Until the ARRL proposal came out, I had never heard anyone propose
automatic upgrades of Technician licensees to the General class. Now
that this proposal has come out, many people are defending this part
of the proposal.

I realize this might sound radical, but I believe that the current
licensing system, for the most part, is OK. The only change that I
strongly believe should be made is eliminating the 5 wpm Morse Code
exam for all license classes, including Amateur Extra. Until the ARRL
proposal came out, the Morse Code exam was the main controversy. The
proposed automatic upgrades from Tech to General have now stolen much
of the spotlight.

I oppose the proposed automatic upgrade from Tech to General because
it's too large in magnitude. The General exam material is relevant to
operating as a General licensee and goes into greater depth than the
material on the Technician exam. The proposed automatic upgrade from
Advanced to Amateur Extra is modest in magnitude and can be justified
by the fact that most of the current Amateur Extra question pool was
covered by the old Advanced question pool. But the rationale for
upgrading Advanced licensees to Amateur Extra does not apply to
upgrading Technicians to General. (I realize that there are a few
Technicians who passed the General exam, but the current system allows
them to upgrade to General simply by showing that they earned their
Technician license before a certain date in 1987.)

I realize that No-Code Technicians lack HF privileges, but simply
eliminating the 5 wpm exam would upgrade No-Code Techs to Tech Plus
and also make it easier to upgrade to General. Why not drop the 5 wpm
requirement and then expand the Tech Plus privileges on HF? This
would beef up Technician privileges even more without resorting to
automatic upgrades to the General class. I'm not against free
upgrades, but I believe they should be of modest magnitude.

I may be wrong in saying that the Technician exam is not too difficult
for new licensees. I may be wrong in saying that no new Novice class
is needed. If this is the case, then why not have a 4-class system
instead of a 3-class system? Just split the Technician exam into
separate Novice and Technician exams (which was the case before the
restructuring of 2000) and offer a No-Code Novice license. Going to a
3-class system should involve eliminating the Novice class (with free
upgrades to Technician), not the Technician class. The Technician
class is too important to eliminate.

Believe it or not, I have not changed my views in light of the recent
restructuring proposals. I strongly believe that the Morse Code exam
requirement should be eliminated for all license classes, including
Amateur Extra. (No, Larry, I have not joined your side of the issue.)
However, I do not think that the Technician exam is too difficult.
It seems to me that nobody was complaining about the difficulty of the
Technician exam until the ARRL suggested this. The people who defend
the proposed free upgrades from Technician to General are providing
fodder for the Pro-Code-Testing people who insist that the
Anti-Code-Testing people want to get rid of the written exams. I am
one of the Anti-Code-Testing people, and I think the written exams are
OK.

Jason Hsu, AG4DG