"Most" DX Stations DO WHAT CLYDE??? Do us all a favor before and stick to cell phones OM! There's enough bad informations in this world. Stop adding to it!
Yes, I know. This is the case and for short stays this is enough. But in many countries it's still easier to get local temporary license/permit having the American one than CEPT/HAREC. in France remote operation of the station is still unclear (so not really allowed) and in US no issue with that. But after all this is more an intellectual challenge.... Thomas de F4HPX
Yes, exactly. That's the point... with Technician or General I will be actually penalized compared to the current situation so Amateur Extra... or nothing (well OK, If I pass only Technician & General in October I may upgrade later as there is a lot of sessions to come in next months, in Germany for example so I have time before Dayton 2018 ). Thomas
I guess you refer to § 97.5 (d) (2) on "Station license required". Having read § 97 from start to beginning several times, and being a VE, I am aware that an FCC issued ham license overrides the CEPT license privileges, and that the CEPT license will not "repair" missing privileges from the FCC issued license. Thanks for bringing the topic into the equation. I guess the point to take home for the FCC license candidate is that a CEPT Class 1 license holder better be sure he passes the Amateur Extra license test, otherwise he is better off without an FCC license.
I am not that far according to the online test exams I took today... 97% for Technician, 84% for General and 66% for Extra. If I open the books for reading... it shall fill the gap.
I have an unfair knowledge advantage on this subject, having researched the topic with a friend from the UK (but over here). With him being an engineer holding a UK Full License, I was fairly confident he could pass all three tests at one sitting (which he did). But I would advise anyone on shaky ground to tear up all the associated paperwork before leaving the exam session if you did not get all the way to extra, and are concerned about it. Soon after, he celebrated with a few 500 Watt contacts which were only legal when the callsign hit the FCC database. The UK has a 400 Watt limit, which he had to comply with over here under his old CEPT privileges. Another reason for some to get an FCC ticket.
CEPT is one of the reasons I went up for Extra. I have family in Portugal and I may very well retire there. The other is that I wanted to go below 14.225 on 20m. And "the added portion" is a lot. On 80m the voice portion for General class is half the freakin' band! On 20m upgrading to Extra extends the voice band by more than 50%.
The Extra should have been the only class the keep the code requirement. Had they kept the old Advanced test for Extra and the code, the numbers passing it would be low today. But, getting the Extra means absolutely nothing and a child could pass it. Yes, I'm being a hard ass. But look at some of the questions asked in here every day that any Tech should know , you look up the call and the guy is an Extra. I bet 3/4 of the new hams today can't build a dipole because the don't know how to solder or use the antenna formula for the wire length. It's really quite sad. But, about 20 more years and us old timers will be gone and you won't have to listen to it anymore.
I am curious what WPM rate you personally would consider appropriate for a CW required Extra ticket? Soldering is child's play. Put any question you like on the test. I can deal with that. But I really do struggle with my CW speed. I do work on it, but the speed just eludes me.
Same here.... Old-timers vs new-comers ? We could reserve some parts of the bands exclusively for those mastering CW (passed exam) but then why not release "missing" part of the bands for phone modes? Actually you can perfectly operate CW without knowing it (again computer science...) as any other digital mode. Why not limit legal power by license level (that was the case in many countries)? If you give a big gun to someone better make sure he knows how to use it properly, without collateral damages (to start with lethal voltages...). CW is like a learning new language or more like a learning playing a music instrument eg. piano. When I got interest in the hobby exactly 36 years ago I learnt CW (not even remember at which speed) but mostly forgotten and I am struggling to get it back... as I did not use it since and with the age things are not getting any better. At that time I could not finish my training course/pass the exams and I came back to the hobby only in 2015. I do recognize that dropping CW requirement was something that make much easier to get the ticket, but if in the past CW was main mode of communication (at least for DX-ing) and CW gear the easiest to build so that was easy to understand. Today CW is only one of the modes, and we can say this is becoming kind of elite club that I fully respect and I hope to rejoin soon - but simply by pleasure. Our activity, being worldwide, is regulated so there is a need for making some kind of check that we can and will comply with the regulations and generally we know what we are doing. Especially when you can buy commercial equipment for very affordable price instead of building it from scratch. So technical knowledge is becoming more theoretical than practical. We can always discuss if the question pool is adequate or not. Lowering requirements level may be seen as inappropriate by some, but it gets back an interest to the radio. In US the number of licensees is still growing but in France is declining pretty fast. Probably for 3 SK only 1 new ham and by new is usually someone not younger than 45... often people already retired. The day I passed my exam I was told that there was a lady 80+ that got successfully her ticket a week before - I can say that made me less stressed. So let's face some facts. Young people here are less and less interested in ham radio. Why to dig in the noise a weak signal from 10,000 miles away if they can reach them by Skype in HiFi sound quality, immediately and almost for free. 40-50 years ago that was not the case. My generation does not remember the time there was no TV and my kids can not imagine the pre-Internet era!!! For a QSO you will always need the other party... so for me it's not important if the OM passed CW test or not, provided it's a legal station and he complies with all the rules - not only imposed by administration but also by ham spirit too. Why to call CQ if no one will be listening. Otherwise the bands will become empty and the regulators will allocate them to some other commercial activities. Then one day my grand children will see a transceiver in the museum asking themselves what was the purpose of that strange box.
