From: "Ed Juge/NM" <ed@juge.org>
GOD HELP AMATEUR RADIO if we ever require new amateurs
to learn enough theory and advanced math to inherently know how
to answer all those questions!!! You can forget getting teenagers into
the hobby. You think our ranks are shrinking now... "you ain't seen
nothin' yet."
Originally, that was exactly the idea of the Extra Class. You could pass
the Gereral pretty easily by studying the ARRL Licence Manual. I never saw
that much difference between the ARRL version and the infamous Bash books.
The Extra did require knowledge of advanced theory and some of the maths
that go with it, more than just memorising Q's and A's. You had to draw
schematics and block diagrams. You had to solve problems that not only
required electronic knowledge, but a working knowledge of algebra. I don't
recall anything that required trigonometry, calculus or other higher
mathematics.
The General got you on the air. The Extra gave no additional privileges
whatever, not even distinctive callsigns. You got a nice looking
certificate that was almost identical to the commercial licence, except it
was smaller in size. It looked nice hanging on the wall. The Callbook
didn't even list callsigns by licence class back then.
Extra class was degraded the moment when Incentive Licensing was passed and
Extras were given special privileges. Inevitably, there would be pressure
to ease the requiremens as Extra Class privileges opened up some very
desirable portions of the bands, especially to DX'ers. First, the tenure
requirement was lifted. Then, with the re-activation of the Advanced, the
Extra test was cut to 50 written questions, with no more schematics to draw.
Next, the 1-minute-solid-copy CW requirement was changed to multi-choice,
or fill-in-the-blanks answers about the CW text. The technical questions
seemed to get easier and less sophisticated as time went by. The 5WPM
requirement was just the latest in a long series of steps easing the
requirements for Extra.
They should re-name the licence classes simply Class A, B and C. Most
ridiculous of all is the name "Technician" class. How many Techs do you
know actually perform technical experimentation or even have any significant
technical knowledge? The written exam used to be identical to the General
class, but with only a 5 wpm code test. A more appropriate name for today's
Technician class would be "Communicator Class".
I don't understand why the League and the FCC continue to promote the
illusion that "incentive licensing" as it was origianally conceived, still
exists. Frankly, I wouldn't mind if the US were to follow the lead of
Canada and just about all the rest of the world, and get rid of subbands
altogether.
Don K4KYV
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