ARRL Proposal to Give Technicians More Operating Privileges

10m is a dead band. Go look CAREFULLY at my prior posts, where I INCLUDED the modest exceptions.

When you folks cite fleeting 500 mile propagation (wowEEE!), and finding a SINGLE Tech on phone, as evidence that 10m is NOT dead, you only enforce the fact that 10m is a dead band.

If Techs want fleeting sporadic E prop on phone, they can already do that on 6m.

Techs bought into 10m Phone BECAUSE it gave them wider and even global access. It made--as in the past-- it POSSIBLE FOR THEM TO TALK TO YOU AND ME. Now we have sold them down the river with a dead band and you folks are RESISTING a minor mod to correct that.

Unbelievable.

If you want Techs to be active, and PARTICIPATE in the PART 97 MISSION, you need to get them on bands and modes that allow true and wide communication. 10m is NOT it.

73
Chip W1YW

 

That's a proposal that should have been approved long ago. And additionally how about we give the opportunity to those existing Novice license holders to grandfather them to General. 73 Rich

 

Well, the 80 and 40 meter frequency ranges proposed for Technician SSB in the petition are not useful for phone DX anyway. Too high in the band. They can probably talk Skip to Chip, but unlikely that "global" phone access will be the norm.

The 15 meter frequencies could be, although 15 meters is just as "dead" as 10 meters most of the time now and for the next few years. (Unless there's a contest - but then if you try to say more than "five nine" and "73" during a contest, everyone will beat the crap out of you).

If the objective is to give Technicians 24x7 SSB DX nirvana, this petition isn't it. If we're going to give Techs phone privileges, let's at least not be misleading about what they'll be able to do with them. The thinking seems to be that if Techs get on the new SSB frequencies, they'll eventually realize there's stuff going on in the General and Extra areas, and THEN want to upgrade; it's not intended to give them 100% of the amateur experience in one swoop.

What it does, or should do, is start to breach the wall between Technicians and everyone else that has been building up the past two decades; and re-boot the incremental or "incentive" licensing approach.

The data privileges proposed would be the most useful from the get-go. I would expect to see increased activity there.

There are Technicians who are not as clueless as is being made out by some. Many Techs knew what they were getting into, and either didn't care about HF and wanted the Tech license for other reasons; or fully realized that it was a stepping stone on the way to higher class licenses and would get there on their own anyway. I think the majority are in one or other of those two groups. This petition doesn't do anything long-term for either of those two groups.

 

I enjoy bursting the bubble of uninformed Ham's as yourself.
CQ WW ran surveys and found that the overwhelming majority still chose CW as their primary mode of communication on the airwaves.
In the 3 most heavily populated Amateur Radio locations in the World,
Asia, America and Europe chose CW almost twice as much as other modes.
And if you look at the breakdown by ave groups, CW once again is the clear winner.
In another survey, a large percentage of newly licensed operators worldwide stated they got into the hobby for CW contesting.
How's that slap of reality ??

 

The Old Fart Ham's are doing The exact same thing via Robot Radio FT8.

 

Well, having read through all these posts, each time this same subject has come up, only a few sure conclusions can be made:

1. Hams love to argue online when the bands are dead.
2. Unfortunately, most of the HF bands are in pretty poor condition: i.e. "dead".
3. Until the situation in point "2" improves, the arguing will continue.
4. Due to points 1-3, no change will result either in opinions or regulation.

But what the heck, most of the "serial arguments" with the same participants will continue until the inevitable end when someone oversteps the boundaries and this thread, like it's predecessors, gets closed.

Then, as is usual, another bored ham will start the wheel rolling again. Isn't the internet fun?

 

If you already earned it, you would already have it.
In reality, you did not earn it as you did not learn and pass the code requirement.
Now because Tech's might get a freebie, you feel entitled to also get a freebie.
If you wanted the upgrade bad enough, you would have gone the extra effort to learn and pass the code requirement.... Just like myself and thousands of others did.

 

Well you've changed the wording of the question several times. But, to answer the wording this time, "The FCC will maintain CW only privileges below 25 MHz for Technicians until they either approve the current petition, or until they approve a future one if the current one fails".

In other words, until someone presents an argument that it should be changed, that the FCC buys into. Unfortunately, this current petition is so garbled and rambling, it may not do it. On the other hand, a handful of the Comments filed on it, do make a pretty good case. I think at the moment it's a toss-up which way they'll go.

That is exactly the question that the FCC needs a clear answer to, before they'll change anything.

