What do you think of my idea? (I'm taking bets on how many people
flame my idea.) While I applaud the ARRL for proposing a compromise,
I think the proposal goes too far in some areas and not far enough in
others. My proposal:
1. Keep the Technician class. No-Code Technicians get free upgrades
to Tech Plus privileges instead of General privileges.
2. Eliminate the 5 wpm exam completely. The General license would
STILL require the General written exam but NOT the Morse Code exam.
The Amateur Extra license would STILL require the Amateur Extra
written exam but not the Morse Code exam. There is a pragmatic as
well as philosophical reason to eliminate the Morse Code testing
requirement: no more need to keep track of which Technicians (and new
Generals) passed the 5 wpm exam and which ones did not. (Yes, this is
essentially what No Code International proposes.)
3. Keep the current phone bands in place as an incentive to use and
develop narrowband modes like CW, PSK-31, etc.
4. If keeping Advanced licenses in the database is too much work,
then give Advanced licensees a free upgrade to Amateur Extra.
5. Do NOT reduce Novice privileges. (The ARRL proposal reduces their
allowed power output and eliminates their 23 cm privileges.) If
keeping Novice licenses in the database is too much work for the FCC,
then give all Novices a free upgrade to my proposed new Technician
class (Tech Plus).
6. If the entry-level license has too few HF privileges, then expand
HF privileges for the new Technician class rather than give all
Technicians a free upgrade to General.

I'm surprised the ARRL didn't propose something like this, as it would
be simpler. (Or the ARRL could have proposed the exact same thing I
propose here but retain the 5 wpm exam for the Amateur Extra class as
a compromise.) I think my idea would do more to simplify the FCC's
work and be just a continuation of the 2000 restructuring. I'm not
sure if the FCC will like the ARRL's proposal due to the added
complications. Remember that the restructuring of 2000 kept the same
basic license structure in place - the only real changes were
eliminating the 13 wpm and 20 wpm exams, keeping the 5 classes in
place, and stopping the issuance of new Novice, Tech Plus, and
Advanced licenses. Note that my proposal keeps the same basic license
structure in place as well. The main change is the elimination of the
5 wpm exam. I believe that the current license system is basically
OK. I can't think of a system that would be that much better WITHOUT
imposing substantial burdens on the FCC, ARRL, VEs, applicants, etc.

Jason Hsu, AG4DG
u s e n e t AT j a s o n h s u . c o m

In article ,
(Jason Hsu) writes:

My proposal:
1. Keep the Technician class. No-Code Technicians get free upgrades
to Tech Plus privileges instead of General privileges
2. Eliminate the 5 wpm exam completely. The General license would
STILL require the General written exam but NOT the Morse Code exam.

If 2) is done, then 1) happens automatically, because the only difference
is the code test.

The Amateur Extra license would STILL require the Amateur Extra
written exam but not the Morse Code exam.

So what you're really proposaing is to just dump the code test and
nothing else.

That's already been propososed to the FCC by at least two different groups.

There is a pragmatic as
well as philosophical reason to eliminate the Morse Code testing
requirement: no more need to keep track of which Technicians (and new
Generals) passed the 5 wpm exam and which ones did not. (Yes, this is
essentially what No Code International proposes.)

It's exactly what NCI and NCVEC have proposed. And it doesn't save FCC
anything, because it's not FCC that has to keep track of who is a Tech Plus.

3. Keep the current phone bands in place as an incentive to use and
develop narrowband modes like CW, PSK-31, etc.

Agreed!

4. If keeping Advanced licenses in the database is too much work,
then give Advanced licensees a free upgrade to Amateur Extra.

Why? What work is involved in keeping them in the database? It's just a
computer system,

5. Do NOT reduce Novice privileges. (The ARRL proposal reduces their
allowed power output and eliminates their 23 cm privileges.)

Do you propose reopening Novice to new licensees?

How many Novices today will be adversely affected by the loss of 23 cm and the
slight power reduction?

