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