In article t, "Dan/W4NTI"
w4nti@get rid of this mindspring.com writes:

Thats right, my incentive was in 1961 when my mother paid for my ticket to
Pittsburg PA and went along to take my General test.

Just out of curiosity, Dan - where were you living in '61 that made Pittsburgh
the nearest FCC office?

"We ain't doing this again Danny, you better pass it the first time". I
did. At age 14.

I had it easier 'cause I was just a subway ride from the Philly FCC office.
Short walk at each end and a pair of PTC tokens for the trip. Parental units
were *not* involved. Tech and Advanced in '68 at 14 and Extra two years later.

You'll like this bit:

The way they ran the Philly exams was that they did the code first and then the
writtens. And they started with 20 wpm. Better be there on time or you missed
it.

So the day I'm there for the big E, the examiner comes out right at 8 AM and
asks the assembled multitude if anybody is taking 20 wpm code. Turns out I'm
not only the youngest one there but I'm the only one trying for Extra.

Examiner and I go in the exam room, he sets up the code machine, phones, pad
and pencil, etc. You know the drill. Says all I need is one minute solid out of
five. I put on the cans and he starts the machine. I have no trouble copying,
so he comes around and looks obver my shoulder while I write in block letters.
I figure I've got it licked, right?

After about 90 seconds he turns off the code machine. Uh-oh, I think,
something's not right, I've never heard of a test being interrupted like that.

"Pretty easy, huh, kid?"
"Uh, yeah, I guess".
"It should be - that was 13. Here's 20"

And he changed drive spindles and the real test began.

I'll never know if he just forgot to change speeds, if he wanted to make sure I
could do 13 first, or if he wanted to rattle the kid's cage a bit. Didn't
matter, I passed.

Then 20 per with a straight key until he said "OK, kid".

You've been there, Dan, you're just 7 years ahead of me.

73 de Jim, N2EY

"Dick Carroll;" wrote:

Dwight Stewart wrote:
Ham radio is, and will always be, just what you make
of it, people.

Well DUHHHHH!! Dwight!


Juging from the complaints here, its clearly not that obvious, Dick.


You forgot to mention that follows what FCC
allows *anyone* to make of it.....


The rules haven't changed that much, Dick. It's still the same ham radio,
with many of the same people.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

"N2EY" wrote

3) "Basic" license test is simple 20-25 question
exam on regs, procedures, and safety. Very little
technical and RF exposure stuff. Main objective
is to keep Basics out of trouble. Basics get
200-50 watts on HF/MF and 25 watts or so on
VHF/UHF (power level is below the point where
RF exposure evaluation required). Modes are
CW, analog voice, PSK31, RTTY and many of
the other common data modes like packet. Basics
cannot be VEs, control ops for repeaters, or club
trustees. Basics get most VHF/UHF and about
half of HF/MF spectrum, including parts of all
subbands-by-mode. Basic is meant as the entry
level. Easy to get, lots of privs, yet there's still a
reason to upgrade. (snip)

(snip)

9) Existing Novices, Techs and Tech Pluses
become Basics, (snip)


What is the justification for sharply cutting back on existing Tech and
Tech Plus privileges? We can presently use up to 1500 watts on VHF/UHF. You
suggest a 25 watt limit. We can currently be repeater control ops. You
suggest we shouldn't. We currently have no limits on operating modes. You
propose limits. Since there have been no serious problems reported in any of
these areas, I don't see a justification for any of these changes.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

"Dan/W4NTI" w4nti@get rid of this mindspring.com wrote in message nk.net...
"Brian" wrote in message
m...
(N2EY) wrote in message
...
In article . net,
"Dan/W4NTI"
w4nti@get rid of this mindspring.com writes:

But, I'll bet, if you think about it.....it made you a better operator.
It
was a SKILL you HAD TO LEARN in order to StAY ON THE AIR? Think
about it.

'zactly. No other option. The Novice was not supposed to be a permanent
license. That's why it had so few privileges and was so focused,

And the old Novice had another feature - it was a one-time one year
license
until 1967, when it became two years.

