On Sat, 9 Jan 2016, gareth wrote:

In Brit, in order to get any sort of licence, even the beginner's licence
targetted at the 5-year-old (and shame on any grown man who took one out!)
you have to go through an elementary construction exercise, which I believe
gets promptly forgotten.

I wonder if perhaps we in these NG could get together and design a set
of constructions that would then become a standard as a minimum set of
test equipment so that beginners, even if not taught about such things on
their
various syllabi, could verify the power, frquency of transmission, and
harmonic
output, for without such a capability, such licensees are indistinguishable
from CBers?

You should come to Canada. In 1972 when I got my license, there was not
only the code sending and receiving tests, but a multiple choice test on
operating and technical matters, and we had to draw and describe various
items, like a receiver, a transmitter, a 100KHz frequency standard, etc.
You could use simple versions of each, but you had to be able to describe
the workings, and the guy giving the test knew the stuff.

The minute I got my license, I could run a full kilowatt, and operate on
all bands, the only thing missing was no phone operation.

Then they restructured in 1990, and the beginner's license is now a very
simple test (or so I hear), but you can't build transmitters. They sugar
coat it by saying "the licensee can build anything except transmitters"
but a simple CW transmitter is easier to build than a useful receiver.
You get more restrictions on operating, and I think power is limited. You
have to take the advanced test to get full privileges.

"Nobody builds anymore" was the cry, so why put a complicated test in the
way of people wanting to become hams. But once upon a time, building was
part of the process, now it's relegated to a "niche"

Michael