Total growth of 901 in that much time isn't healthy. Reducing the code test to
just 5 wpm did not result in sustained growth, and neither did reducing the
written tests.


True of the code, but the writtens are substationally the same before
and after restructuring. Oh, element 4 has a few less questions than
old elements 4a plus 4b had, but it's the same
material you have to study.
And of course you won't know exactly what questions you'll get.

Maybe a few advertisements placed in magazines (horrors) CBers
and (even worse!) freebanders read can find some new "born
again" "repentant" people to get a ham license and swear off
freebanding...? Now that the sunspots are out of season?

In article , Robert Casey
writes:

Total growth of 901 in that much time isn't healthy. Reducing the code test
to
just 5 wpm did not result in sustained growth, and neither did reducing the
written tests.

True of the code, but the writtens are substationally the same before
and after restructuring. Oh, element 4 has a few less questions than
old elements 4a plus 4b had, but it's the same
material you have to study.
And of course you won't know exactly what questions you'll get.

IIRC, under the old system it took 5 written tests totalling 190 questions to
reach full privileges. Heck, it took 2 writtens totalling 65 questions to get a
Tech! That has been reduced to 3 written tests totalling 120 questions, A Tech
requires only a single 35 question test.

That's a significant reduction, IMHO. But it hasn't resulted in sustained
growth. Neither has the loss of nearly all code testing. Nor the no-code-test
Technician, nor code test waivers, etc. etc.

Maybe a few advertisements placed in magazines (horrors) CBers
and (even worse!) freebanders read can find some new "born
again" "repentant" people to get a ham license and swear off
freebanding...? Now that the sunspots are out of season?

I don't think so. In my experience, a lot of those folks simply don't want to
be licensed. Has nothing to do with the tests, and everything to do with
perception.

Publicity to the general public is one thing that's needed.

73 de Jim, N2EY

IIRC, under the old system it took 5 written tests totalling 190 questions to
reach full privileges. Heck, it took 2 writtens totalling 65 questions to get a
Tech! That has been reduced to 3 written tests totalling 120 questions, A Tech
requires only a single 35 question test.

That's a significant reduction, IMHO.

I still think that the odds of passing a 100 question test and a 10
question test, if the questions are of the same level of difficulty,
is about the same. Anyway...
But it hasn't resulted in sustained
growth. Neither has the loss of nearly all code testing. Nor the no-code-test
Technician, nor code test waivers, etc. etc.

True, but I don't know why.


Maybe a few advertisements placed in magazines (horrors) CBers
and (even worse!) freebanders read can find some new "born
again" "repentant" people to get a ham license and swear off
freebanding...? Now that the sunspots are out of season?


I don't think so. In my experience, a lot of those folks simply don't want to
be licensed. Has nothing to do with the tests, and everything to do with
perception.

Maybe you're right. Some years ago I exchanged a few emails with a
freebander hobbyist trying to convince him that a ham license would
be a good thing for him to get. Not by shameing him for freebanding,
but telling of the many things you can do legally on many different
kinds of bands as a ham. But he mentioned an experience of not
liking the hams at some random ham club he once visited. That's
the preception issue you mentioned.

It was a long shot....


Publicity to the general public is one thing that's needed.

73 de Jim, N2EY

In article , Robert Casey
writes:

IIRC, under the old system it took 5 written tests totalling 190 questions
to
reach full privileges. Heck, it took 2 writtens totalling 65 questions to
get a
Tech! That has been reduced to 3 written tests totalling 120 questions, A
Tech requires only a single 35 question test.

That's a significant reduction, IMHO.

I still think that the odds of passing a 100 question test and a 10
question test, if the questions are of the same level of difficulty,
is about the same. Anyway...

Maybe. But which *appears* to be more difficult to most newcomers:

"If you want to be a ham, you have to pass two tests, with a total of 100
questions"

or

"If you want to be a ham, you have to pass a 10 question test"

?

But it hasn't resulted in sustained
growth. Neither has the loss of nearly all code testing. Nor the
no-code-test
Technician, nor code test waivers, etc. etc.

True, but I don't know why.

Nobody really does.

But all this indicates that the old nocodetest mantra that "code tests are
keeping out hordes of 'otherwise qualified' people" is simply false. And now
folks like NCVEC (which is to say, W5YI and a few buddies) are pushing for even
simpler entry licensing. Which is simply wrong.