Had to. You waited 6 months for your license and you couldn't operate
til it arrived.

You are so full of mis-information Brian, have you considered a lobotomy to
remove the tumor?

The wait from taking the test until it came in the mail was 6 to 8 weeks.
That was the 'official' time the FCC gave you when that question was asked.

It sometimes made it in 4. It took mine 6 1/2 weeks.

Dan/W4NTI

Sorry, meant weeks. Mine came in 8 or 9 (weeks). I think the VE
might have held on to it until the Novice class ended. I graduated
ahead of the class.

In article . net, "Dwight
Stewart" writes:

"N2EY" wrote

3) "Basic" license test is simple 20-25 question
exam on regs, procedures, and safety. Very little
technical and RF exposure stuff. Main objective
is to keep Basics out of trouble. Basics get
200-50 watts on HF/MF and 25 watts or so on
VHF/UHF (power level is below the point where
RF exposure evaluation required). Modes are
CW, analog voice, PSK31, RTTY and many of
the other common data modes like packet. Basics
cannot be VEs, control ops for repeaters, or club
trustees. Basics get most VHF/UHF and about
half of HF/MF spectrum, including parts of all
subbands-by-mode. Basic is meant as the entry
level. Easy to get, lots of privs, yet there's still a
reason to upgrade. (snip)

(snip)

9) Existing Novices, Techs and Tech Pluses
become Basics, (snip)


What is the justification for sharply cutting back on existing Tech and
Tech Plus privileges?

You snipped the second sentence of 9), Dwight. Here it is again:

9) Existing Novices, Techs and Tech Pluses become Basics,
existing Generals and Advanceds become Intermediates, and
existing Extras become Fulls. Existing hams can continue to
use their current privileges as long as they retain license
documents showing their old license class.

"Existing hams can continue to use their current privileges as long as they
retain license documents showing their old license class."

Just like Tech Pluses who have been renewed as Techs can still use HF, and
anybody with an old Novice or code-tested-Tech license document gets Element 1
credit. If FCC accepts the idea for those uses, why not for the above?

IOW, no existing ham loses any privileges.

73 de Jim, N2EY






We can presently use up to 1500 watts on VHF/UHF. You
suggest a 25 watt limit. We can currently be repeater control ops. You
suggest we shouldn't. We currently have no limits on operating modes. You
propose limits. Since there have been no serious problems reported in any of
these areas, I don't see a justification for any of these changes.

I don't see a justification for any of these changes.


Dwight Stewart (W5NE

Of course you dont, you want a FREE HANDOUT License.

In article ,
(Brian Kelly) writes:

(N2EY) wrote in message
...
In article ,

(Brian Kelly) writes:

(N2EY) wrote in message
.com...
. . . .

End result is a system that is easy to get into (Basic is
envisioned as a 21st century version of the Novice) and has
reasonable but meaningful steps to reach full privileges.
Testing matches the privs granted. Power levels are set about
one S-unit apart. Nobody loses any privileges. There are only
three license classes and four written tests, so FCC doesn't
have more work.

Example of new privileges:

80/75 meters
3500-3575 CW only
3575-3750 CW/data
3750-4000 CW/analog phone/image

Basic: 3525-3625 and 3900-4000
Intermediate: 3525-3750 and 3850-4000
Full: entire band

That's all well and good James and I'd support your basics but what
you're suggesting is a radical, complete top-to-bottom restructuring.

Long overdue. The basic structure we have now dates to 1951.

Much more so than any we've seen in the past seventy-some years.
Versus some Band-Aids on what already exists. With the FCC we have
today we'd be lucky to get even a Band-Aid or two let alone a complete
rework of HF ham radio. We're allowed to dream but then comes cold
hard reality.

If we don't ask we'll never get. FCC isn't going to come up with any new
ideas.
What can they do - say no?

Yeah, absolutely. They'll say "we've already put enough work into
diddling with this stuff in the past few years, come back in 5-10
years when we have a better picture of the effects of what we've
already done become apparent". Which is typical FCC behavior when it
comes to major restructurings going back decades.

OK, fine.

But how can it hurt to ask?

73 de Jim, N2EY