ARRL Proposal to Give Technicians More Operating Privileges

Yea global DX, but they eliminated the 151 mile rule , so you can do USA dx

 

That's one heck of a condemnation of the current study guides and license tests.

Also, you said earlier: "10m is, for all practical purposes, useless for Techs."

To which I'll again reply:

It's useless for them if they don't use it.

A hypothetical example: if all licensed Techs were to get active on 10 meters, all of a sudden the admittedly rare band openings would be realized and utilized. All of a sudden there would be groups of Tech "locals" chatting it up on 10 meters. All of a sudden the band wouldn't sound as dead as it does now.

I remember in the late 60s when the 40 meter novice band was, for all practical purposes, useless for rock-bound, power disabled Novices late afternoons and through the evening - what with all the international SW broadcasters and such. We somehow persisted and made some contacts. And when the pain was great enough, we buckled down, studied, upgraded, and enjoyed the fruits of our labors.

 

Roger that, all those CA KW Big Guns missing out, awww.

Too bad all I see are a couple of small regional Sporadic E clouds. EA8 is not continental EU, as any West Indies is not in NA.

Effectively using 10 meter propagation during extended low solar cycles is way too advanced of an operators "art" subject for most EMCOMM / Prepper type entry level licensee's. They need to cut teeth on steadier lower HF bands first.

 

Understood. Their ignorance of such things is the condemnation. That's what I was trying to get across.

 

He didn't say that. He said: "10M has been open into EU, AF and moving into SA now."

The spots you provided showed that 10 meters is, in fact, open. It just so happens propagation isn't favoring CONUS right now.

 

USA "dx"?

lol

 

He sure did say CONUS!

Yep!

N8ZI:The naysayers really should turn on their rigs and check the cluster more often. 10M has been open into EU, AF and moving into SA now.

All the alleged 'naysayers' are in the CONUS. And 'we' fully understood that N8ZI clearly meant that there were openings into EU, AF, and SA 'now' --for the naysayers.

What would it possibly mean for a station in Europe to be open to another station in Europe, say, down the street?

Just so you know, ALL TECHS are in the CONUS, save for those on the various islands.

Here's a confirmation about 'what N8ZI meant'. He expanded to make it clear he meant US: both N8ZI and K6VOX are in the CONUS.

K6VOX :
Unless you're on the westcoast.....

N8ZI: Give it time, the opening should be moving your way. I generally hear EU first, then the band opening moves down through the Azores/Canary and Africa.

Read carefully before you accuse others of wrongly stating the facts. Thank you.

And finally, it doesn't mean anything for an 'opening' on 10M between EU and AF, for example, to have any bearing whatsoever on 'openings' to CONUS. In 52 years of 10m prop, I have NEVER seen anyone cite such an opening to extrapolate DX conditions to CONUS.

73
Chip W1YW

 

Upgrading to General is a great way to improve propagation.

 

Kindly practice what you preach.

 

Correct.... You are not a ham. Code has not been required since the 90s. What you said about safety is no more than a false blanket statement made for the sake of argument. Care to share some real statistics on ham radio operators lack of safety?

John
K4AGO

 

You are right as usual Dave. And, if memory serves me right, you can miss 13 of those 50 easy questions and still pass the Extra class exam.
Correct me if that's wrong. I know that's close anyway.
John
K4AGO

 

John,

He's asking WHY we have all that extra stuff in the question pool, not asserting why its there.

My answer: it doesn't belong because you won't need or encounter it. You WILL need most of it IF we get you Techs on other HF SSB and digital bands though.

You should take this future ham's opinion seriously... it is not only common but typical.

The reality is that we, as hams, defined the question pool, and it misleads many potential and new Techs on what to expect, especially on 10m SSB.

Does that discourage some? Yes, it certainly does.

I think we all have to look at these 36 pages of comments and understand there's almost NO REPRESENTATION by Techs.

I can tell you why: many Techs see --US-- as the problem and they don't want to bother with a bunch of old *(&*(& men who keep on pining on how hard they had it and how easy everyone has it now.

Those Techs are the same people who will be caring for you'all (a general 'you') in a few years. And if you don't get them on HF, you will be shutting the door on ham history.

73
Chip W1YW

 

I do, daily.

Happy man, happy ham!

 

Oh, he's definitely aware that the bands exist, but he never purchased a radio that covered it, since he never had phone privileges there and he's not at all interested in CW. The only thing he has ever listened to is 2m/70cm, and 10m. He has a 10m only radio.

I don't know that I would say the majority, but yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Ham radio is not what it used to be. When I became interested in ham radio, I also read about 20m, and 40m, etc., in a book. I understood what the book told me. But I had never actually experienced it. I had a HTX-202 and a few CB radios, so I understood that 10m was darn close to CB and the propagation was similar. But until I met with other hams, went to Field Day, etc., I had no practical idea outside of the book knowledge.

In this day and age, meeting attendance is at an all-time low, at least from what I've seen. Field Day is a bunch of old hams (with a tiny smattering of new licensees). Elmering is pretty much a thing of the past with the younger generation. So yes, a lot of people truly have no idea what HF entails. None whatsoever.

Like I said, I don't think the majority of people are unwilling to put forth the effort. They just don't see a need to, because I said above, many of them don't know what they're missing. The techs. have sat on a completely silent 10m band, and for many of them, that's all the HF they know. Why study and go pass another test to get some more completely silent bands? At least with some additional privileges, they can see what they're missing.

And lastly, HF is no longer the holy grail of ham radio that we have turned it into for so many decades. If we don't attempt to interest the newer hams in HF, they'll just get on Skype or their $20 DMR HT and talk all around the world any time they want, propagation be damned. You don't interest them by keeping draconian barriers in place. That's what is going to cause HF to die.