"Carl R. Stevenson" wrote in message ...
"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
...
But do you think my proposal will work? We have a number of years of
operation under such a system, and I have not heard of any problems with
the database administration of the orphan licensees.
- Mike KB3EIA -
It's not *just* the database administration. Another aspect of the problem
is that the *rules* have to be maintained for those orphaned classes. How
do you deal with the sub-band by class privs without consolidation.
Easy! See below.
By consolidating into just three classes (including the new beginner class
with meaningful HF privs), the rules can be simplified greatly.
Not really. See below.
That will
ease the administrative burden on the FCC (and the VECs) in ways that go
beyond just the database issue.
Let's get down to the *real* differences in operating privileges
between license classes.
Above 30 MHz, we have the following:
Novices: Limited privileges on a few bands
All other classes: All privileges.
The proposed "NewNovice" won;t change that situation at all, so the
regs don't get any simpler for VHF/UHF.
Below 30 MHz:
Technicians: Nil
Novices & Technician Pluses: Small bits of 80/40/15/10
Generals: All privileges *except* some parts of 80/40/20/15
Advanceds: All privileges *except* some parts of 80/40/20/15
Extras: All privileges.
On HF, we now have 4 sets of privileges:
Novice/Tech
General
Advanced
Extra
and the differences between the last three are only on four popular
bands.
Now suppose we do the free upgrades. Here's the result:
"NewNovices": Small but different bits of 80/40/15/10
Generals: All privileges *except* some parts of 80/40/20/15
Extras: All privileges.
Three sets of operating privileges remain. All we've really lost is
the Advanced set, which was simply some 'phone/image space on
80/40/20/15.
Now suppose instead of the free upgrades we do the following:
"New Novices" - Revised set of privileges. Existing Novices, Techs and
Tech Pluses get NewNovice HF privileges. Existing Techs and Tech
Pluses keep full VHF/UHF privs.
Everybody else stays the same.
Here's the result:
Above 30 MHz, we have the following:
"NewNovices": Limited privileges on a few bands
All other classes: All privileges.
Below 30 MHz:
"NewNovices", Techs & Technician Pluses: Bits of 80/40/15/10
Generals: All privileges *except* some parts of 80/40/20/15
Advanceds: All privileges *except* some parts of 80/40/20/15
Extras: All privileges.
On HF, we still have 4 sets of privileges:
NewNovice/Tech
General
Advanced
Extra
and the differences between the last three are only on four popular
bands.
Let me make it even simpler for ya:
Giving free Generals to existing Techs and Pluses, rather than just
giving them "NewNovice" HF privileges, doesn't simplify the regs at
all. We still need a section to describe the NewNovice privs.
Giving Advanceds a free upgrade to Extra *does* simplify the regs
slightly, by eliminating the Advanced subbands on 4 HF bands. Big deal
- they amount to a few lines of text and a few blocks in the band
tables.
As for VEs, the rules on testing and element credit are
straightforward. clear and in the regs already. Works like this for
the "legacy" licenses:
If you have or had a Novice, you get Element 1 credit only.
If you have a Tech plus, you get credit for Elements 1 and 2, and
possibly 3 depending on the date.
If you have an Advanced, you get the same credits as a General -
Elements 1, 2 and 3.
Simple as that.
And note this:
The NCVEC proposal includes a whole bunch of unnecessary junk such as
restrictions on the type of equipment that can be used, special
callsigns for "Communicators", and the "signed Part 97 statement"
nonsense. (Note that since those special callsigns are only for
Communicators, upgrading means a new callsign and more admin work for
FCC. Since the new-callsign-with-upgrade thing would be an FCC
requirement if NCVEC has its way, it wouldn't be part of the vanity
rules and they couldn't charge for it.
I ask again: Show us why the "legacy" license classes *must* be
immediately eliminated.
73 de Jim, N2EY
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