The ARRL and the new NCVEC petitions call for creating a new Novice
class and upgrading Technicians to General. (I already commented on
the ARRL petition to the FCC.)

I'm not upset with the ARRL about this. The directors did what they
felt they had to do. But I'm still puzzled by parts of the proposal.

The highly controversial proposal of upgrading Technicians to General
is the result of insisting that all license classes be merged into
just 3 without downgrading privileges for any class. It's a game of
License Class Survivor, and all classes but 3 have to be voted off the
island. General and Amateur Extra are (correctly) considered too
important to eliminate, and Advanced licenses get upgraded to Amateur
Extra. So only one more license class can remain, and the ARRL and
NCVEC think that the Novice should remain and be reopened, and the
Technician license should be voted off the island. Because of the "no
downgrade" condition, Technician licenses are upgraded to General.

Is the No-Code Technician license THAT hard to get? During the years
when both the Novice and No-Code Technician licenses were available
for new hams, the new hams (including myself) overwhelmingly chose the
No-Code Technician. What's now the Technician exam was two separate
tests back then - Novice and Technician. Both the Novice and
Technician licenses required passing the Novice exam plus one more
exam. For the Novice license, the 5 wpm Morse Code exam was the
additional exam. For the No-Code Technician license, the Technician
exam was the additional exam. By at least a 20:1 or 30:1 margin, the
new hams chose the No-Code Technician exam. The new hams (including
myself) clearly thought that preparing the Technician exam was MUCH
easier than preparing for the 5 wpm exam. But in spite of this, the
ARRL thinks that the current Technician exam (a merger of the old
Novice and Technician exams) is too hard but says that the 5 wpm exam
is quite easy and uses this view as a partial justification as keeping
the 5 wpm exam requirement for the Amateur Extra license.

The record is clear. The No-Code Technician license made the Novice
license obsolete. In the 2000 restructuring, the FCC closed the
Novice class for the same reason GM closed Oldsmobile - not enough
takers to justify the administrative costs and labor required.

Given all this, is it SO necessary to bring back the Novice class at
the expense of the Technician class? Why didn't the ARRL propose a
4-class system so that the popular Technician class could be kept?

My theories on why the ARRL thinks the Novice license is more
important than the Technician license:
1. The ARRL directors couldn't agree, so they proposed a compromise
that they felt would promote good PR. I don't think they seriously
expect the FCC to approve it.
2. Nostalgia about their Novice days led them to want to reopen and
reintroduce the Novice class.

Jason Hsu, AG4DG
usenet AAAAATTTTTT jasonhsu.com
http://www.jasonhsu.com/ee.html

"Jason Hsu" wrote in message
om...
The ARRL and the new NCVEC petitions call for creating a new Novice
class and upgrading Technicians to General. (I already commented on
the ARRL petition to the FCC.)

I'm not upset with the ARRL about this. The directors did what they
felt they had to do. But I'm still puzzled by parts of the proposal.

The highly controversial proposal of upgrading Technicians to General
is the result of insisting that all license classes be merged into
just 3 without downgrading privileges for any class. It's a game of
License Class Survivor, and all classes but 3 have to be voted off the
island. General and Amateur Extra are (correctly) considered too
important to eliminate, and Advanced licenses get upgraded to Amateur
Extra. So only one more license class can remain, and the ARRL and
NCVEC think that the Novice should remain and be reopened, and the
Technician license should be voted off the island. Because of the "no
downgrade" condition, Technician licenses are upgraded to General.

Is the No-Code Technician license THAT hard to get?

I would venture to say it is harder to get than the Novice (if we
still had novice testing) . That's the
problem as percieved by ARRL, NCVEC and other.

During the years
when both the Novice and No-Code Technician licenses were available
for new hams, the new hams (including myself) overwhelmingly chose the
No-Code Technician.

But that's probably because you were an adult and only the Tech
gave sufficient VHF capability to allow you to engage in voice
operations, especially via FM.

What's now the Technician exam was two separate
tests back then - Novice and Technician. Both the Novice and
Technician licenses required passing the Novice exam plus one more
exam. For the Novice license, the 5 wpm Morse Code exam was the
additional exam. For the No-Code Technician license, the Technician
exam was the additional exam. By at least a 20:1 or 30:1 margin, the
new hams chose the No-Code Technician exam. The new hams (including
myself) clearly thought that preparing the Technician exam was MUCH
easier than preparing for the 5 wpm exam.

