I am a 58 year old ham, licensed since 1974 and an extra class since 1993. My
wife, KA5EPM, is a general class, licensed since 1979. I have been interested
in ham radio since the mid 50s but I did not get a license sooner for need of
an Elmer.
I have read a lot of history of commercial and amateur radio and It has become
my opinion that the lack of knowledge of later licensees is probably due to a
large part that commercially built transceivers are easy to obtain and perform
very well so the need to build your own is gone. Obviously in the very early
days of radio you had to build your own receivers and transmitters and without
a good knowledge of electronics you could not do that. Therefore amateurs
experimented, studied the writings of others and strived to build a better
performing radio. Because of this many who might be good operators and many
who might have been able to enjoy the hobby never became a ham. My first
experience with ham radio was in 1959 when we moved to Jackson Mississippi and
a ham, K5SMM lived a half block away. I visited his shack, a room in the
garage, filled with military surplus equipment powered by home built power
supplies and also using a home built antenna tuner, all mounted in a
big rack. Mr. Lonnie Daniel let me talk with other hams he had contacted
while I was a guest in his shack and I got the bug real bad but I did not know
how to find the necessary help to get a license at that time. Mr. Daniel could
repair radios, tv sets and build his own ham gear as many earlier hams did.
Now, that degree of technical knowledge is not required so I see that as the
reason many of today's hams do not have that kind of expertise. Putting
questions on exams that nobody will need to know the answers to, in my opinion,
do not make the hobby better. Questions of proper operating practices, rules
of operation, and antenna construction are good ones to know. I am not a fan
of CW and learned it only because I had to. I do not know if removal of the CW
requirement is detrimental to the quality of operators but making the tests
more difficult in terms of good operating practices and antenna design are very
important in my opinion. Hams at least need to know how
to build their own antennas and that does not require rocket science! I too
agree that some of the questions on my extra exam in 93 were wrong. I do not
know why the advanced exam was eliminated either. That was the toughest test
for me and I barely passed it and breezed through the extra. Enough of my 2
cents and I am sure there are those who will not agree with me and that is ok.
I just hope everybody does not blame what many call dumbing down on the exams
and realize that it has been doing on for a long time. I have an associates
degree in electronics and I could probably have build my hf amp but never built
my Orion! 73 to all
WB5OXQ, Jim in Waco
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Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
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