Spike wrote:
It would seem that this so-called 'FAQ' is itself in need of serious
repair; let us see if the author can tackle that, or whether he merely
intends to tackle it but then abandon it in favour of some activity
that actually lies within his ambit. It is suggested that for a number
of reasons, some possibly legal in scope, he does not republish it
until the problems inherent in it are satisfactorily dealt with,
otherwise serious issues might arise by any who follow it.

But why would he allow "nugatories" (his word) such as truth and
common-sense to spoil his vision of amateur radio? A vision which,
according to this posting from 1999, included an HND-level exam!

Gareth Alun Evans wrote in message
...
Perhaps the answer would be to widen the terms
of the CB license, to include what are now the 2m,
6m, 10m and 20m amateur bands, using only
type-approved eqpt (which should suit the quasi-
CB activities of DX, WAB and contests, and the
current behavioural habits of the denizens of those
bands); and then to bring in a much higher
educational requirement (say, 'A' level maths
and electronics) as a pre-requisite for an RAE
at about the HND level. It cannot be ignored
that a good mathematical grounding is essential for
engineering design. This would also provide a
break-time to ease the Morse requirement.
Needless to say, all current Radio Hams (myself
included) would get only the expanded CB, and
would have to sit the new exams. I cannot see
that there would be any objection to this because
if you consider yourself to competent to design and
construct radios, then you'd pass the exam with
flying colours, wouldn't you?
A Radio Ham licence would then, indeed, be
a prized privilege

One wonders what would be the point? If 136kHz, 1.8, 3.5, 5, 7, 10, 18,
21 and 24MHz were only available to qualified engineers, what would
they use them for? What could they learn about propagation on these
bands that we don't already know? And, in a world where
mission-critical long-distance comms has already moved to fibre and
satellite, to what use would any new knowledge be put?

Surely it's better to promote the social side of the hobby (and yes
Gareth, it IS a hobby) to at least the same extent as the technical
side, and the only way to do this is for entry into the hobby to remain
"competitive" with other pastimes. The RSGB have shown that they can do
this efficiently.

73 and Happy CHRISTmas
Mike G4KFK
www.g4kfk.co.uk