FCC Noncommital on Code Changes

I guess the crybabies will get their way.

 

Bingo!! man, i must be twisted for sticking around to watch this thread...its doing just what i expected it would.

But your post is right...EMT's will also be there to save the lives of QRZ posters who get all worked up and keel over at the keyboard.

Theres only a small minority of hams who do this for true "emergency prepardeness". the rest do it for fun....or so im told. i know i do.

...AND YOU SPELLED BLEEDING WRONG!!!!

heh heh, just kidding...youre right, some folks get worked up over the strangest things.

Its puzzling to me, really. I can see getting stressed out by money falling short and you have no food for your family, i can see getting stressed out by a house fire that takes everything you own, and the stress levels would be immense if that fire took a loved one...but to get all worked up by what MIGHT happen to ham radio???

I just cant explain the human psyche sometimes.

73...Adam, N7YA

 

No, I don't think they will.  The FCC is most likely going to eliminate the code testing requirement.

 

Requiring proficiency in the Morse code in order to obtain a Ham Radio license is much like having to demonstrate how to shoe a horse in order to get a driver’s license.

73,

Keith
KB1SF / VA3KSF

 

K3NG - that was too funny...and appropriate.

 

Ah,--more "words of wisdom" from Canada.

                             73, K1MVP

 

What a dilema.  About four months ago I passed the Technician.
I feel like a lot of you, not a "Ham" unless one can receive and send code.  So I have been practicing to no avail, because I have 50% hearing loss in both ears.  Aids amplify the sound OK, but doesn't allow me to distinguish between dits and dahs.  Does anybody have an idea on this other than flashlights and vibrations?
I hate to wait out the FCC to make General and above.   KC0VNT

 

I grew up in the "Old School" (1960's) where we did not argue this kind of "Stuff".  There were lots of Hams with Visible Outside antennas that would teach you, or call someone else who could become an Elmer to help an aspiring youngster (or olderster) to become a Ham.  I thank God for my many Elmers in Columbus, Ga. (many of their callsigns are well known) for their help.  Most of the issues I see now out on the Web are "I want it now".  It is up to the FCC to make the call on this and that is the end of the line.  I know CW and talk to others that do.  I respect those that do not, or do not see a need for it.  I do see a time that some folks may not be able to participate in one or more modes of communications when it is really needed.  That is your choice.  As for me, I have no more FCC tests to pass.

Steve W4CNG

 

That is a rather broad statement to make.

Knowing code at 5-13 or 20 WPM (or better) certainly gives a good op a tremendous resource at his or her disposal to be used when it quite possibly might be the only mode to get through when others do not. It is also another skill that you know. While knowing the code does not make anyone a good or bad op, it makes the good ones better and more valuable than the ones who do not.

Communications using CW and the code can be done with very simple equipment and on flea power. You do not need a computer or a reader or a rigblaster interface. Digital modes are quite a bit more complex to get going and carries much more hardware infrastructure overhead than a simple but capable CW setup does.

I find it interesting that the FCC seems to be wrangling over the code issue. If they were going to drop the requirement one would think that it would have been already a done deal. Other countries dropped it almost immediately. Could it be that it might not happen?

73
George
K3UD

 

I'm one of those no code Techs. If the FCC ever makes up it's mind to drop the code, I'll upgrade to General. What's weird is the suggestion that the FCC wouldn't let the plain Techs have the same use of the hf bands as the Novice/Tech Plus hf. Yet, if there wouldn't be a code requirement, then why not? A gentle push to upgrade? Otherwise: There isn't any requirement (except in CW only bands & subbands) to use CW. It's still at least a good trade off: no Novice/Tech Plus hf use as a plain Tech, but written only upgrade to General . I'd rather be a General anyway. 73 Hal, KC4ZYP


My Webpage

 

I agree, you can only beat a dead horse so much!

 

I know I'm wasting my time here since people have their minds made up already. Yes I'm a no-code tech.....yes 11 meter got me interested in this hobby. I got my license when I was 14, I am now 29. I got it a couple months after they passed the nocode. I was studying my code before it got passed. I was out of the hobby for a while when I got a little older and in college. I have got back into the hobby again. I have started studying again. If it got passed sure I'd be there asap to get my general. That does not mean I do not wish to KNOW code. The guys that make comments about your CB buddies on HF are ridiculous.