I was first licensed at age 13 in 1976. I passed the 20 WPM extra test back in the early 80's and the no code extra test in the early 2000's. The 20 WPM extra test was very different and much more difficult to pass. I felt great accomplishment and pride when I passed that test. The no code extra test was simply a matter of memorizing the question pool and passing practice exams until I was sure I could pass the test. I did not feel the same sense of accomplishment or pride after passing it the second time. It was just a matter of formality for me. We have become so obsessed with making the ham tests easy to pass as to keep up the ham population that we have moved away from the technical aspects of the hobby. The extra class license is essential if you are chasing DX or contesting. However, it is no longer the status symbol of the elite group of hams it used to represent.
Gaining your Extra ticket does two things: 1. Gain access to more of the bands, and 2. Becoming a VE (as was mentioned above) to give back a bit. No, it does not make you an expert and no, it does not mean you can run PSK31 right out of the box. That is where experience comes from and you get that from dedicated hams who Elmer new hams. But it does give you the knowledge to operate the way an Extra class operator should. That is assuming the operator studied the material and did not memorize the question pool.
Nothing unfair about knowing things because you have made an effort to check it out. That is how I learn, too. I did the same as your UK friend, except not having a technical background, focussing on test questions and finding answers where I repeatedly made errors. I got to know about the opportunity to sit for the tests on Tuesday night, and passed the three tests on Saturday, with a more than full time job. Someone in this discussion mentioned that the Amateur Extra is primarily an intellectual challenge, and that was exactly my approach, just to see if I could do it (you could probably call it "intellectual vanity"). However, to put it in perspective, I guess the Amateur Extra corresponds to a decent high school level, which means that many others can do, and have done, the same. The impression that Amateur Extra is so difficult or very high level, is plain wrong, and the sooner candidates stop making a big thing out of it, the sooner they will pass the test. Candidates should listen to the podcast on the top of this topic, to get a realistic idea of what it is and tips on how to address what may constitute a challenge for the individual candidate. It is the highest license level and it is a good challenge, and that is all it is, and ever was. With the possible risk of insulting many oldtimers, I believe Amateur Extra was never very difficult, nor that is much easier today than it was when they passed their license, save for the 20 WPM CW requirement, which, starting from scratch, requires somewhat more than a few days of intellectual effort. I do think that there is something "extra" about well sent CW at good speed, but I see no reason for the touch of condescencion sometimes experienced from "20 WPM code Extras" towards the "no-code-Extras" that never had (the opportunity) to pass the code test. And with all due respect, the future of ham radio is probably not in CW, but in other digital modes where ham radio can make itself useful to other forms of communication and digital services. In no event will an Amateur Extra license make us a know-all about ham radio. We sometimes see that fuzz is made over Amateur Extras asking questions that some find very basic. It strikes me sometimes that the fuzz is made by radio or electronics professionals that also happen to hold an Amateur Extra. It should certainly be expected in any field that the pros know more than the amateurs, and among the Amateur Extras there will also be some that haven't maintained the knowlege they had when taking the license, while others have massively improved their knowledge. If we are honest with ourselves, we have all made basic errors, not known the answers to basic questions, and asked "stupid" questions, despite holding an Amateur Extra license. We are not error free radio experts, we just love radio (that's what radio amateur means) and the liberty vested in our licenses to find out more about all the radio things we don't know or understand. And the more license holders we are, the more we will find out, and the more we can share, to motivate others to share our interest by taking the license(s). Some will be happy to be Technicians, others will like to be Generals, while some will want to become Amateur Extras. Let us encourage and help them all. Frode LA6VQ & N2VQ
