Bert Craig wrote:
"Carl R. Stevenson" wrote in message
...

Yes, democracy IS a damned fine thing!

73,
Carl - wk3c


We'd find out if we could have a very fine vote...all 680K U.S. licensed
ARO's AND those who are interested in becoming a licensed U.S. AR.

Vy 73 de Bert
WA2SI
FISTS #9384
*Proudly applied for first award, KMPW (1000 Miles Per Watt) for LI, NY to
Kilauea. HI or 5053 miles with 5 Watts. :-)


Once again there is only one vote that ends up counting - the FCC's. I
would suggest they
may have tipped their hand on this proposal based on the recent NPRM.
In the section on the petition for granting upgrades based on service
they say this.

"Rather, we believe that passing an examination concerning the
operational and technical privileges of a higher class operator license
shows that a licensee qualifies for that license. In this regard, we
note that because current examination questions reflect current
technological advances and operating practices that did not exist twenty
years ago the examinations an examinee must pass today may be more
difficult than the examinations required of licensees in the past. For
these reasons, we deny the petition."

What was said about another petition regarding expanding privileges may
also be pertinent.

" We believe that a Novice or Technician Plus Class licensee can easily
upgrade to the General or Amateur Extra Class, thereby obtaining access
to significantly more spectrum and greatly increasing the chance of
establishing contacts with other amateur radio stations. Additionally,
because the number of Novice and Technician Plus Class licensees has
declined significantly, we believe that we should address operating
privileges for these license classes only in a comprehensive
restructuring of operating privileges for all license classes. "

John