 

If you check the record, I believe you'd find that the level of argument in QRZ and other forums is independent of the SFI.

 

Regarding 10m propagation, the occasional DXC spotting of a Spor-E cloud or a long meteor ping is misleading and not encouraging as an entry level intro into HF propagation possibilities.

In 2017, K1TO, a nearby top tier contest op with a QRO large antenna super-station, in soapbox comments on 3830scores said about the ARRL 10m Contest,

"This weekend was by far the worst condx I've experienced here in FL for 20+ events."

For Tech's that have been duped about having "HF" access, stiffed with digi and SSB only on 10m, below is what an "opening" looks like on any band - an excerpt of just 45 minutes from the log of W0PV in the 2014 ARRL 10 meter Contest. This is just with 100w to a wire dipole @ 1 WL AGL in FL.

Coverage like that can be replicated on 15m any year on many weekends of any popular activity, not just contests. But I predict you won't see anything like that again for a long time on 10m. I haven't even bothered participating in 10m contests the last few years.

To see more scientific evidence of this phenom, check out the MUF charts linked on the ARRL Propagation web page. Separated by NA region to various paths, while only in rare cases does the HPF touch 28 MHz, the AUC's that include 21 MHz are far far greater. The USA East Coast chart image is embedded below.

Freq Time-Z Call Exch
28147 1545 OX5T 240
28147 1545 YU1LA 364
28139 1546 N8LJ MI
28108 1550 N3ER MA
28055 1552 G0LZL 414
28054 1553 VE9DX NB
28052 1553 XE2S SON
28051 1555 I0/S53R 174
28153 1556 W2RQ NJ
28063 1557 S57XX 423
28063 1557 OL5Y 1303
28063 1558 G6AY 760
28063 1558 K8ET MI
28063 1559 PA7LV 105
28063 1600 DL8MAS 140
28063 1600 KI7Y OR
28063 1601 SP5SR 304
28063 1602 LA0FA 174
28063 1602 N2KW NY
28063 1603 AD1C CO
28063 1604 W7ZR AZ
28063 1605 HG1G 926
28063 1605 W1JM MN
28063 1606 IK3VZO 57
28063 1606 K2LNS PA
28063 1606 DK3AX 86
28063 1607 N2RI NY
28063 1607 OK2PAY 478
28063 1608 HB9ON 833
28063 1608 DL1NKS 597
28063 1609 G4IUF 116
28063 1610 HB9CIP 70
28063 1610 K7OVM OR
28063 1611 I4IKW 13
28063 1612 EF5T 1415
28063 1612 DL1BUG 16
28063 1613 DF6FQ 129
28063 1613 NT6K CA
28063 1614 WF3M PA
28063 1614 WA2VYA TX
28072 1617 FY5KE 3068
28088 1618 KD0S SD
28085 1618 MM2N 1112
28048 1620 UA2FF 283
28170 1628 N2ED NJ
28170 1629 W5MT TX
28168 1630 AC5K TX
28167 1631 WA7NB AZ
28165 1631 N4EEB FL

 

Ron,

I have 300 countries on 40m on phone. I QSO Europe at 4 in the afternoon. Typically. I am able to reach cross country (CONUS) comfortably on 40m, in April 2019, 10-14 hours a day.

You should go look up W1ZY on 40m spots, a good barometer on DXing on 40m in 2019.

From a Part 97 standpoint, 40m is a fine choice for Tech phone as it enables USA wide comms options. The DX is there too, if they want it.

Hope you like your new QTH!

73
Chip W1YW

 

Really? If all you want to do is argue, we're done here.

Blocked!

 

Above 7.225 MHz ? Thats the lower end of the frequency range proposed for Technician SSB on 40 meters.

 

Sure. Most phone DX is STILL split, including well above 7225.

 

....Well let me correct you...I never said Morse went away...The testing did!...Pay attention...The entire goal was to cheapen the way you earn your way of getting your license. The lazy didn't want to go through taking the time to study the Morse test and actually put some "effort" into it. Since I got my first license the bands were much better. But when the flood doors opened when the code was eliminated thats when it all began. And little by little these people bring their CB radio mentality to the Amateur bands.... And you said >>>>If it had then this influx of "no-code Extras" would have continued and there would not be 1/2 of licensed Amateurs as "Technician for life"....That proves one of my points...Then they are too lazy to upgrade and work for their license....Oh and by the way, when I made my original post it wasn't directed at you anyways...