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#2
June 17th 05, 11:36 PM
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wrote: wrote: Which was in a much different regime than we have today. The Novice license was a stick and carrot ticket with the emphasis on the stick. We had 365 days from the date the license was issued to upgrade to a 13WPM General or get booted out of ham radio. Or you could get a Technician ticket - but that had no HF and the written was the same as General. The Tech ticket was next to useless in the mid-'50s because VHF/UHF ham radio didn't exist for all practical purposes. There were a few far-end experimenters on the air and a few hams using some commercial gear on 6M and some using WW2 surplus gear on 2M like the SCR-522 TX. Novices had acess to 2M phone but Techs were restricted to freqs above 220Mhz. It was a really scewball situation. The result was that probably 98% of the Techs were Novices who took the test for the General and passed the writtens but flunked the 13WPM code test. Of the dozens of local Novices I knew I don't recall of any who failed to upgrade or bitched about the code tests. Me neither. In my time the Novice was 2 years but the same one-shot no renewal no second chance ticket. Biggest cause of dropouts in those days was lack of gear. I didn't see much of that. The norm then was to have a station already up and running before one went for the test. The 365 day window of opportunity was tough and wasting time by not being ready to roll when the ticket arrived was not a good idea. Im convinced that events in the future will prove us right. Today we have a "bloat the numbers at any cost" game which is doomed to backfire eventually. The big question is how badly it will backfire and how much damage will have been be done before it happens. The history of this country over last couple decades is chock full of eamples of backing away from failed giveaways. It's only a matter of time until ham radio gets it's turn. We're seeing it already. The restructuring of 2000 reduced both the code *and written* test requirements. Net result was a short-term peak in numbers followed by a drop to below where we were in 2000 or even 1997. Maybe FCC sees that - they could have dropped Element 1 back in 2003, or any time since, but they haven't seen fit to do so. The longer they sit on the upcoming NPRM . . . ! A local oldster was inquiring as to when his license expired, because he couldn't find his F.C.C. Wallpaper. We help him figure it out. We need to keep the geezers on the air. I love talking to them. I hope someone is looking out for me when I'm 91! They're all treasures we have a responsibilty to protect. Often from themselves. Heh. Yep. Is 'CNP online or should I use regular mail? QRZ.com doesn't show an e-mail address for him. On the other hand that info could be 'way out of date. I wouldn't mess with snail mail, he's a local, I'd look up his phone number and call him then take it from there. All he should need is the hard-copy renewal package which you can order for him via e-mail or phone. 73 de Jim, N2EY w3rv w3rv |
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