My younger brother passed his test 2 weeks ago, he is 21. Hearing ISS pass over is really what interested him I think. He has only been exposed to VHF/UHF, sure there is plenty to do on these bands with sats, packet and everything. Now he is trying to get the club at his college that once had members revived. He has never been exposed to the joys of just listening to HF. This hobby does not need to die, which it is a scary thought. He has never been on the dreaded, hated, nasty...11 meter band, as a matter of fact who has lately around here? As for the I had to so you have to as well guys, that point has been covered already. Let us get the youth involved before the bands are dead, alot of the the guys I talked to when I first became a ham are no longer with us anymore.

Adam great posts, I would practice with you if only I could get on a band where we could!!!
Perhaps one of these days!
Take care guys....don't be too harsh.....lets share....its just a little bandwidth

 

Actually, General will downgrade to you.


If the FCC drops the code requirement there will be no difference between Technician licenses. In preparation for this, they already eliminated the differences in their database, which should give us a clue as to the next step.

At the moment, though, Novices and Tech pluses (code) have access to only CW frequencies except on ten meters. So giving a Tech no code those privileges would do not good at all, except to allow him access to ten meters in a narrow segment. It would be his own limitations, not FCC rules, that kept him off 80, 40 and 15 meters.

On the agenda at the FCC is the "refarming" proposal. Several proposals are linked. If one becomes a law, it will affect others. That includes dropping Morse testing, refarming the bands, and the bandwidth proposals. It appears at this moment they are looking closely at the refarming proposal.

If they do that, the way the ARRL suggested, Novices and Tech Pluses will be shifted down. To where? To either the data bands, or to the low CW bands. But what they may do is grant Novice/Tech plus ALL CW frequencies (except perhaps the bottom 25 khz, now reserved for Extras) but with reduced power, say 200 watts.

This will allow phone band expansion. For example, on 40 meters, SSB voice would then be extended down to 7100 khz. That, though, does not have the code-free Tech in the slightest! And it doesn't do an awful lot for the 'extincting" Novices and Techs/Code.

The single problem that appears to stand in the way of upgrading Techs and Tech pluses, to No code General (should Morse testing be removed, and we are sure it will be) is the RF safety portions of the test. It would appear to be a Tech or Tech Plus could take a very brief test, say five questions, on RF radiation, and if he passed it, would become a General. There is some different in theory, but not enough to be a stumbling block. And even then, a new element, say Element 3-J, could be written to allow such "instant upgrades" by Techs and Tech pluses, and even by Novices.

Realistically, most Novices have more knowledge of radio fundamentals AND code, than do most Techs. The reason is they took the test when it was a bit harder and they did take the code. It would not be beyond imagination to upgrade all Novices, Techs and Tech pluses to General, with only the RF safety test.

But then comes No-Code, following refarming. Why refarming, then, we ask? Will the present CW bands, say from 7000 to 7100 still be reserved for CW/data? In the move to phase out CW, as the FCC appears intent upon doing (and I am not referring to Morse testing, but the allocation of CW-only band restrictions) it would seem silly to retain 100 khz of bandwidth (there's THAT word again) for a rapidly dwindlng supply of CW operators. This would require another 'refarming" in the next two or three years, as the voice population of the ham bands jumps, as most of us expect it to do.

Or the FCC can forget about refarming and put every effort into the bandwidth proposal. That will, as I understand it, eliminate class-based sub-bands for everyone. And THAT said, it paves the way to a single class of license, the Amateur Radio License. Coupled with the Morse -free testing, it puts the Tech, Novice, General or otherwise, in the low end of what is now the Extra Class CW sub-bands, as it will be mode that determines where one can operate, not class of license.

There is a lot on the table, it appears to me. I am not sure I see the FCC taking the ARRL proposals verbatim and putting them into effect. I suspect there will be some modification, and perhaps a lot of modification.

That may be why the FCC is continuing to delay. They need to work out the ramifications of the various routes they can take, from doing nothing to doing everything, including making a single class of ham radio license. Or at the very least, a "Standard" license (Techs, Generals, Advanced, and Extras, and old Novices) and a Learners License, akin to the old Novice.

Sounds pretty confused to me. Probably does to the folks at the FCC as well.

Ed

 

I was wondering how many of the big three radio manufacturers have lobbyists outside the FCC office? You know they are encouraging the FCC to drop Cw so they will have a giant leap in radio sales. Better buy stock now!

 

CW doesn't necessarily make a good op.  But more importantly, a good op doesn't necessarily make a good ham.  A good example would be some of these 20 WPM Extras that look down upon no-code people as lower than snail poop.  These people do nothing to further ham radio, nor do they meet the requirements of being a ham, despite having a license, in my opinion.

I don't think the FCC is wrangling with the CW issue at all.  Ham radio issues just aren't that high on their priority list like it used they used to be.