RadioBanter - View Single Post

October 5th 03, 12:30 PM

In article , ospam
(Larry Roll K3LT) writes:

I think that the most likely scenario is that they will do as you suggest,
and distill it down to two license classes, General and Extra. All current
Techs would be "grandfathered" to the General class, and the Extra will
remain the same, sans Element 1(a). This would be the easiest change
to accomplish from an administrative standpoint, and they wouldn't have
to even bother renaming the remaining license classes, which would only
risk causing resentment among current Extras. There could be, at most,
a requirement for current Techs to pass another written element, but the
grandfathering would be an easier fix.

ARRL asked for something very similar back in 1998 and FCC said no. (ARRL's
proposal would have given Novices and Tech Pluses instant upgrades to General).

Such an instant upgrade has these problems:

1) A lot of screaming about "no giveaways"

2) FCC has to announce a change and then implement it. To my knowledge, stuff
like license requirement changes almost never is done "effective immediately".
So the day such a change is announced, you'll see a flurry of folks getting
their Techs in anticiaption of a free upgrade to General in a few weeks or
months.

Of course, almost
anything is possible.

73 de Jim, N2EY