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On Tue, 30 Sep 2003 23:51:00 GMT, "Dee D. Flint"
wrote:


"Radio Amateur KC2HMZ" wrote in
message ...
On 27 Sep 2003 02:29:23 GMT, ospam (Larry Roll K3LT)
wrote:


Now, then...once the government has stopped subsidizing the
manufacture and testing of CW operators by eliminating the code test,
how do you think we should reallocate the Novice subbands?



Well since there are still people who hold Novice licenses, we ought to keep
them as is. Otherwise the current Novices (who can renew until they die)
will be losing privileges.

Not necessarily.

Normally rule changes attempt to be done in such
a manner that current licensees neither gain nor lose privileges other than
those very specific to the rule being changed.

That's true, of course. Again, though, refarming the Novice subbands
doesn't necessarily mean that Novices lose the privileges to operate
at those frequencies. It all depends on how you do the refarming.

I.e. dropping the code test
would not eliminate the Novice or any other class.

I'm nitpicking now, of course, but I think it would, in a way - it
would eliminate the Tech-Plus, which, although it's no longer shown in
FCC's database, is still for all intents and purposes a license class,
in that any Technician who's passed a code test receives the operating
privileges that were associated with that license class when the words
were still being printed on licenses (and any Tech-Plus who hasn't
renewed yet still has the words on the license).

If the simplest approach
is taken to this change (simply dropping the code requirement), we would
actually have an immediate increase in people with access to the Novice
subbands as all Techs, not just Techs with code, would now be able to
operate there. So this should increase the need to keep these bands
allocated to the Novice/Technician groups.

I think it will create a need for even *more* spectrum to be allocated
to those groups - and bear in mind it's not an exclusive allocation;
General, Advanced and Extra licensees can operate there as well, as
long as they stay at 200 watts or less - but the question is, how many
of them are going to be using CW absent a code testing requirement,
and how many will be on other modes?

We're told by some PCTAs that once the test is eliminated, the stock
of CW operators in the ARS is going to dry up - to hear them tell it,
like a wet lawn on a sunny day in July. If they're correct (and with
the way some of those folks toss around insults I have to admit that
if I was a Technician the last thing I'd be interested in doing is
learning code just so I could get on the air and work the same guy who
just raked me over the coals in this NG), there's going to be a need
for more space for all the new phone ops the PCTAs seem to be fearing
the arrival of. Meanwhile, CW is already authorized on any frequency
where an amateur has operating privileges, so why continue to have
subbands at all?

73 DE John, KC2HMZ
Tonawanda, New York

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