But that was again most likly because you didn't want to
be limited to the Novice HF and limited VHF privileges.

But in spite of this, the
ARRL thinks that the current Technician exam (a merger of the old
Novice and Technician exams) is too hard but says that the 5 wpm exam
is quite easy and uses this view as a partial justification as keeping
the 5 wpm exam requirement for the Amateur Extra license.

The record is clear. The No-Code Technician license made the Novice
license obsolete.

I agee only to the extent that VHF operations had become a much
greater part of ham radio capabilities.

In the 2000 restructuring, the FCC closed the
Novice class for the same reason GM closed Oldsmobile - not enough
takers to justify the administrative costs and labor required.

True to a point, but that again was a result of operating
privileges, not (IMHO) the locense difficulty of 5 wpm.

Given all this, is it SO necessary to bring back the Novice class at
the expense of the Technician class? Why didn't the ARRL propose a
4-class system so that the popular Technician class could be kept?

You'll have to ask ARRL...but before you do, kook at the
privileges to be granted to new Novice class under both ARRL
and NCVECs petition. Before the Novice was almost an exclusive
HF with code operating license. That will change significantly.
The Novice was a gateway for many of us when getting on the
air really was pretty much an HF only thing. The Novice clearly
offered a great starting point for youth...far more than does
today's tech.

My theories on why the ARRL thinks the Novice license is more
important than the Technician license:
1. The ARRL directors couldn't agree, so they proposed a compromise
that they felt would promote good PR. I don't think they seriously
expect the FCC to approve it.
2. Nostalgia about their Novice days led them to want to reopen and
reintroduce the Novice class.

I disagree. I believe they want an easier entrance license than
tech that allows youth to get a license AND offers a full array
of operating privileges (HF, VHF, SSB, FM, CW, etc) to that
license. Today's Novice is effectively an HF non-phone lcense
and todays Tech is clearly a VHF/UHF only license. That's
the problem.

Cheers,
Bill K2UNK

Jason Hsu wrote:
The ARRL and the new NCVEC petitions call for creating a new Novice
class and upgrading Technicians to General. (I already commented on
the ARRL petition to the FCC.)

I'm not upset with the ARRL about this. The directors did what they
felt they had to do. But I'm still puzzled by parts of the proposal.

The highly controversial proposal of upgrading Technicians to General
is the result of insisting that all license classes be merged into
just 3 without downgrading privileges for any class. It's a game of
License Class Survivor, and all classes but 3 have to be voted off the
island. General and Amateur Extra are (correctly) considered too
important to eliminate, and Advanced licenses get upgraded to Amateur
Extra. So only one more license class can remain, and the ARRL and
NCVEC think that the Novice should remain and be reopened, and the
Technician license should be voted off the island. Because of the "no
downgrade" condition, Technician licenses are upgraded to General.

Interesting take on the issue, Jason.

My main concern is that there is a precedent in the proposed mass upgrade:

If the existing Technicians are upgraded to General, this means that
after we do this, we are discriminating against all that come afterward.
There will be a *powerful* argument that "The Tech elements were good
enough for the majority of hams to become General, so why should I have
to take a harder test?"

And although there is really no test process needed at all to get on HF
(witness CB'ers that run illegal power levels) I believe that we should
foster technical knowledge qualifications for the ARS.


Is the No-Code Technician license THAT hard to get? During the years
when both the Novice and No-Code Technician licenses were available
for new hams, the new hams (including myself) overwhelmingly chose the
No-Code Technician.

Not difficult at all. Many people have taken and passed the test. I
can't think of any good arguments for reducing it.


What's now the Technician exam was two separate
tests back then - Novice and Technician. Both the Novice and
Technician licenses required passing the Novice exam plus one more
exam. For the Novice license, the 5 wpm Morse Code exam was the
additional exam. For the No-Code Technician license, the Technician
exam was the additional exam. By at least a 20:1 or 30:1 margin, the
new hams chose the No-Code Technician exam. The new hams (including
myself) clearly thought that preparing the Technician exam was MUCH
easier than preparing for the 5 wpm exam. But in spite of this, the
ARRL thinks that the current Technician exam (a merger of the old
Novice and Technician exams) is too hard but says that the 5 wpm exam
is quite easy and uses this view as a partial justification as keeping
the 5 wpm exam requirement for the Amateur Extra license.

