Bill Sohl wrote:
"Jason Hsu" wrote in message
om...

The ARRL and the new NCVEC petitions call for creating a new Novice
class and upgrading Technicians to General. (I already commented on
the ARRL petition to the FCC.)

I'm not upset with the ARRL about this. The directors did what they
felt they had to do. But I'm still puzzled by parts of the proposal.

The highly controversial proposal of upgrading Technicians to General
is the result of insisting that all license classes be merged into
just 3 without downgrading privileges for any class. It's a game of
License Class Survivor, and all classes but 3 have to be voted off the
island. General and Amateur Extra are (correctly) considered too
important to eliminate, and Advanced licenses get upgraded to Amateur
Extra. So only one more license class can remain, and the ARRL and
NCVEC think that the Novice should remain and be reopened, and the
Technician license should be voted off the island. Because of the "no
downgrade" condition, Technician licenses are upgraded to General.

Is the No-Code Technician license THAT hard to get?


I would venture to say it is harder to get than the Novice (if we
still had novice testing) . That's the
problem as percieved by ARRL, NCVEC and other.

Probably was harder than the Novice, at least question wise. but we
aren't talking about orders of magnitude harder. I like how Jim N2EY
puts it, that the old tests tested more in depth on fewer subjects,
while the new Technician tests test more subjects to lesser depth.



During the years
when both the Novice and No-Code Technician licenses were available
for new hams, the new hams (including myself) overwhelmingly chose the
No-Code Technician.


But that's probably because you were an adult and only the Tech
gave sufficient VHF capability to allow you to engage in voice
operations, especially via FM.

That is a *big* reason, and was why I went the Technician route. A
smaller reason is the element one test. For some of us, that was a lot
harder. But both were a big part of the demise of the old Novice class.


What's now the Technician exam was two separate
tests back then - Novice and Technician. Both the Novice and
Technician licenses required passing the Novice exam plus one more
exam. For the Novice license, the 5 wpm Morse Code exam was the
additional exam. For the No-Code Technician license, the Technician
exam was the additional exam. By at least a 20:1 or 30:1 margin, the
new hams chose the No-Code Technician exam. The new hams (including
myself) clearly thought that preparing the Technician exam was MUCH
easier than preparing for the 5 wpm exam.


But that was again most likly because you didn't want to
be limited to the Novice HF and limited VHF privileges.


But in spite of this, the
ARRL thinks that the current Technician exam (a merger of the old
Novice and Technician exams) is too hard but says that the 5 wpm exam
is quite easy and uses this view as a partial justification as keeping
the 5 wpm exam requirement for the Amateur Extra license.

The record is clear. The No-Code Technician license made the Novice
license obsolete.


I agee only to the extent that VHF operations had become a much
greater part of ham radio capabilities.


In the 2000 restructuring, the FCC closed the
Novice class for the same reason GM closed Oldsmobile - not enough
takers to justify the administrative costs and labor required.


True to a point, but that again was a result of operating
privileges, not (IMHO) the locense difficulty of 5 wpm.

I think it was a little bit of both, Bill. Mostly privileges, but there
is a sizable minority that find Element 1 daunting. If I hadn't, I
probably would have become a novice long before they ever had a no-code
Tech.


Given all this, is it SO necessary to bring back the Novice class at
the expense of the Technician class? Why didn't the ARRL propose a
4-class system so that the popular Technician class could be kept?


You'll have to ask ARRL...but before you do, kook at the
privileges to be granted to new Novice class under both ARRL
and NCVECs petition. Before the Novice was almost an exclusive
HF with code operating license. That will change significantly.
The Novice was a gateway for many of us when getting on the
air really was pretty much an HF only thing. The Novice clearly
offered a great starting point for youth...far more than does
today's tech.


My theories on why the ARRL thinks the Novice license is more
important than the Technician license:
1. The ARRL directors couldn't agree, so they proposed a compromise
that they felt would promote good PR. I don't think they seriously
expect the FCC to approve it.
2. Nostalgia about their Novice days led them to want to reopen and
reintroduce the Novice class.


I disagree. I believe they want an easier entrance license than
tech that allows youth to get a license AND offers a full array
of operating privileges (HF, VHF, SSB, FM, CW, etc) to that
license. Today's Novice is effectively an HF non-phone lcense
and todays Tech is clearly a VHF/UHF only license. That's
the problem.

But is the Technician license all that hard? I barely studied for mine,
I might be as guilty as the PCTA's that like to talk about how a person
can "get" Morse in one weekend, but I'm amazed that people would
consider the Technician test too hard.

Indeed, if we support the lowered power limits, and all, is there a
good argument for simply letting Novices on the air with no
requirements? Learn as they go?

- Mike KB3EIA -