If
keeping Novice licenses in the database is too much work for the FCC,
then give all Novices a free upgrade to my proposed new Technician
class (Tech Plus).

Why? What work is involved in keeping them in the database? It's just a
computer system,

6. If the entry-level license has too few HF privileges, then expand
HF privileges for the new Technician class rather than give all
Technicians a free upgrade to General.

That, too, has been proposed.

I'm surprised the ARRL didn't propose something like this, as it would
be simpler.

It also doesn't address what ARRL's BoD was trying to address.

(Or the ARRL could have proposed the exact same thing I
propose here but retain the 5 wpm exam for the Amateur Extra class as
a compromise.) I think my idea would do more to simplify the FCC's
work and be just a continuation of the 2000 restructuring. I'm not
sure if the FCC will like the ARRL's proposal due to the added
complications. Remember that the restructuring of 2000 kept the same
basic license structure in place - the only real changes were
eliminating the 13 wpm and 20 wpm exams, keeping the 5 classes in
place, and stopping the issuance of new Novice, Tech Plus, and
Advanced licenses. Note that my proposal keeps the same basic license
structure in place as well. The main change is the elimination of the
5 wpm exam. I believe that the current license system is basically
OK. I can't think of a system that would be that much better WITHOUT
imposing substantial burdens on the FCC, ARRL, VEs, applicants, etc.

Here's the problem:

ARRL's BoD thinks that the license structure has two main problems:

1) Entry level license is too hard to get for raw beginners

2) Entry level license privileges are too focused on VHF/UHF and not enough HF

Their solution is to simplify the entry level exam and give it a more balanced
set of privileges. Personally I think they should include more HF bands, like
30 meters, in the entry level license.

You may not think that the Tech written is very difficult, but the BoD thinks
differently. And if someone wants significant HF privileges, they have to get
at least a General.

I can't see what all the fuss is about keeping the 5 wpm code test. Is it
*really* that difficult?

The problem with your proposals, Jason, is that they don't do very much.

73 de Jim, N2EY

In article , Jason Hsu wrote:
What do you think of my idea? (I'm taking bets on how many people
flame my idea.) While I applaud the ARRL for proposing a compromise,
I think the proposal goes too far in some areas and not far enough in
others. My proposal:
1. Keep the Technician class. No-Code Technicians get free upgrades
to Tech Plus privileges instead of General privileges.

Agreed.


2. Eliminate the 5 wpm exam completely. The General license would
STILL require the General written exam but NOT the Morse Code exam.
The Amateur Extra license would STILL require the Amateur Extra
written exam but not the Morse Code exam. There is a pragmatic as
well as philosophical reason to eliminate the Morse Code testing
requirement: no more need to keep track of which Technicians (and new
Generals) passed the 5 wpm exam and which ones did not. (Yes, this is
essentially what No Code International proposes.)

Agree here also.


3. Keep the current phone bands in place as an incentive to use and
develop narrowband modes like CW, PSK-31, etc.

Interesting, but I would prefer to split up the bandplans based on actual
bandwidth of the mode in question.


4. If keeping Advanced licenses in the database is too much work,
then give Advanced licensees a free upgrade to Amateur Extra.

Should not be a real problem to keep Advanced holders in the database.
It would probably be more difficult to upgrade them to Extra. The easiest
thing to do would be to make the Advanced and Extra priveleges the same --
no database changes that way, only paperwork changes.


5. Do NOT reduce Novice privileges. (The ARRL proposal reduces their
allowed power output and eliminates their 23 cm privileges.) If
keeping Novice licenses in the database is too much work for the FCC,
then give all Novices a free upgrade to my proposed new Technician
class (Tech Plus).

See above, probably easier to equate Novice, Technician and Tech-Plus
priveleges.


6. If the entry-level license has too few HF privileges, then expand
HF privileges for the new Technician class rather than give all
Technicians a free upgrade to General.

Agreed, there should be no automatic upgrades, expansion of priveleges would
be my prefered method.

Alex / AB2RC