I think lack of publicity is one big factor. Another is competition from other
technical avocations. Add to this the fact that some of the reasons to be a ham
years ago have vanished. Example: I know some hams who got licenses simply to
keep in touch with family members. Decades ago, when longdistance telephone
calls were expensive, it was family members across the continent. Years ago,
when cell phones were expensive, it was for local honeydew comms. Today those
reasons have all but vanished.

Maybe a few advertisements placed in magazines (horrors) CBers
and (even worse!) freebanders read can find some new "born
again" "repentant" people to get a ham license and swear off
freebanding...? Now that the sunspots are out of season?

I don't think so. In my experience, a lot of those folks simply don't want
to
be licensed. Has nothing to do with the tests, and everything to do with
perception.

Maybe you're right. Some years ago I exchanged a few emails with a
freebander hobbyist trying to convince him that a ham license would
be a good thing for him to get. Not by shameing him for freebanding,
but telling of the many things you can do legally on many different
kinds of bands as a ham. But he mentioned an experience of not
liking the hams at some random ham club he once visited. That's
the preception issue you mentioned.

It was a long shot....

That's one perception. Here's another:

Hams are licensed by the feds and the vast majority of them follow the rules -
all the rules. Which means that even though they could run superpower, they
don't, and even though their rigs go outside the ham bands, they won't use 'em
there. Etc. Part of the reason is that the FCC knows where hams live, etc., but
a bigger part is that "it's just not done" by hams.

IOW, most of hamdom is pretty straight-arrow law-abiding.

Freeband is exactly the opposite. Almost everyhting hams consider important,
they ignore, and vice versa. So why would one be attracted to the other?

73 de Jim, N2EY

N2EY wrote:


Hams are licensed by the feds and the vast majority of them follow the rules -
all the rules. Which means that even though they could run superpower, they
don't, and even though their rigs go outside the ham bands, they won't use 'em
there. Etc. Part of the reason is that the FCC knows where hams live, etc., but
a bigger part is that "it's just not done" by hams.

Most licensed car drivers follow the rules of the road even if there
are no cops around. Most understand that the system works only
because the rules are followed, and thus most do follow the rules.
And the same for most hams on the ham bands. There's little point
calling CQ out of band as you won't find other hams out of band.
And there is plenty of interesting things to do in band. As for
super power, our legal limit is on the order of a kilowatt (varies
a bit depending on mode and subband) which is plenty enough if
you really gotta snag that rare DX. Throw in a beam if you
want (though beams for 160m are kinda hard to come by...).
Other rules like "no business traffic" are there to protect
our bands from being taken over by business users. No broadcasting
is also there to keep the bands useable for normal 2 way comms
(think about how often you actually push the PTT button or
activate the VOX, maybe 15 minutes a day at most unless you're
calling CQ in a contest). That's a duty cycle of 1% or less
for most of us on days we turn the rig on. And if you only do
that once every 2 weeks it drops to 0.07% duty cycle. Broadcasters
are on about 100% of the time, and the bands would fill up pretty
quickly with trash. Thus that rule.

We don't have that many stupid rules nowadays. Used to be you
had to mail a letter to the FCC telling if you were going to be
mobile for more than 2 weeks. But Phil (IIRC) mentioned that
the FCC never acted on any of that stuff, so why bother making
hams do it? So it was dropped.


IOW, most of hamdom is pretty straight-arrow law-abiding.

I've committed a few infractions by accident (phone
in the CW band for example) but soon caught it and corrected
it myself. No need for the FCC to kick down the door....
The FCC knows that people occasionally make mistakes and
only acts if you keep on doing it for long periods of time.
Then it's on purpose and you know it.


Freeband is exactly the opposite. Almost everyhting hams consider important,
they ignore, and vice versa. So why would one be attracted to the other?

There's an outside chance that some of them don't know that ham radio
exists. Nahhhh.... not likely at all....

In article , Robert Casey
writes:

N2EY wrote:


Hams are licensed by the feds and the vast majority of them follow the
rules -
all the rules. Which means that even though they could run superpower, they
don't, and even though their rigs go outside the ham bands, they won't use
'em
there. Etc. Part of the reason is that the FCC knows where hams live, etc.,
but
a bigger part is that "it's just not done" by hams.

