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#11
February 28th 05, 05:53 PM
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Mike Coslo wrote: wrote: Alun L. Palmer wrote: wrote in news:1108637750.922635.205620 : Alun L. Palmer wrote: "Alun L. Palmer" wrote in . 30: wrote in news:1108578593.250795.201100 : Alun L. Palmer wrote: Yes, South Africa has abolished the code test! One more domino has fallen. How many countries does that make now, compared to those who still have it? It's getting a little difficult to keep track. However, I think at least the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Papua Niugini, Hong Kong and South Africa have abolished the code test so far. I think that of these only Austria and the Netherlands even retain an entry level licence that doesn't give HF privileges. That's only 17 countries, but I expect I may have missed some out. I make the combined ham population of the above something over 260,000 (possibly more than half of them no-coders), so probably a little less than half the number of hams in the US. 260,000/670,000 = about 38.9% Quite a bit less than half. However, there are well over 50,000 hams in Canada, which is also likely to abolish the code test very soon. Yep. But there are two big points about Canada: 1) The proposal would increase the written test level This is a biggie. Simply proposing to drop the code test is *not* the same thing as proposing to drop the code test *and* beef up the writtens. I'd like that quite a bit. But that hasn't been proposed in the USA. IIRC, one of the things proposed in Canada was to make the code test optional in that if you passed code you didn't need as high a grade on theory to get the license. Now that just seems strange. How so? It's simply an option. The test should either be or not be. Not some kind of bonus that allows you to be less technically proficient. Then why require more technical knowledge for an Extra? That license does not allow the holder to use any more modes, power, or bands than a General. Just a few additional slices of spectrum. If the nocodetest folks in the USA proposed options like those they might get a lot more support. But instead, we have folks like NCVEC telling us we must drop code *and* reduce the written still more. And how! Let's not forget that NCI also supports lowering the test requirements. So do others that support automatic upgrades. All they have to go on is "gut" feelings. And unfortunately, the first wave of no-code Technicians appear to be dropping like flies. "Gut" feelings can be wrong. I don't see *any* license class "dropping like flies". Check the AH0A data on renewals - thousands of Techs are renewing every month, either before the license runs out or in the grace period. Note that almost 5 years after the 200 restructuring we still retain more than 50% of Novices and 75% of Advanceds. Theirs is a failed and incorrect paradigm. Maybe. The concept of "lowered entry requirements = sustained growth" just hasn't happened in the ARS. We don't need hams that thought that maybe it would be kewl to get a ham license some weekend between coffee at Starbucks and their Pilates classes, and then forget about it. We need hams who want to be hams. Agreed! But of course people have to know what ham radio *is* to do that! 2) Commentary to the Canadian proposal showed a clear majority favored the change. That's not the case in the USA, in any survey done to date, nor in the commentary to FCC. Another biggie. Don't forget that Japan, with a ham population of 1.2 Million (twice that of the US, out of maybe a fifth of your general population), has long had a no-code HF licence, albeit limited to 10 Watts. Check your numbers! Japan has over 3.1 million operator licenses - but they cost nothing and never expire, so that number is really the number of ham operator licenses issued since 1955, not the number of present-day hams. Japanese *station* licenses are a bit over 600,000 now, and have been dropping for a decade. The number of new JA licenses has also been dropping. See the AH0A website. I'm not sure how many Japanese hams have a no-code HF licence, Well over 95%. but they may even rival all the new ones so far put together, although the new guys can use more than 10 Watts! It's probably only a matter of time before Japan lets all of their hams use HF anyway. All Japanese hams have HF privileges *today*. Been that way for decades. But for all classes of ham license except 4th class, JA hams have a code test. And there's no move to change that yet. And for ten years JA ham license numbers have been dropping fast. *With* nocodetest HF. Quick! Let's emulate Japan! Except we can do it better by allowing the newbies full power privileges. Japan's obvious success can be our own! Indeed. Even without the low power Japanese stations, the number of no-coders who have full HF privileges right now is probably about the same as the number of no-code Techs in the US. Close enough. And if there are already that number of no-code hams on HF without any incident, what is the problem with abolishing the code test here? The USA isn't Japan. Different society, different culture, different rules. I don't know if any of us geniuses have though about it, but lets say in a country where a business can get successfully sued for a woman not knowing that here hot coffee was hot, and burning herself when trying to hold the darn thing between her legs. (sorry Phil, but what if she simply ruined her dress because the coffee was wet?- negligent design of the cup?) So lets have a newbie ham that fires up his/her kilowatt rig, and is half fried because no one told him not to touch the wirey thingies on the back of the box thingy. Ohh, I can see the successful lawsuits already! We have that situation today. I've nailed myself with 50 watts, enough to produce a painful burn and a cute little scar on the boo-boo finger. Some dunce that catches a ride on a thousand watts might just have a very successful lawsuit if we don't train them well. The same is true of ordinary house current. And it's not just voltage. Get a metal ring a high current supply and the results aren't pretty. If the ring is on your finger..... Yet the NCVEC folks say the solution is to create a class of ham that can't use rigs with more than 30 volts on the electronics... RF Safety should be the FIRST order of the day, and NO one should be a Ham until they are tested for RF safety to the ability to handle full legal limit. Why? We don't test people on gasoline-handling safety, nor ladder safety, nor many other things that injure thousands of Americans every year. I agree that every ham should be safety-aware. But a true test of safety would be far more extensive than even the Extra writtens. And those who think that limiting the finals voltage, or some other weird thing is the answer, are advised to think about things such as Technician Hams operating under supervision. It only takes a second to drop a paper and reach behind a Rig. Less time than the control op can react. I want those Technicians to be exposed to full power safety requirements. They are - today, anyway. Anything else is criminally negligent. Umm, Mike, you're saying it's the Govt's role to protect people from their own ignorance and unsafe behavior..... It would be interesting to see what the JA 4th class *written* exam looks like. And as mentioned before, the number of JA station licenses and new operator licenses is way down. That's 18, I didn't count both Austria and Australia! OK. But it's still a small fraction of the number of hams and the number of countries. The big questions: Must all countries drop the code test because a few have decided to? Or can each country decide for itself. Each country can do as it chooses, but the trend is to abolish the code test. The trend in most countries is to ban or severely restrict individual ownership of firearms, too. Has the change caused lots of new growth in countries that have dropped code testing? No, but it's increased HF activity in those countries So all it's done is to permit *existing* hams to upgrade. But it *hasn't* brought in lots of new folks. Which means the Morse code isn't the "problem" some people make it out to be. Of course! It's the classic case of a red herring diversion. Blame the code test for everyhting bad while the real problems are not addressed. 73 de Jim, N2EY |
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