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February 16th 04, 12:00 AM

In article ,
(Jason Hsu) writes:

I understand why the ARRL proposes free upgrades from Technician to
General. The assumptions

Assumptions by ARRL, you mean...
:
1. The restructuring has to limit the number of license classes to 3.
Thus, the Advanced license and either the Novice license or
Technician license must be eliminated.
2. The restructuring must produce no downgrades.
3. The closing of the Novice class in the restructuring of 2000 was a
major loss. So the Technician license should be eliminated but the
Novice license should be reopened.
4. The only way to eliminate the Technician class without downgrading
the existing Technicians is to automatically upgrade all Technicians
to General.

I still disagree with the ARRL's proposal, though I can now see the
reasoning behind it.

I think your analysis is very accurate, Jason, except for 3)

I think the flawed assumption is #3.

Consider replacing your 3) with this one:

"3) The entry-level license class should be more balanced between HF and
VHF/UHF than the Tech is toady. The Tech gives all VHF-UHF, but no HF/MF, and
even if the code test is passed, all that you get is tiny slices of HF and two
modes. The ARS would be better off with an entry level license class that has a
better sampling of HF-VHF-UHF privileges, yet doesn't require a more stringent
written test"

If the closing of the Novice class was such a major loss, then why was the
No-Code Technician license so much more popular than the Novice
license during the years when both entry-level licenses were
available?

See above. It's not that the old Novice was a great loss - it's that the Tech
isn;t the best we can do for an entry-level license. At least, that's the ARRL
BoD thinking.

The FCC closed the Novice license for the same reason
General Motors closed Oldsmobile - not enough takers.

Exactly!

In reality, what is being proposed is more of a whole new entry level class
than a reopening of the old Novice. They would do better to give it a different
name - I suggest "Basic". Then you'd have Basic, General, Extra.

I'd prefer to see all Novices and Technicians merged into a new
Technician class and be granted Tech Plus privileges. This would be
compatible with a 3-license system. Nobody would lose privileges, but
all automatic upgrades would be modest.

Problem is, the license class would still be VHF/UHF heavy and HF light.

As many have suggested, I think the ARRL proposal may have been a PR
move. Although changing the rules is the FCC's job and not the
ARRL's, anything that the ARRL could have proposed would have
generated a firestorm of controversy.

Bingo!

But somebody has to propose things, and if ARRL proposed nothing they'd be
criticized for that too.

The ARRL had to propose the
retention of the Morse Code exam requirement for the Amateur Extra
license to appeal to the proponents of Morse Code testing.

Yep, a compromise.

To appeal
to the No Code Technicians feeling intimidated by the Morse Code exam
requirement, the ARRL proposed upgrading them to General.

Not really. The ARRL proposal would drop the code test for General, so all that
any Tech or Plus would have to do to get a General is to pass the 35 question
General test.

The main reason for the free upgrade is to eliminate license classes that
newcomers will not be able to get anymore. The BoD thinks that is a very high
priority, even though there don't seem to be any problems with having almost
120,000 hams in closed-off license classes (Novice and Advanced) for the past 4
years.

There may also be hope that the free upgrades will spur activity among inactive
or rarely active Techs and Tech Pluses. Whether this will happen is
questionable, given the ease with which those hams can upgrade to General.

73 de Jim N2EY

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