On Sep 8, 10:58*pm, "JB" wrote:
"Lawrence Statton" wrote in message
...

AJ Lake writes:
You need to understand that the FCC really doesn't want to be
bothered with Ham Radio at all.

Not any more. But in the past it was very different.

I think that the ARRL had more to do with the snafu's of that era. For
example incentive licensing.

Which was not really an ARRL idea - nor a new one in the 1960s.

I am not sure what the ARRL had to do with events previous to 73 and some of
the chronology from memory.

The 11 meter ham band was taken away to make the Citizens Band in 58? * It
didn't turn out anything like the FCC expected.

Yup. Actually FCC had created UHF cb where FRS/GMRS is now a decade
earlier, but 1950s technology was such that a good UHF radio was big,
heavy and expensive. So they reallocated 11 meters (which wasn't a ham
band by treaty) because decent sets would be a lot cheaper to make.
FCC never imagined that so many people would just ignore the rules.

*Previously there were fewer
ham license classes and everyone was on the same page. Also privileges were
taken away from the highest class to make a higher ones. *Ticked off a lot
of Hams to lose.

Before 1951 there were three license classes, A, B and C. The 1951
restructuring renamed them to Advanced, General and Conditional, and
added the Novice, Technician, and Extra. That 1951 restructuring was
not an ARRL idea, btw.

The Technician License split ham radio into two factions by offering a
license class that had little incentive to upgrade and actually made it much
more difficult to, by limiting the opportunities for on-the-air training.
People who took the Novice ticket were upgraded to General in less than 2
years or never got around to get on the air and let it lapse.

There were always lots of factions. There were the 'phone folks and
the CW bunch, the traffic handlers and the DXers, the homebrewers, kit
builders and factory-made groups, the mobileers, the VHF/UHFers, the
ragchewers, etc. Few of the divisions you see today are new.

*Hams (in my
area anyway) were expected to build something as a right of passage.
Building a code practice oscillator would get you a pat on the back from
everyone and you were in with the simplest project there was. *I built that
and the power supplies for my mil surplus rigs. *Some guys built a whole
Novice station.

Some folks still do. Google my call, for example...

*Techs at that time were expected to retune or modify a rig
or some project as well but would go straight to CB like intercom operations
not conducive to learning the HF skills for upgrade.

I think the real problem was that there wasn't much casual CW
operation on VHF, and many low-cost VHF rigs wouldn't even do CW.

*In my day we were
aware of a difference but we were all brother hams then. *I had Elmers that
were Techs and beyond. *Most all were technically inclined enough to have
built something. *People were generally civilized and knew that we were all
on the same team. *If there was irritation between individuals, and there
were oddballs, it was downplayed for the good of amateur radio, because it
was a small world and people were listening. *And you would run into each
other again and again, so no sense carrying a grudge.

Agreed! There were other forces at work, too. For one thing, equipment
was expensive compared to today and you needed to know something just
to tune it up and get on the air. For another, getting a license
required that you invest some time and effort into learning code and
theory.

The FCC was also a respected and almost feared entity before the cb
boom. Hams knew FCC was listening, and would find them if they
misbehaved.

In the late 70's there was a push by ARRL to get CBers interested, and over
the counter 2 meter radios were first becoming available.

I don't recall that at all. ARRL pushed repeaters and FM because they
were new technology, for hams anyway, and were already popular with
hams in some parts of the country.

ARRL didn't seem to understand that CB was a different service with a
different mindset and many were already set in their ways. * They seemed to
be willing to get people to hang outside of RS stores and lure CBers under
false pretenses about amateur radio in order to pump up the license roles
and subscriptions to QST.

I don't recall that at all.

* Wayne Green was one of the ticked off ones and
started 73 magazine to rag about the ARRL and QST.

Wayne Green was a lifelong gadfly. He's still around, btw. Says the
Apollo moon landings were faked, among other things.

*ARRL also convinced the
FCC (easily) to set up the volunteer examiner program.

Nope, not true. FCC did that in the early 1980s to reduce their
workload. Their funding wasn't keeping up with their costs and they
had to reduce costs somehow. ARRL had no choice.

*Novice exams were
already given by volunteer Extras.

Actually a General or Advanced could give Novice exams.

*FCC wanted to lighten their work load
since Ham testing and licensing was taking up most of a day at the field
offices.

The office in Philly where I took my tests was busy three days a week
with exams.

License renewals were then made easier and for longer. *ARRL liked it
because the rolls didn't drop out so fast and FCC didn't have to bother as
often.

It was FCC's idea. Less administrative work.

The volunteer examiner program gave seminars to get people licensed but
because of the accellerated pace, *people got licensed before they got a
chance to learn the realities of getting on the air and keeping a station up
and meeting the people. *Some people would find it not their cup of tea and
leave but their license was now good for 10 years pumping up the rolls.

Yup.

The no-code Tech license 83? further divided amateurs and even further
sidetracked Techs from upgrading.

1991, not 1983. Don't forget code waivers, created in 1990 as a favor
of then-president Bush to ham who was also a King.

*Lead time for getting a ticket was
shortened from the 2 to 6 months or so to learn the code to as little as 6
weeks, then 2 weeks as the process refined. * It was notable that in the
80s, there were many who learned the code anyway and upgraded but the whole
thing by and large tended to split Ham Radio into those who upgraded and
those who couldn't very well.and were often frustrated.

There were also folks who got into ham radio back then to use it as a
personal communications
system without all the headaches of cb. Sometimes whole families got
licensed and got HTs just to keep in touch. We had a lot of them in
the 80s and 90s. Cell phones killed that.

*Many would tell
themselves they just weren't interested and resented the others. *Way too
sad. *I finally came to grips with the idea that they should do away with
the Tech class license at all costs, even getting rid of code testing for
the General to do it, just so we could mend the split. * I was stunned when
they dropped the code requirement for Extra though. *I really haven't kept
track of all the current structure since I got my Extra in 93.

The changes have been a little here and a little there. It was FCC,
not ARRL, who has pushed for reduced requirements since the late
1970s.

In any case, the "incentive" licensing structure was anything but incentive.
So much for good intentions.

Consider this, though:

In 1951 there were about 100,000 US hams.

By 1962 or so that number had grown to about 250,000.

But then the growth slowed to a trickle and by 1969 there were only a
few more than there were in 1962.

Some said the incentive licensing changes would kill off ham radio,
but instead the numbers grew all through the 1970s and 1980s and into
the 1990s. Not just Techs but Generals and above too.

btw, I got my Novice in 1967 (age 13), Advanced in 1968 (age 14) and
Extra in 1970 (age 16). I didn't think any of the tests were very
hard. Would have gotten the Extra sooner but in those days you needed
2 years experience as a General or Advanced just to try the Extra
test.

73 de Jim, N2EY