5WPM is easy for some, and not at all easy for others.


The record is clear. The No-Code Technician license made the Novice
license obsolete. In the 2000 restructuring, the FCC closed the
Novice class for the same reason GM closed Oldsmobile - not enough
takers to justify the administrative costs and labor required.

Given all this, is it SO necessary to bring back the Novice class at
the expense of the Technician class? Why didn't the ARRL propose a
4-class system so that the popular Technician class could be kept?

My theories on why the ARRL thinks the Novice license is more
important than the Technician license:
1. The ARRL directors couldn't agree, so they proposed a compromise
that they felt would promote good PR. I don't think they seriously
expect the FCC to approve it.
2. Nostalgia about their Novice days led them to want to reopen and
reintroduce the Novice class.


That is a pretty good assessment, Jason.

- Mike KB3EIA -

In article ,
(Jason Hsu) writes:

The ARRL and the new NCVEC petitions call for creating a new Novice
class and upgrading Technicians to General. (I already commented on
the ARRL petition to the FCC.)

The NCVEC suggested COMMUNICATOR class entry-level license
a bit different than the ARRL proposal.

As you surmised at the end of your post, ARRL wanted to
resurrect the old Novice out of nostalgia. All the evidence of
the ARRL's prodigious output points to such nostalgia.

NCVEC took a fresh approach to ENTRY-LEVEL class. Their
choice of "Communicator" as a name carries no emotional
baggage of "negative" ranking. Radio operating IS communicating,
and labeling anyone as a total beginner, or forcing them into some
kind of recruit training camp is not a good way to attract anyone.

I'm not upset with the ARRL about this. The directors did what they
felt they had to do. But I'm still puzzled by parts of the proposal.

You shouldn't be if you've tracked them enough.

ARRL is a membership organization which has, for most of the
past half century tried to be a "level of government" ex-officio in
the curious way that humans in fraternal organizations get when
they get a taste of power and control. :-)

ARRL is also beginning to worry about survival. Membership is
(or was in December) down to 21 percent of all licensees. It may
be on a dropping trend. This effects periodicals that depend on
advertising space sales to fully support periodical budgets; CQ is
the remaining USA ham periodical, the others dropped due to
shrinking (for printed media) ad sales. Internet is siphoning off
some of the potential ad monies, monies that are finite. ARRL
does NOT represent the majority of USA radio amateurs, only has
obligations to its membership. While demographics are informal,
ARRL has failed to get enough members from the 38% of all
licensees now making up the Technician class nor the 9% that
are Technician Plus (until the last one in 2012).

The highly controversial proposal of upgrading Technicians to General
is the result of insisting that all license classes be merged into
just 3 without downgrading privileges for any class.

It's Realism in looking at the near future. No new licenses in the
Novice, Technician Plus, or Advanced classes have been issued
since 2000. The action of not doing anything will result in those
three classes (26% of all right now) being "downgraded" to "lower"
classes on renewal. Any way you slice that, it is a negative-
esteem action which WILL happen if nothing is changed. If some
of those are disenchanted with being "downgraded," they will
simply drop out. Overall numbers would shrink.

Automatic merging of those 26% into the next-higher class is a
positive-esteem thing for them...and only hurts the egos of all
those rank-status-privilege individuals who demand that all have
to do as they did, blah, blah, blah, as if the regulations were
cast in armor-plated concrete by some radio divine force.

So, for a quarter of all licensees, it's a matter of moving them "up"
or "down" which really doesn't affect anything in the hobby, just
the emotional mindset of a few.

Extra. So only one more license class can remain, and the ARRL and
NCVEC think that the Novice should remain and be reopened, and the
Technician license should be voted off the island.

Not quite. NCVEC differs from ARRL in dropping the historic and
negative-connotation of "novice" and starting a NEW entry-level
category. NCVEC can see that there IS competition from many
other ways to communicate, that times have changed, and isn't
afraid to pioneer.

