In article , Mike Coslo writes:

Dwight Stewart wrote:
"KØHB" wrote:

Nope, you keep getting it wrong, Dwight.
I'd also drop the Extra examination, and
institute a **new** Class A examination,
similar in difficulty (but with obviously
different content) than the current Extra.

I don't think so, Hans. You're advocating a test "similar in difficulty"
to the Extra.

But emphasis on different things.

However, an Extra hasn't just taken that one test - he also
took the Tech and General prior to that.

Depends what vintage Extra you're talking about.

The material on each test is
different, with later tests building on the material in the earlier tests.

Yet if lots of time elapsed between upgrades, that's not going to be completely
accurate.

To cover the same material an Extra has covered today ("similar
difficulty"), your new test would have to include the material covered in
all three current tests (with over 120 questions in one sitting).

Not really. It would only have to cover the stuff not covered in the Class B
test.

And if it takes a 120 or 150 question test, is that really a problem? We're not
talking EE or PE level questions here, just multiple choices from a published
pool.

So, are
you advocating that, advocating some type of reduced content test (less
questions), or did you simply forget the material on the first two tests.

Well said, Dwight. Everything is built on what went before it. So now
what sounded kind of easy is not so easy. Someone here, perhaps Jim,
pointed out how the Extra license tests did not address RF safety much
if at all.

I don't recall saying that, but maybe I did.

Point is that a Tech today needs to be tested on RF safety at the 1500 W level
for VHF/UHF/microwaves, which are obvioulsy present the most hazard (as WK3C
says "meat-cooking frequencies"). Generals need to be tested on *all* RF
exposure, because they have *all* bands and full power.

Meanwhile us *old* (pre-1996) hams never had any RF safety stuff in our tests.
(At least some of us - ahem - learned the stuff anyway so we'd be current with
the current tests)

But is RF safety really that tough a subject?


But wait! the Class B tests are apparently not going to
address RF safety either because the power is limited to a "safe"
amount. So now safety related learning is confined to the second test
for class A.

Dat's gonna be one big test!

If so, is that really a problem?

73 de Jim, N2EY