Jason Hsu wrote:
I'd prefer to see all Novices and Technicians merged into a new
Technician class and be granted Tech Plus privileges. This would be
compatible with a 3-license system. Nobody would lose privileges, but
all automatic upgrades would be modest.

Problem is, the license class would still be VHF/UHF heavy and HF light.


So what? I thought the idea of the Tech Plus license is to offer a
taste of HF but still leave a strong incentive to upgrade. Perhaps
the Tech Plus HF privileges should be expanded. Upgrades to Tech Plus
and an expansion of the Tech Plus privileges would be a much more
reasonable alternative to upgrades to General.

I'm not against free upgrades - I just think free upgrades should be
modest and reasonable. For example, upgrading Advanced licensees to
Amateur Extra is reasonable considering that most of the new Amateur
Extra exam questions were old Advanced exam questions.

As I said before, I think the ARRL proposal goes too far in upgrading
Technicians and not far enough in ending the Morse Code testing
requirement. Then again, the directors might have made the proposal
as a PR move and don't seriously expect the FCC to adopt much of it.

The main reason for the free upgrade is to eliminate license classes that
newcomers will not be able to get anymore. The BoD thinks that is a very high
priority, even though there don't seem to be any problems with having almost
120,000 hams in closed-off license classes (Novice and Advanced) for the past 4 years.


Why do the ARRL and FCC consider this a high priority? Anyone? Is it
that much work to maintain these closed-off classes?

I don't think that the F.C.C. cares one way or the other, but I'm
pretty convinced that the ARRL wants more HF qualified Hams as a bolster
against spectrum threat (not a bad thing) and they want more members, as
there is a divide between members and non-members privilege wise.

They dismiss at least the second agenda on their website, but that is
the way things go these days. Pick all your reasons for doing something
and dismiss them right up front. Get it out of the way quickly, so to speak.


As I see it, there are trade-offs. In my opinion, having a 3-class
system that includes a Novice license just isn't a good idea since
that means eliminating the Technician license, and that means
upgrading the Technicians to Generals in order to avoid downgrading
anyone's privileges. Either the Technician class should be kept (and
the Novice class eliminated and upgraded to Tech Plus), or there
should be a 4-class system.

Agreed! I don't know if you saw my proposal in the group, but it really
just allows things to stay very close to what they are right now, the
changes are the deletion of the Morse code test, and tailoring the
testing regimen to the license class. That is to say Technicians would
receive some pretty comprehensive RF and HV safety testing, and
General's would have an HF focus, while Amateur Extra would go more into
the theory and electronic testing. The license classes that are orphans
would retain their privileges such as they are now.

Simple, and we know it would work. It doesn't anger anyone that doesn't
have anger issues already, and no one loses or gains.

BTW, even though my proposal does not include a Element 1 test, I am a
PCTA. How do I reconcile this?

Even though I want, and will argue for the retention of the Morse code
test for HF access, I believe that it is very likely to go away. I don't
like it, but it is probably going to happen. So instead of pinning all
my hopes on something that isn't likely, I believe there should be a
position we can fall back on.

- Mike KB3EIA -