Most licensed car drivers follow the rules of the road even if there
are no cops around. Most understand that the system works only
because the rules are followed, and thus most do follow the rules.

Sort of.

Speed limits are routinely disregarded, even when gas prices are well over $2.
In some places things like signaling and allowing adequate following space are
the exception rather than the rule.

Ask any on-the-street LEO, EMT, or ER person about DWI.

The big difference in driving vs. amateur radio compliance is that if someone
violates the rules enough, they're very likely to wind up with a smashed-up
car. Or dead.

And the same for most hams on the ham bands. There's little point
calling CQ out of band as you won't find other hams out of band.

True. But when things get busy, like during a contest, you won't find many hams
slipping out-of-band to find a clear spot.

And there is plenty of interesting things to do in band. As for
super power, our legal limit is on the order of a kilowatt (varies
a bit depending on mode and subband) which is plenty enough if
you really gotta snag that rare DX. Throw in a beam if you
want (though beams for 160m are kinda hard to come by...).

Yep - but OTOH there are times when full legal power isn't enough.

Other rules like "no business traffic" are there to protect
our bands from being taken over by business users.

Agreed!

No broadcasting
is also there to keep the bands useable for normal 2 way comms
(think about how often you actually push the PTT button or
activate the VOX, maybe 15 minutes a day at most unless you're
calling CQ in a contest). That's a duty cycle of 1% or less
for most of us on days we turn the rig on. And if you only do
that once every 2 weeks it drops to 0.07% duty cycle. Broadcasters
are on about 100% of the time, and the bands would fill up pretty
quickly with trash. Thus that rule.

Not really.

A ham broadcaster could fire up a few hours a day, or a few hours a week, and
still have a low duty cycle.

The reason is to prevent competition to the "professional" broadcasters.

We don't have that many stupid rules nowadays. Used to be you
had to mail a letter to the FCC telling if you were going to be
mobile for more than 2 weeks. But Phil (IIRC) mentioned that
the FCC never acted on any of that stuff, so why bother making
hams do it? So it was dropped.

it used to be 2 *days* (48 hours)! If you were going to operate away from home
more than 48 hours, it was postcard time. And you sent the cards to the
district office for your portable/mobile location.

Yet as silly as the rule seems now, hams did it, because it was the rule.

Then there was Conelrad...

IOW, most of hamdom is pretty straight-arrow law-abiding.

I've committed a few infractions by accident (phone
in the CW band for example) but soon caught it and corrected
it myself.

You just proved my point! Your violations were 100% unintentional and
immediately corrected once you were aware. And not repeated.

No need for the FCC to kick down the door....
The FCC knows that people occasionally make mistakes and
only acts if you keep on doing it for long periods of time.
Then it's on purpose and you know it.

And in most cases FCC waits until there are credible complaints.

Freeband is exactly the opposite. Almost everyhting hams consider
important,
they ignore, and vice versa. So why would one be attracted to the other?

There's an outside chance that some of them don't know that ham radio
exists. Nahhhh.... not likely at all....

HAW!!

Yes, there is that chance. But the freeband folks I've met know ham radio
exists, but are not interested in being tied down by all those rules.

73 de Jim, N2EY

In article , PAMNO
(N2EY) writes:

A ham broadcaster could fire up a few hours a day, or a few hours a week, and
still have a low duty cycle.

The reason is to prevent competition to the "professional" broadcasters.

W1AW manages to broadcast quite a bit.

But...the ARRL takes a dim, dark view of all those Other ham
broadcasters.

How about that? Sunnuvagun!

WMD

In article , PAMNO
(N2EY) writes:

it used to be 2 *days* (48 hours)! If you were going to operate away from home
more than 48 hours, it was postcard time. And you sent the cards to the
district office for your portable/mobile location.

Before 1912 there was NO NEED to "send postcards" or even
follow federal radio rules!

[go ALL the way back with your wayback machine, why not?'

Yet as silly as the rule seems now, hams did it, because it was the rule.

Before 1912 there were Hams and they had no real rules.

Sunnuvagun!

Then there was Conelrad...

You talkin 'bout Paul Conelrad, the SK ham actor?

What was his call?

LHA