NCVEC does NOT want to "reopen" the Novice. Novice class,
despite the nostalgic attachment of some long-timers, was a
failure as an entry-level category. The numbers of licensees
constantly dropping in the Novice class proved that.
Communicator class is a NEW concept in structure and
privileges. Resurrection of Novice class from the dead isn't a
religious event and shouldn't be treated as such.

Because of the "no
downgrade" condition, Technician licenses are upgraded to General.

Why is that a negative thing?

Sooner or later, all those who think amateur radio is all about Their
rank-status-privilege in some imaginary "service" are going to have
to concede that ham radio is not a quasi-military "service" with all
the pomp and circumstance They think are "due" Them for existing.

Amateur radio is a voluntary avocational activity involving radio.
It is a HOBBY despite the self-perceived nobility of class titles.

Is the No-Code Technician license THAT hard to get?

It shouldn't be, but it IS difficult for some that don't know anything
about any radio other than operating the common front-panel
controls of consumer electronics thingies. Try putting yourself
in their place, including a desire to operate their own radio
station. Remember that being granted an amateur radio license
of any "rank" doesn't make YOU some kind of nobility in all radio.
The FCC has to, by law, be concerned with ALL citizens, not
just those claiming noblesse oblige in a particular radio service,
one of many civil radio services they must, by law, regulate.

That you cited your own experiences in entering amateur radio
is not relevant to the discussion (despite personal protestations).
The NUMBERS of no-code-test Technician class licensees
entering amateur radio for the first time over the last 13 years
prove several things: The overwhelming interest of newcomers
is not about becoming a grande glorious radiotelegrapher; That
amateur radio licensee total numbers would actually be shrinking
without that Technician class license...12,000 NEW licensees in
the last year came in through that class, only a fractional
percentage through the other two...the overall growth for one
year was only 0.14% according to www.hamdata.com.

An amateur radio license is NOT a diploma or a certificate of
achieving anything other than a federal grant to transmit RF
emergy according to regulations. The license - and its "rank" -
is NOT the only way to actually learn anything. Several
hundred questions MIGHT yield some knowledge on radio and
certain regulations in a radio service, but REAL knowledge and
skill acquisition is up to the individual.


The record is clear. The No-Code Technician license made the Novice
license obsolete.

I'd say it SUPPLANTED it. Novice remained an entry-level license
class until 2000, 9 years after the no-code-test Tech was created.
Novice class totals were beginning their drop trend before 1990.

In the 2000 restructuring, the FCC closed the
Novice class for the same reason GM closed Oldsmobile - not enough
takers to justify the administrative costs and labor required.

Not a good analogy. FCC closed THREE classes, not just one.

At 6 classes of license, the regulations had become too convoluted
and complex to justify existance in a voluntary, avocational activity.

The rank-status-privilege nobility (those who had achieved top of
the respect-is-due-them food chain) was generally furious at Order
99-412. An imaginary sky fell on their carefully cultivated egos.

FCC never sold licenses. ARRL sold the concepts of many ranks
and associated privileges and did most of the USA advertising to
Upgrade! Upgrade! Upgrade! :-)

Given all this, is it SO necessary to bring back the Novice class at
the expense of the Technician class?

ARRL wants nostalgia of the BoD's long-vanished youth. They
want to be the Lone Ranger with the opening line of "Come with
us now to the days of yesteryear...!" up the stirring "charge"
music roll opening credits

NCVEC is at least 8 VECs and isn't ruled by the ARRL. ARRL
may finally feel some pressure from not being as respected as
they think they should be.

Why didn't the ARRL propose a
4-class system so that the popular Technician class could be kept?

Why should the Technician class be a "separate but (not) equal"
category?

Repeating a failed experiment of long ago isn't a good thing.

My theories on why the ARRL thinks the Novice license is more
important than the Technician license:
1. The ARRL directors couldn't agree, so they proposed a compromise
that they felt would promote good PR. I don't think they seriously
expect the FCC to approve it.

