In article , "Dee D. Flint"
writes:

"Alun" wrote in message
.. .
[snip]
I tend to think that a single class of licence would be a good idea,
although many people argue that there should also be a beginner's licence,
and I am not totally opposed to that. I don't see a genuine need for more
than two licences, though. Also, I don't think subband restrictions by
licence class make any sense whatsoever, as the propagation is the same
for the whole band.

It's not a matter of propagation. It's simply that band restrictions are
far easier to enforce. With a quick lookup of the call sign, you can tell
if the operator is staying within his privileges.

Exactly!

Ideally, I would give an entry level licence very restricted power on the
whole extent of a limited number of bands in different parts of the
spectrum. Needless to say, I wouldn't have a code test for any licence.
The
problem would be the transition from the present situation to such a
scheme. The vested interests of those currently licenced probably make
this idea impracticable.

Enforcement issues make this idea impractical not the "vested interests" of
those already licensed. It is impossible to determine if a person is
staying within his/her power restrictions unless you are right next to the
transmitter to make measurements. I've worked QRP stations that nearly
pegged my meter and other times could not pull a kilowatt station out of the
mud.

And the vagaries of antenna installation make it even less clear. I'd rather
have QRP and an excellent antenna than high power and a mediocre one.

Power limits would rely solely on the honor system. This has worked
reasonably well so far for two reasons: 1) the majority of hams are decent
people and 2) the basic radio comes out of the box with 100 watts, which
works reasonably well so there is not a lot of temptation to hook up an
amplifier and work illegally.

Also, amplifiers are fairly expensive, and the dBs per dollar can be steep.

However you say "very restricted power". I'm assuming that you mean
something substantially less than today. So then you would have a situation
where the beginner has purchased a radio that significantly exceeds his
power privileges with no one being able to detect that he/she is exceeding
those privileges if they choose to operate it at full power.

That's exactly the situation in Japan.

Or are you going to propose that they cannot purchase or own a radio that
exceeds their power privileges?? This would be a very bad proposal. That
would require mandating that hams show their licenses to purchase equipment.
It would have to also be illegal for a non-ham to purchase such equipment
even for a gift. It would be illegal for a beginner to purchase almost all
used equipment on the market. He'd, by law, have to take the expensive, new
equipment route.

Unless he/she bought used QRP stuff.

On top of that is the fact that a newcomer couldn't buy a transceiver until the
license was earned. So how is a newbie supposed to get a hands-on feel for the
ham bands?

In the bad old days of separate rx/tx, it was common for a would be ham to buy
or build a receiver and become familiar with ham radio before getting a
license. That's how many of us learned the code, too. Still a good idea, only
now the new ham now gets a transceiver in most cases. "No gear without a
license" would end that.

Or the manufacturers might respond with cheap, low quality
equipment that would be unsuitable to connect to an amplifier (once the
beginner upgraded) as it would have the same problems as amplified CBs do
now.

There may even be other ramifications of "very limited power" privileges.

New operator + compromise antenna + very low power = frustration.

It is far better to select easily enforced requirements (i.e. band limits)
than items that are not easily enforced or items that require creating an
entire hierarchy of new regulations to support it.

Yep.

Most of the rewards and privileges we get in life often have little
relationship to what we did to get them. Just look at our jobs.

In the case of subbands-by-license-class, there's another angle. The restricted
parts of the bands are usually less crowded. And they're where the DX often
hangs out, and where the contest overflow goes first. So they're "prime real
estate".

73 de Jim, N2EY