Steve Robeson K4CAP wrote:
Subject: Hans' views/complaints about NCI and the ARRL and NCVEC
petitions ...
From: (N2EY)
Date: 4/29/2004 11:58 AM Central Standard Time
Message-id:
"Carl R. Stevenson" wrote in message
...
Many people's mileage varys on that ...
Whose mileage, Carl? Yours?
Is Morse Code "mainstream" in amateur radio or not?
Judging by the amount of RF I hear on HF and the presnece of a key jack on
even the most prestigeous of HF transceivers, I'd have to say "yes, it's
mainstream".
Kids aren't put off by code tests *or* written tests, in my
experience. And I do have a bit of experience in that area....
You must know different kids than I do ... the vast majority of the ones I
know couldn't give a rat's backside about learning or using Morse.
How many kids do you really know, Carl? How many of them would be
interested in *any* sort of radio avocation?
In CAP we have dozens of kids chomping at the bit to "get on the air". Of
the current "crop" of Cadets at th local unit, seven out of 12 are licensed
Amateurs, six of them have already one on to General.
Testing = knowledge = bad
No ...
Irrelevant/unnecessary requirements = waste of time/lack of interest = bad
OK, fine. Now imagine FCC enacts free upgrades. How are you going to
argue that the General written test is "relevant" or "necessary" when
about 2/3 of the then-licensed Generals never passed the test for the
license they hold? How are you going to sell the idea that the General
written is "necessary"?
And who's making the call on what's irrelevant and what's
unnecessary...?!?!
Isn't that the "call" of the person seeking Amateur licensure...?!?!
Sure. But that part of the ARRL proposal isn't the problem. And if the
majority of NCI members support NCVEC's "appliance operator" class,
and their "copy of Part 97" idea, will NCI support that, too?
Read the numbers ...
Where? You won't even tell us how many members NCI has, or how many of
them are US hams. How many NCI members actually answered the survey?
The League and CQ Magazine always provide the numbers of those responding
to surveys.
the majority of NCI members did NOT support either the
"commercial gear only for newbies" or the "low voltage finals only for
newbies" proposals from NCVEC - that implies pretty clearly to me that they
want newbies to be able to tinker, build, modify, and experiment, just as
did the Novices of our beginning days ...
Yep, I built my first station and many more since then. And a key part
of being able to do it was being able to start with simple projects
that gave good results. Like a simple Morse Code transmitter and
receiver.
Suppose a 'kid' with a brand-new license told you she wanted to build,
not buy, her ham radio station. Tools, skills, time and $$ are limited
- we're talking about a middle-schooler, not an adult.
What would you suggest to her as a first project, Carl?
I'm a bit curious too...........
If I were to butt in here, I would say that aside from the obvious CW
transceiver, simple and easy to build, There are plenty of other
possibilities.
AM transmitters. - Yeah, groan.
Simple SSB transmitters. There appear to be a few out there that can be
homebrewed. If not, Jim should design one!
All these would be somewhat more complex than the classic CW
transmitter, but that brings me back to the point I like to make about
what hams "should know". Now that we are probably moving beyond the time
when a super simple transmitter is the rig of choice for the budding
homebrewer, it is more important than ever that the same should have a
well grounded knowledge of basic electronics.
Aside from homebrewing entire radios, the youngster can do things like
building interfaces to their computers from their radios. Note that
there is a PSK31 Transceiver that can be built from Rocky mountain Labs
IIRC that while it isn't quite a homebrew design, it isn't a bad start -
it's like building a modern da version of a Heathkit.
Antennas are another matter. There is a lot of quackery on the matter
of antennas these days, and some serious guidance is needed to keep the
kids from getting discouraged. And yaknow, a homebrew tuner might just
be a good project too!
Someone oughta write a book. hmmmmmmm.
Discouraging homebrew is possibly the most damaging part of at least
one of the proposals out there as far as attracting young people.
I just don't think that there are that many youngsters that want to
simply mash the PTT button on their Yeacommwood transceiver and yak as
their primary activity in the ARS. We won't attract too many people that
way.
I'm firmly convinced that kids that might want to join the ARS want to
BUILD!
- Mike KB3EIA -