I disagree. ARRL has found itself in the uncomfortable position
of having to compete for "leadership." That's been growing for
nearly two decades. The 2nd Petition (RM-10867) may be their
"last hurrah" effort to restore their concept of leadership. I think
they are sincere despite a lot of obvious compromise efforts.

2. Nostalgia about their Novice days led them to want to reopen and
reintroduce the Novice class.

I agree with that. But, as the old saying goes, "Nostalgia isn't
what it used to be..."

LHA / WMD

Bill Sohl wrote:
"Jason Hsu" wrote in message
om...

The ARRL and the new NCVEC petitions call for creating a new Novice
class and upgrading Technicians to General. (I already commented on
the ARRL petition to the FCC.)

I'm not upset with the ARRL about this. The directors did what they
felt they had to do. But I'm still puzzled by parts of the proposal.

The highly controversial proposal of upgrading Technicians to General
is the result of insisting that all license classes be merged into
just 3 without downgrading privileges for any class. It's a game of
License Class Survivor, and all classes but 3 have to be voted off the
island. General and Amateur Extra are (correctly) considered too
important to eliminate, and Advanced licenses get upgraded to Amateur
Extra. So only one more license class can remain, and the ARRL and
NCVEC think that the Novice should remain and be reopened, and the
Technician license should be voted off the island. Because of the "no
downgrade" condition, Technician licenses are upgraded to General.

Is the No-Code Technician license THAT hard to get?


I would venture to say it is harder to get than the Novice (if we
still had novice testing) . That's the
problem as percieved by ARRL, NCVEC and other.

Probably was harder than the Novice, at least question wise. but we
aren't talking about orders of magnitude harder. I like how Jim N2EY
puts it, that the old tests tested more in depth on fewer subjects,
while the new Technician tests test more subjects to lesser depth.



During the years
when both the Novice and No-Code Technician licenses were available
for new hams, the new hams (including myself) overwhelmingly chose the
No-Code Technician.


But that's probably because you were an adult and only the Tech
gave sufficient VHF capability to allow you to engage in voice
operations, especially via FM.

That is a *big* reason, and was why I went the Technician route. A
smaller reason is the element one test. For some of us, that was a lot
harder. But both were a big part of the demise of the old Novice class.


What's now the Technician exam was two separate
tests back then - Novice and Technician. Both the Novice and
Technician licenses required passing the Novice exam plus one more
exam. For the Novice license, the 5 wpm Morse Code exam was the
additional exam. For the No-Code Technician license, the Technician
exam was the additional exam. By at least a 20:1 or 30:1 margin, the
new hams chose the No-Code Technician exam. The new hams (including
myself) clearly thought that preparing the Technician exam was MUCH
easier than preparing for the 5 wpm exam.


But that was again most likly because you didn't want to
be limited to the Novice HF and limited VHF privileges.


But in spite of this, the
ARRL thinks that the current Technician exam (a merger of the old
Novice and Technician exams) is too hard but says that the 5 wpm exam
is quite easy and uses this view as a partial justification as keeping
the 5 wpm exam requirement for the Amateur Extra license.

The record is clear. The No-Code Technician license made the Novice
license obsolete.


I agee only to the extent that VHF operations had become a much
greater part of ham radio capabilities.


In the 2000 restructuring, the FCC closed the
Novice class for the same reason GM closed Oldsmobile - not enough
takers to justify the administrative costs and labor required.


True to a point, but that again was a result of operating
privileges, not (IMHO) the locense difficulty of 5 wpm.

I think it was a little bit of both, Bill. Mostly privileges, but there
is a sizable minority that find Element 1 daunting. If I hadn't, I
probably would have become a novice long before they ever had a no-code
Tech.


Given all this, is it SO necessary to bring back the Novice class at
the expense of the Technician class? Why didn't the ARRL propose a
4-class system so that the popular Technician class could be kept?


You'll have to ask ARRL...but before you do, kook at the
privileges to be granted to new Novice class under both ARRL
and NCVECs petition. Before the Novice was almost an exclusive
HF with code operating license. That will change significantly.
The Novice was a gateway for many of us when getting on the
air really was pretty much an HF only thing. The Novice clearly
offered a great starting point for youth...far more than does
today's tech.


