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#11
February 22nd 05, 05:11 PM
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Alun L. Palmer wrote: wrote in news:1109065656.859950.28030 @z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com: Alun L. Palmer wrote: wrote in news:1109009984.323422.143080 @o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com: snip 5wpm isn't very fast, but why is it required to operate phone? A couple of reasons: For the same reason hams have to pass written *theory* tests to use *manufactured* rigs with no critical tuneup adjustments. For the same reason hams have to pass written tests on VHF/UHF to operate HF, high-power RF exposure questions to operate QRP, etc. And because code is a big part of amateur radio, and a ham who doesn't know any just isn't fully qualified. 73 de Jim, N2EY I think we can agree to differ on that last point. Perhaps. Do you agree that Morse code is a big part of amateur radio? Not that it needs a test, but just that it is a big part of today's amateur radio, particularly on HF? As a matter of fact, even directly after passing the US 20wpm test I couldn't have passed the UK 12wpm test. Perhaps. But I thought we were discussing *US* code test requirements. 5wpm is not too difficult, especially the way it is tested in the US, but until recently it only gave access to the 'novice' subbands in the US, all of which except for 10m didn't allow phone. From my PoV, it would only have given me 10m at that time. I never took 5. Since 1990 it has been possible to get an Extra (or any other HF-privileges amateur radio license) with just the 5 wpm code test and a waiver. 15 years - hardly "recently". I probably could have passed 5 when I came to the US, but I simply didn't realise how much easier the tests were here. Thinking it would have been as hard as a UK test I didn't bother to take it. The test procedures here aren't secret. Never were. I was operating above 30MHz on a 610A permit, and when the 'no code' licence was introduced I decided to get a US call. Having 'aced' the Novice and I think dropped one question in the Tech paper, I was given the General paper, for which I hadn't looked at the syllabus or question pool atall, and I passed that. Ditto the Advanced, but they didn't have a spare Extra paper. None of this really surprised me, as the UK B licence had the same theory as the A licence, and I have an EE degree anyway, but it surprised the VEs. Why should it? The US writtens were *never* very hard - if you knew a little radio and some regs. Back in 1968 I went for General at the FCC office in early summer. Did not pass 13 wpm code because the examiner couldn't read my longhand. Got credit for 5 wpm, took the written (which was same as General back then), walked out with a Tech. Could not use the new privs until the actual license arrived in the mail, though. Went home, taught myself Signal-Corps-method block printing and more practice until I could do 18 wpm W1AW bulletins solid. Went back and passed 13 wpm code easily, sending and receiving. Then the examiner says "why not try Advanced while you're here?". Now in those days the Advanced was supposedly the toughest of the writtens, with all sorts of math and circuits and such. But one did not say No to The Man, so I tried, with zero preparation. Passed easily and wound up with Advanced instead of General. That was back before question pools, Bash books and computerized practice tests. Didn't have an EE back then either - I was 14 years old and it was the summer between 8th and 9th grades. Two years later I went back to get the Extra. Would have been sooner but in those days you had to have two years experience as General or Advanced to even *try* the Extra. This gave me 12 months to pass 13wpm if I didn't want to have to take the General and Advanced theory again. With the help of computer software and slow Morse transmissions I did it in six months. Bingo. How long do you think it would have taken to get to 5 wpm, tested the way the USA does? Note that Mike got there in that amount of time from scratch even with hearing problems, and it took me that long when I wasn't starting from the beginning, and there's no problem with my hearing. Also, I had a relay of all the VEs sending code on 2m five nights a week. They saw it a a challenge to teach me code. I almost passed 20, but I had to come back a couple of months later. To get up to 13wpm meant copying whole characters instead of dits and dahs, no matter how easy the type of test. OK, so that's gone, but that means the remaining Element 1 doesn't test the ability to copy complete characters, so on the one hand it's relatively easy, but on the other hand it's pointless. Not at all. If the code uses Farnsworth spacing, you copy characters, not dits and dahs. This isn't anything new - W1AW has been sending code practice that way since at least 1966 (first time I heard it, anyway). Why preserve a test that doesn't test an adequate level of a skill as a requirement for access to a particular part of the spectrum, when there's no requirement to use that skill anyway? Same reason for written tests. Do the writtens guarantee that all who pass can design/build/modify/repair/operate all amateur equipment they are authorized to use? Or do they test basic knowledge? 5 wpm is basic Morse skill, that's all. Why is it too much to ask? Tradition? That's a weak reason, but it seems to be the only one. Sure, 40% of HF may be CW, but I can (and do) operate 100% phone . And my HF operation is 99% CW on 80/40/20, with 100 watts or less output, yet I had to learn all kinds of stuff about high power, 'phone modes, RTTY, SSTV, other HF bands, VHF/UHF, etc. Most of that knowledge I've never needed, and some of it (like band edges) has changed since I took the test. So why did I have to learn all that in the first place, just to operate a QRP rig on 7015 CW? 73 de Jim, N2EY |
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