RadioBanter - View Single Post

August 9th 03, 03:12 AM

On 7 Aug 2003 15:33:36 -0700, (N2EY) wrote:

- the "incentive licensing" changes of 1968-69 that drastically
increased the requirements for a full privileges license. And ushered
in a period of growth and innovation....

Actually, ham growth took a distinct drop virtually from the moment
'incentive licensing' (a.k.a. 'punishment licensing') was proposed in
the early '60s. Seems a number of OTs (and NTs, probably) didn't like
the idea that they were going to have privileges (including some of
the most choice frequency segments) taken away from them and they'd
have to pass a test (or two or three) to get them back. This
coincided with a number of well-known manufacturers finding that it
was no longer financially profitable to stay in the ham market. If
there appears to be increased growth after 'incentive licensing',
it'll likely just be that ham growth returned to its normal levels
after recovering from the blow to morale inflicted by the
implementation of incentive licensing.

It appears the ARRL and the FCC learned from this - I don't think
there's been any proposals from either since then that envision taking
away privileges from any particular class of license.

Ben