My theories on why the ARRL thinks the Novice license is more
important than the Technician license:
1. The ARRL directors couldn't agree, so they proposed a compromise
that they felt would promote good PR. I don't think they seriously
expect the FCC to approve it.
2. Nostalgia about their Novice days led them to want to reopen and
reintroduce the Novice class.


I disagree. I believe they want an easier entrance license than
tech that allows youth to get a license AND offers a full array
of operating privileges (HF, VHF, SSB, FM, CW, etc) to that
license. Today's Novice is effectively an HF non-phone lcense
and todays Tech is clearly a VHF/UHF only license. That's
the problem.

But is the Technician license all that hard? I barely studied for mine,
I might be as guilty as the PCTA's that like to talk about how a person
can "get" Morse in one weekend, but I'm amazed that people would
consider the Technician test too hard.

Indeed, if we support the lowered power limits, and all, is there a
good argument for simply letting Novices on the air with no
requirements? Learn as they go?

- Mike KB3EIA -

"Bill Sohl" wrote in message link.net...

Is the No-Code Technician license THAT hard to get?

I would venture to say it is harder to get than the Novice (if we
still had novice testing) . That's the
problem as percieved by ARRL, NCVEC and other.

Granted, a No-Code Novice (if it existed) would be easier to get than
a No-Code Technician license. But if the No-Code Technician license
was too hard but the Coded Novice license was easy to get, then why
didn't more new hams get the Novice license first and then upgrade to
Technician Plus later?

During the years
when both the Novice and No-Code Technician licenses were available
for new hams, the new hams (including myself) overwhelmingly chose the
No-Code Technician.

But that's probably because you were an adult and only the Tech
gave sufficient VHF capability to allow you to engage in voice
operations, especially via FM.

OK, but giving Tech Plus privileges to No-Code Technicians would give
this new entry-level class the same HF privileges that the Novice
licensees have. Also, removing the 5 wpm requirement for the General
class would make it easier for No-Code Technicians to upgrade. This
would resolve the issue of the lack of HF privileges for the No-Code
Technicians. If the Novice/Tech Plus HF privileges aren't enough,
then an expansion of them would be called for. A modest expansion of
Novice/Tech Plus HF privileges would be MUCH more sensible than
automatic upgrades to the General class.

Although I believe the 5 wpm exam should be eliminated for all license
classes, I oppose the free upgrades from No-Code Technician to General
because the Technician exam was never intended to prepare people to
use General class privileges and the General class license was never
intended to be an entry-level license. Most people (except for a few
of the most strident pro-code testers who want to brag about passing
the 13 wpm exam) have no objections to the free upgrades from Advanced
to Amateur Extra since most of the current Amateur Extra exam question
pool was previously in the Advanced exam question pool. But the same
argument does NOT apply in upgrading Technicians to General. If the
General exam were that unnecessary, then why wasn't it merged in the
restructuring of 2000, and why won't it be eliminated in the ARRL
proposal? I highly doubt that anyone staunchly favors free upgrades
from Technician to General. I think this part of the ARRL proposal is
simply the result of insisting on both a 3-class system AND a new
Novice class. In my opinion, either current Novices should be merged
into the Technician class (with Tech Plus privileges), OR there should
be 4 license classes (Novice, Technician, General, Amateur Extra).

I disagree. I believe they want an easier entrance license than
tech that allows youth to get a license AND offers a full array
of operating privileges (HF, VHF, SSB, FM, CW, etc) to that
license. Today's Novice is effectively an HF non-phone lcense
and todays Tech is clearly a VHF/UHF only license. That's
the problem.

I still think that the Technician license is fine as an entry-level
license and that the Technician exam isn't terribly hard - just an
extended version of the old Novice exam. If a No-Code Novice license
is created, it should NOT be at the expense of the Technician license.
As I mentioned before, offering HF privileges to current Technicians
doesn't require upgrading them to General - simply giving No-Code
Technicians the Tech Plus privileges would accomplish this. Offering
HF voice privileges (in addition to the slice of 10m) to current
Technicians can be done by adding more voice privileges to the
license. Automatic upgrades to General are not necessary and are
unwarranted.

Jason Hsu, AG4DG

Jason Hsu wrote:
"Bill Sohl" wrote in message link.net...

Is the No-Code Technician license THAT hard to get?

