection.


And some people blame the root of all this on the right turn on red rule.

But after a while they noted people entering intersections *against the red*
(when the yellow interval had just ended) because they knew they had 3 seconds.
Result: More accidents.

But it *is* possible for the FCC to just drop Element 1. K2UNK and I discussed
this some time back right here on rrap and outlined the paragraphs in Part 97
that needed changing or deletion for that to happen. There weren't many!

FCC could make it even simpler, though. They could add the following to the
rules:

"Pending further review and rules changes, Element 1 credit is given to any
applicant for an amateur radio license of any class".

or

"Pending further review and rules changes, the requirement for Element 1 is
waived for an amateur radio license of any class".

Yeah, I guess so. Maybe they can eventually give the other element
credits that way too! ;^)

One sentence, no other changes until FCC gets the proverbial round tuit.

And if FCC were 100% convinced that code testing serves no purpose, it would
have been dropped by now. Instead, it looks more and more like we're headed for
another NPRM cycle.

About 3.5 years, if my predictions hold.

- Mike KB3EIA -