Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:
From: Jim Hampton on Aug 30, 6:12 pm
wrote in message
Didn't they find that out with welfare?
You mean the WELFARE system that rewarded the
high-rate morsemen
with fancier titles and better privileges, such as in the
"incentive plan" licensing system? Yes. It worked very
well, didn't it?
You seem to have the idea of welfare backward, Len, and you've
introduced a factual error.
uh-oh, now you've done it, Dave. You pointed out both faulty
reasoning and a factual error in one of Len's postings here.
There was never a class of license
under
Incentive Licensing, which provided an upgrade for merely
passing a
morse exam. To go from the General to Advanced, one passed
only a
theory exam. To step up from the Advanced to the Amateur
Extra, one
passed a theory exam and a higher speed morse exam.
Not only that, but after 1990 the 13 and 20 wpm Morse Code
tests could be avoided by getting a waiver. All it took was
a letter from any doctor.
The Extra and Advanced license classes have existed since 1951,
even though the changes commonly known as "incentive licensing"
did not go into effect until the late 1960s.
Before the restructuring of 1951, the old "ABC" license system
offered had one code test - and two written tests. Upgrading
to Class A required only a written test.
As for how well it worked, well, the number of Amateur Extras grew from
about 5000 in 1968 to over 75,000 in 2000. The number of Advanceds grew
from less than 40,000 to over 100,000 in the same time period. And the
total number of US amateurs grew
from about 260,000 to about 675,000 in the same time period.
In a welfare system, you get something for doing nothing.
You stick your hand out and someone gives you something.
You mean like the proposals by ARRL and NCI and NCVEC to
give automatic upgrades without any more tests?
73 de Jim, N2EY