I would venture to say it is harder to get than the Novice (if we
still had novice testing) . That's the
problem as percieved by ARRL, NCVEC and other.


Granted, a No-Code Novice (if it existed) would be easier to get than
a No-Code Technician license. But if the No-Code Technician license
was too hard but the Coded Novice license was easy to get, then why
didn't more new hams get the Novice license first and then upgrade to
Technician Plus later?

Jason, I really think that an awful lot of hams that think we need a
lot more hams on the air also don't think that people are very smart in
general.

Element one was the pariah for so many years; it was keeping new hams
out. And now somehow the easy test people "know" that the Technician
license is too difficult!?



During the years
when both the Novice and No-Code Technician licenses were available
for new hams, the new hams (including myself) overwhelmingly chose the
No-Code Technician.

But that's probably because you were an adult and only the Tech
gave sufficient VHF capability to allow you to engage in voice
operations, especially via FM.


OK, but giving Tech Plus privileges to No-Code Technicians would give
this new entry-level class the same HF privileges that the Novice
licensees have. Also, removing the 5 wpm requirement for the General
class would make it easier for No-Code Technicians to upgrade. This
would resolve the issue of the lack of HF privileges for the No-Code
Technicians. If the Novice/Tech Plus HF privileges aren't enough,
then an expansion of them would be called for. A modest expansion of
Novice/Tech Plus HF privileges would be MUCH more sensible than
automatic upgrades to the General class.

Although I believe the 5 wpm exam should be eliminated for all license
classes, I oppose the free upgrades from No-Code Technician to General
because the Technician exam was never intended to prepare people to
use General class privileges and the General class license was never
intended to be an entry-level license. Most people (except for a few
of the most strident pro-code testers who want to brag about passing
the 13 wpm exam) have no objections to the free upgrades from Advanced
to Amateur Extra since most of the current Amateur Extra exam question
pool was previously in the Advanced exam question pool. But the same
argument does NOT apply in upgrading Technicians to General. If the
General exam were that unnecessary, then why wasn't it merged in the
restructuring of 2000, and why won't it be eliminated in the ARRL
proposal? I highly doubt that anyone staunchly favors free upgrades
from Technician to General. I think this part of the ARRL proposal is
simply the result of insisting on both a 3-class system AND a new
Novice class. In my opinion, either current Novices should be merged
into the Technician class (with Tech Plus privileges), OR there should
be 4 license classes (Novice, Technician, General, Amateur Extra).

I disagree. I believe they want an easier entrance license than
tech that allows youth to get a license AND offers a full array
of operating privileges (HF, VHF, SSB, FM, CW, etc) to that
license. Today's Novice is effectively an HF non-phone lcense
and todays Tech is clearly a VHF/UHF only license. That's
the problem.


I still think that the Technician license is fine as an entry-level
license and that the Technician exam isn't terribly hard - just an
extended version of the old Novice exam.

Agreed. I do not believe that kids are stupid and need an "easy"
license, especially if we *don't* really know that the technician
license is keeping them off the air.

- Mike KB3EIA -

Jason Hsu wrote:

The ARRL and the new NCVEC petitions call for creating a new Novice
class and upgrading Technicians to General. (I already commented on
the ARRL petition to the FCC.)

I'm not upset with the ARRL about this. The directors did what they
felt they had to do. But I'm still puzzled by parts of the proposal.

The highly controversial proposal of upgrading Technicians to General
is the result of insisting that all license classes be merged into
just 3 without downgrading privileges for any class. It's a game of
License Class Survivor, and all classes but 3 have to be voted off the
island. General and Amateur Extra are (correctly) considered too
important to eliminate, and Advanced licenses get upgraded to Amateur
Extra.

Looks like the added 8 WPM (5+3=13) is equal to the old element 4B (the
written
test an Advanced would take to get Extra back in the olden days). Or to
put it
another way, that having passed a 13 WPM test long ago is equal to 1/2
of the Extra
written test (I'm ignoring medical waivers here). An Advanced took what
is roughly
1/2 of the current Extra written (element 4). Now that the Extra only
needs 5WPM,
I suppose this equivalence is valid....

