I'm a little late to this party, but here are my two cents. For me, ten
meters is the most interesting band, which for me was proven again this
weekend in the CQ WW CW contest. However, it's viable only when the solar
cycle says so. I've come back to hamming after a 45-year lapse and got my
Novice ticket at the peak of the current cycle. So I've had a ball
operating phone on 10 meters just like I did in the early 50's (back then I
didn't care that sporadic E was the only long distance option, and I looked
for those openings).
However, as a Novice I recognized that having SSB privileges only on 10
meters was very limiting for a beginner so I proposed to the FCC that it
expand Novice/Tech Plus cum code certificate holders' privileges to include
some SSB on the WARC bands as well as broader CW privileges on all the HF
bands. The intent was to make the initial entry-level license privileges
robust enough to persuade new licensees to remain in the hobby rather than
abandon it as they now are doing in substantial numbers. (While the number
of new licenses issued remains at a pretty good rate, the number of
drop-outs is about equal to that rate and thus our hobby is not growing.
Added to that fact is another: the average age of hams is increasing, which
does not bode well for the future of our hobby.
In any event, the FCC published my petition for comment at the end of 2001
(RM-10354) and it is awaiting action by the Commission. The ARRL followed
up with a proposal in March 2002 to significantly expand CW privileges for
new licensees, and the FCC also has taken the ARRL's petition under
advisement. So something good may come out of all this. Who knows, some new
hams even may take up contesting!
And yes, I did receive some nasty e-mails alleging character weakness on my
part for proposing a further watering down of our hobby's requirements. But
I'd rather see a growing group of committed hobbyists working the HF bands
than a declining group satisfied with the status quo.
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