Subject: What should a license test for ham radio demand knowledge of
From: Mike Coslo
Date: 4/6/2004 6:48 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id:

N2EY wrote:

I miss Sam Kinison too.

Heh! remember his "why do they live in the desert" sthick from the
first gulf war? Profane, but hilarious.

My favorite Samisim was about just finding a woman he absolutely hated and
buying her a house...forget all the yelling and screaming between "I do" and
"Get lost"...! ! !

73

Steve, K4YZ

In article , (Steve
Robeson K4CAP) writes:

My favorite Samisim was about just finding a woman he absolutely hated and
buying her a house...forget all the yelling and screaming between "I do" and
"Get lost"...! ! !

Go for it, Rev. Robeson-Janus, make SURE all the message
massaging is about AMATEUR RADIO!

You DEMANDED that yourself, now let's see you obey your own
Commandments.

Hypocrite. Janus.

Shalom, meshugge goyim,

LHA / WMD

N2EY wrote:
In article , Mike Coslo
writes:


snippage


Heh! remember his "why do they live in the desert" sthick from the
first gulf war? Profane, but hilarious.


Oh yes. He's with Chris Farley now. Fortunately George Carlin is still with us.


And while we're on the subject - didja see Bob Dylan in the Victoria's Secret
commercial? Surreal, as dear departed N0BK would say.


Wasn't that predicted by Nostradamus as a sign of the end times? No, I
didn't see it, and well no I don't want to. Love Dylan and the VS girls
are noting to sneeze at, but combining them together is kinda like
having the pope with the old "Solid Gold Dancers"! 8^0

- Mike KB3EIA -

Steve Robeson K4CAP wrote:
Subject: What should a license test for ham radio demand knowledge of
From: Mike Coslo
Date: 4/6/2004 6:48 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id:

N2EY wrote:


I miss Sam Kinison too.

Heh! remember his "why do they live in the desert" sthick from the
first gulf war? Profane, but hilarious.


My favorite Samisim was about just finding a woman he absolutely hated and
buying her a house...forget all the yelling and screaming between "I do" and
"Get lost"...! ! !


Was he the one that did the "hallway sex" bit?

- Mike KB3EIA -

N2EY wrote:
Mike Coslo wrote in message ...

N2EY wrote:

In article , Robert Casey
writes:



So what should a candidate know to get a beginner, and upper level license?

As we are allowed to modify and homebrew equipment, we should have on
the tests questions on how such equipment works, and how to identify problem
areas like RFI, TVI, harmonic emissions and such.



Agreed. But how much is needed is the tough question. How much is enough?

I think that "enough" is testing that will allow the prospective ham to
get enough knowledge to know where to start to get a station on the air.


OK, fine. Pretty basic stuff like what a MHz is and such.


And here is the conundrum IMO. We are now considering allowing hf
access to a batch of new amateurs. At the same time, we are talking
about s significant (IMO) reduction in the qualifications for that
access. So unless the General test element meant and means absolutely
*nothing*, we are going to launch a lot of people onto HF with even less
qualifications than we have now.


That all depends on what is actually in the tests. The old Novice test
was around for almost a half century and turned many, many hams loose
on HF - me included. With a 20-30 question written test and 5 wpm
Morse, often using homebrew, kit or converted-surplus gear.

Before we go too much further, I need to say that I don't think all
that highly of the old Novice test.

When we are talking about people of yore and now, I think that most
people that decided to go for a license at that time had some inkling
that the tube equipment usually used some pretty high voltages. Now the
highest voltage most people use is the 120 volts coming out of the wall
socket. Inside most electronics, the voltages are pretty low.

But that is for *most* equipment. A fun part of the hobby is operating
old tube equipment. Most amplifiers are still tube driven. Lots of
*hurty* things.

And I think that times have changed enough that we should coach the
newbies on that. I like to lump HV and RF in the same general area. Many
of the concepts for staying safe around V can translate over to RF. Of
course the newbie needs to know that RF has a nasty habit of getting
into places that won't be so obvious.


And for most of that time, the new ham had to tune the gear up in
order to transmit, and had to figure out things like how to build a
transmit-receive system to go between the separate tx and rx.

We did OK.

Of course. And I think your pre-exposre to the concept of high voltages
running around inside the equipment went a long way towards making it okay.



Is this doing them a service? That's what I wonder about. I doubt many
people would argue for turning out more Electrical engineers by
drastically reducing the requirements to be one. Yes I know that an
engineer is a professional, but my point stands. How does lowering
requirements improve something?