So only one more license class can remain, and the ARRL and
NCVEC think that the Novice should remain and be reopened, and the
Technician license should be voted off the island. Because of the "no
downgrade" condition, Technician licenses are upgraded to General.

Is the No-Code Technician license THAT hard to get? During the years
when both the Novice and No-Code Technician licenses were available
for new hams, the new hams (including myself) overwhelmingly chose the
No-Code Technician. What's now the Technician exam was two separate
tests back then - Novice and Technician.

Way back when, Tech required Novice code and general written. The old
pre 87
tech plus. I was one. Took element 4 a few years ago and now I'm an
extra.

Back in the early 1970s there was actually a rule saying that you could not
hold a tech AND a novice license at the same time. That Tech's were
restricted above 50MHz, thus no HF operations even as a novice. Even though
you had done novice code. I don't know if that was a bureaucratic
screw-up or
if the FCC had a reason. Back then I wanted to get a tech (phone privs
on VHF
I wanted) so my father and I visited a guy who was the FCC field
engineer for the
NYC area. This guy thought the tech license was an evil anti-ham dead
end that
would cause me never to attain true ham-dom on HF... Anyway, we did the
novice
code test. He set his keyer for a Farnsworth style test, but I had
trained for
slow character code. Bombed it. There's more about this guy, but it's OT.

Both the Novice and
Technician licenses required passing the Novice exam plus one more
exam. For the Novice license, the 5 wpm Morse Code exam was the
additional exam. For the No-Code Technician license, the Technician
exam was the additional exam. By at least a 20:1 or 30:1 margin, the
new hams chose the No-Code Technician exam. The new hams (including
myself) clearly thought that preparing the Technician exam was MUCH
easier than preparing for the 5 wpm exam. But in spite of this, the
ARRL thinks that the current Technician exam (a merger of the old
Novice and Technician exams) is too hard but says that the 5 wpm exam
is quite easy and uses this view as a partial justification as keeping
the 5 wpm exam requirement for the Amateur Extra license.

Most of the ARRL guys are old time HF hams who did the high speed code
thing.
They say code is easy because they found it easy for themselves and got
the higher
class licenses and rose to prominence at the ARRL (not that high speed code
is a necessary skill needed for running an organization, but they used
it as a political
tool to edge out lower level licensee candidates). So nobody who found
code to
be a PITA would be there to say that code is a PITA.....


The record is clear. The No-Code Technician license made the Novice
license obsolete. In the 2000 restructuring, the FCC closed the
Novice class for the same reason GM closed Oldsmobile - not enough
takers to justify the administrative costs and labor required.

Given all this, is it SO necessary to bring back the Novice class at
the expense of the Technician class? Why didn't the ARRL propose a
4-class system so that the popular Technician class could be kept?

My theories on why the ARRL thinks the Novice license is more
important than the Technician license:

2. Nostalgia about their Novice days led them to want to reopen and
reintroduce the Novice class.


The olden days of building and operating a vacuum tube CW transmitter from
parts from junked TV sets. It worked because common consumer electronics
parts could be easily applied to transmitter work. Not so today. Tubes
are fairly forgiving
of short duration mistakes but solid state devices are not



Whatever entry level license is proposed or is established should be
achievable by teenagers who are able to do fairly well in school. You
don't have to be a genius honor roll student to get it, but you should have
more smarts than Beavis and Butthead can muster....

I still think that the Technician license is fine as an entry-level
license and that the Technician exam isn't terribly hard - just an
extended version of the old Novice exam.

The Tech exam is what, roughly equivalent to an honors level high school
physics
exam and history exam (I mention "history' as that requires memorizing
random
information, names and dates equivalent to frequency bands and such
rules). Not
the inner city non-honors public schools where if you can write your
name you
graduate)... The Extra exam might be roughly equivalent to an exam for
a 3 credit
college class.

:

If the existing Technicians are upgraded to General, this means
that after we do this, we are discriminating against all that come
afterward. There will be a *powerful* argument that "The Tech elements
were good enough for the majority of hams to become General, so why
should I have to take a harder test?"

And although there is really no test process needed at all to get
on HF (witness CB'ers that run illegal power levels)

Well, they're not *legal* and should not be there. And legal CB
operators are not supposed to
talk internationally.