RadioBanter - View Single Post - Are RF safety questions too hard for the proposed new Novice exam?

April 14th 04, 04:16 AM

In article ,
(Jason Hsu) writes:

Under the ARRL's proposal, current Novices will have certain
privileges REDUCED.

That's not in the RM-10867 Petition for Rule Making I downloaded.

This opposes the sensible concept of avoiding
automatic downgrades for any license class. The reason for stricter
power limits is to avoid the need for RF safety questions in the new
Novice exam.

So, why weren't all those RF safety questions in the OLD Novice
exam?

What's wrong with testing prospective Novice licensees on RF safety?
Are RF safety questions that hard? It seems like an extremely
important topic to me, and learning about RF safety doesn't seem like
an undue burden.

Go back and review the two tables in 97.13.

MOST of the ham stations won't require any "performance
evaluation" now.

Furthermore, RF safety is just one topic on the
written exam and doesn't have the unilateral power that the Morse Code
exams currently have. What's wrong with making the Novice question
pool 10%-20% larger given how critical this topic is and given the
need to avoid downgrading privileges of current licensees?

The question POOL can be as large as the NCVEC QPC cares
to make it. There's no Commission rule on maxima, only on the
minima of 10 pool questions for each examination question.

LHA / WMD