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September 18th 04, 09:57 AM
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Subject: ARS License Numbers
From: Mike Coslo Date: 9/17/2004 9:11 PM Central Standard Time Message-id: N2EY wrote: In article , Mike Coslo writes: I think that the numbers of hams will continue to decrease until we are taken out of the limbo we have been in for some time now. What "limbo", Mike? We've had a class of US ham license with no code test for more than 13-1/2 years now. The maximum code test speed has been 5 wpm for more than 4 years now - and for a decade before that, medical waivers were available. Limbo is when a prospective ham thinks that possibly he or she can get on HF simply by waiting a few months and not having to take any Morse code test. Let's compare the situation to when the Governor of PA had the temporary tax exemption on computers. I think it lasted something like a week. Guess what happened to computer sales at the local Circuit City, Best Buy, etc. the week or two before the exemption. When I went in and looked around, the sales clerk at one store even told me to hold off until next week. Seems like a direct comparison to me. Not by a mile, Mike. You're talking the difference between someone investing the TIME to STUDY for a radio license test, and someone saving about $100 to BUY a device that requires no license to use. The code test may or may not go away in the next few years/months/decades. The written exams may change similarly. The various bands may change as well. I don't think that's the problem. The prospective amateur has *no* idea at this time if the Morse code requirement will be kept, how long it will be kept if it is, and when it will go away if it is discarded. So? Someone who really wants to be a ham will do what is necessary to pass the tests at the time. I'd temper that. If I thought that the Morse requirement would go away in say, 6 months, I would have waited. There's a lot of folks who waited "6 months", that turned out to be "years", just to not have to "do something". They'll still be waiting after the code test does go away. They'll then be waiting for the written test to go away, and if they imposed a $1.50 fee, they'd be wating for that to go away. If the FCC required nothing more than a piece of paper saying "pretty please" and the cost of a stamp, they'd call the FCC collect and ask for a postage free envelope. And most people do not expect a long time to pass before it goes away. I know some people were incredulous when I gave my time to expiry (if any) in that pool we had a while back. In as much as most people will not imagine that the changes to come will take as long as as the will likely take, the net effect will be potential Hams sitting and waiting for the Morse code to go away. Maybe some will. I think most interested folks will simply learn enough to pass the tests and get on with it. Its certainly what I would do if I were thinking about getting a license at this point. But it's not what you did when you got started. Some things operating there. There was no code elimination horizon. I'm skeptical enough and have enough experience that I knew it was going to be a long time coming I wanted to get on HF pretty badly. I'm not afraid of learning something (even though it was admittedly very hard for me) Well THERE ya go, Mike! You just proved what Jim was saying... Depends on what you want and how badly you want it, whether it's an Amateur Radio license, an Airman's Certificate, or the highest running score on Slingo... And would you not get *any* license until the code test went away, or would you just hold off from upgrading? Hard to say. When I originally got my license, I was only planning on being a Technician, and I was thinking about how to apply Amateur radio to my other hobby, Amateur astronomy. I really didn't have much interest in HF at all! then after a field day where I was allowed to operate, I was hooked. So my experience is likely not typical. In fact, if it wasn't for the Technician no-code license, I probably wouldn't be a Ham now. (to my great loss!!) I know many EMS/Fire folks and members of CAP who did the very same thing...They got an Amateur ticket by virtue of thier participation in "something else". Once they got in there with the rest of us, it was an open door from then on! Whatever is done should be done and done quickly. That said, there is a mile of difference between "should" and "will". I still stand by my original prediction made some time ago. Back in 1989-1990 we were told that a nocodetest ham license was "absolutely needed for growth". And when it became a reality, we got some short-term growth for a few years. Then we were told that the code test had to go for the same reason - and it was dropped to 5 wpm for all classes in 2000. We got some short-term growth for a few years - now we're back *below* the level before the restructuring. It isn't the code or lack of it. It is the limbo state of not knowing what is going to happen. I don't think changes will make for growth, except in the short term. I was a ham way back in 1967, when they said incentive licensing would "kill amateur radio". There were about 250,000 US hams back then. Yet in the 10 years after incentive licensing took full effect (1969-1979 or thereabouts) the number of US hams grew by about 100,000, despite poor economic conditions, much less accessible testing, waiting period for Extra, no code waivers and a code test for all hams. And no internet or computer-based training methods. Of course. Way too much emphasis is put on all the modern conveniences and the numbers of Hams. I wouldn't care if I had to take the test, writing on the back of a shovel with a piece of limestone, while Heidi Klum was trying to distract me. How's that for working her into the thread! ;^) I found out I could have my Ham and Heidi too! Jim, do you still have those dates? Which dates do you mean? I'd be curious to see who has fallen by the wayside so far. I'm not sure what you're asking, Mike. Didn't you take a poll of rrap people consisting of guesstimates when we believed that Morse code would be dropped? I think it was right after WRC-03. I remember I predicted something like 4 or maybe 5 years. Ain't that like the FCC...fuss about wanting to get out from under Code Testing, then when the international treaties that bound them were lifted, they just got embroiled in an even bigger administrative nightmare to decide if that's what they really wanted to do! 73 Steve, K4YZ |
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