It only works if the privileges are reduced accordingly. Which is a
key part of the "NewNovice" concept.

I dunno, Jim. Less is more? Newspeakish to me.


Also RF safety issues, as we are allowed kilowatt levels of power.



Agreed - or a reduced power level for some classes.

If we don't test for safety, I would support a reduced power of 5 watts.
QRP level. I've done arm to myself at 50 watts, and


In the bad old days I was turned loose with high voltages and up to 75
watts. I'm still here and the house didn't burn down.

All this talk makes me want to homebrew something with tubes. (I've
never done that outside of one project in school)


- Mike KB3EIA -

Mike Coslo wrote in message ...
Steve Robeson K4CAP wrote:
Subject: What should a license test for ham radio demand knowledge of
From: Mike Coslo
Date: 4/6/2004 6:48 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id:

N2EY wrote:


I miss Sam Kinison too.

Heh! remember his "why do they live in the desert" sthick from the
first gulf war? Profane, but hilarious.


My favorite Samisim was about just finding a woman he absolutely hated and
buying her a house...forget all the yelling and screaming between "I do" and
"Get lost"...! ! !


Was he the one that did the "hallway sex" bit?

- Mike KB3EIA -

He was the one in "Back to School" with Rodney Dangerfield. He played
the History Prof.

And with Carlin, also Gallagher and some other comedians who are "creative
thinkers" who get you to actually think, and don't always resort to the "F"
word, except for effect. I am a huge fan of comedy, as well as collecting
antique radio broadcasts like Jack Benny etc.

Ryan
KC8PMX

I miss Sam Kinison too.

Heh! remember his "why do they live in the desert" sthick from the
first gulf war? Profane, but hilarious.

Oh yes. He's with Chris Farley now. Fortunately George Carlin is still
with us.


And while we're on the subject - didja see Bob Dylan in the Victoria's
Secret
commercial? Surreal, as dear departed N0BK would say.

73 de Jim, N2EY

In article , Robert Casey
writes:

So what should a candidate know to get a beginner, and upper level license?

As we are allowed to modify and homebrew equipment, we should have on
the tests questions on how such equipment works, and how to identify problem
areas like RFI, TVI, harmonic emissions and such.

Also RF safety issues, as we are allowed kilowatt levels of power.

electrical safety techniques, as much equipment use hazardous voltages
(also we should know not to wear wedding rings and such near car
batteries, a short thru a ring can burn a finger off).

Rules and regs. Like no business traffic. What constitutes malicious
interference and what is just normal life on the HF bands when conditions
are crowded.

Some knowledge of modes and bandwidth, especially why you don't
want to set your rig on 14.349 in USB mode.

Basically, we should know how not to trash the RF spectrum and
screw up other users.

What else should be here?


We should know how to utilize a highly practical, effective, efficient, and
universal non-voice means of communication which doesn't require any
computerized hardware to encode/decode the messages, and makes the
best possible use of the least possible power. This mode is, of course,
Morse/CW. It should be learned at progressive levels of 5, 13, and 20 WPM
for an entry level, intermediate, and full-privilege licenses, respectively.

Those who disagree are dumbed-down whiners whose opinions are invalid.

Anyone who receives a license without having passed the 3-level Morse code
proficiency learning requirement is incapable of providing a true emergency
backup communications service to the public, and therefore is not of any
value to the ARS.

73 de Larry, K3LT

ospam (Larry Roll K3LT) wrote in message ...

We should know how to utilize a highly practical, effective, efficient, and
universal non-voice means of communication which doesn't require any
computerized hardware to encode/decode the messages, and makes the
best possible use of the least possible power. This mode is, of course,
Morse/CW. It should be learned at progressive levels of 5, 13, and 20 WPM
for an entry level, intermediate, and full-privilege licenses, respectively.

You can plug a keyboard directly into a Patcomm HF transceiver. Cool

And Kenwood makes a vhf/uhf dual bander that lets you send text w/o a
'puter.

Those who disagree are dumbed-down whiners whose opinions are invalid.

Not necessarily. No more dumb than some code elitists.

Anyone who receives a license without having passed the 3-level Morse code
proficiency learning requirement is incapable of providing a true emergency
backup communications service to the public, and therefore is not of any
value to the ARS.

73 de Larry, K3LT

If that's true, then it's time to fire 99.999% of the 911 operators.
But yet, they manage to provide emergency communications daily w/o any
knowledge of Morse or Farnsworth code whatsoever.

So its probably not true.

Nice troll, Larry tRoll.

bb