Incentive Licensing Retrospective

Hi Bill,

I never spent any time with Swan, but found some info here.  http://www.pcs.mb.ca/~standard/350.htm

I will see if there are any schematics on the web.

What you describe sounds like you don't have a carrier to reconstruct the SSB into normal audio.

You might want to check around V14 12BA6 Carrier Oscillator. If you have a scope make sure you have a waveform on the output of the oscillator. I would guess you don't. Or if you do, it could be somewhere from the output to where the signal is injected into the rf chain. mode switch, relay or open component.

I would think that the Swan would also use V14 for CW BFO, so in that CW is ok, that may be a clue. Check for the waveform on CW also.

I'm grabbing at straws without a print, but that's a place to start.

73 - W6NJ

 

I return to my previously-stated contention that some of us do things because it is necessary. Either money, or location, or time element, prevents us from packaging up the dishwasher and sending it to the manufacturer. I live pretty isolated in the country, and Sears won't even honor a warranty out here. Too far. So by necessity, I do things myself. I don't enjoy a lot of it. I no longer enjoy in the slightest crawling under a car. Or pulling the clothes dryer out from its tight cubicle and tearing it apart.

But I do all of it. A few years ago my Jeep Cherokee developed a transmission problem. That electronically controlled automatic tranny. Beautiful rig. But no one could tell me what the problem was, let alone fix it. I had it to five professional transmission shops. The "real pros." And it kept doing the same thing, appearing to slip out of gear, that is, suddenly shifting into neutral and then back into gear with a thump. Three of the five shops suggested possibilities, ranging from main computer, to transmission computer, to internal parts problems. Two of the shops wouldn't even hazard a guess. "Let us keep it a couple of days and see what we can do." A sixth shop I visited with only a verbal query told me the car needed a tuneup and that would fix it.

I came home, got out the Chilton's shop manual, and sat down at the dining room table with the book and the system schematics, and a cup of coffee. And I found what no one knew. A sensor. I went out, unplugged the sensor and drove the car. No more transmission problem. It was as simple as that. After driving the car like that for a couple of weeks to be sure I had no problems, I bought and installed a new sensor. That was years ago. That car is still chugging along perfectly.

That is a case of necdssity. No one else could do it, so it was necessary for me to.

My Icom 706 just developed a problem recently. Between 4.0 and 8.0 mhz it is pretty much dead. Doesn't transmit and only hears extremely strong BC stations. I left it on, while messing with the computer and suddenly it started working again. After a few times I realize it was a thermal. So where was it?

So it is sitting, as we speak, opened up on the bench. I know from the schematic where the problem has to be. It can only be one place. The 7 mhz filter. All I have to do is physically locate the part on the HPF board and check it, and I have not had time to do that. But I will, and within a couple more days at the outside. But again, it is because of necessity. I can't afford to send that radio to Icom. There is a local fellow (local being 50 miles away) who will work on it, and it may wind up in his hands, but I already know WHAT is wrong. I just don't know if I have the eyesight and steadiness to fix it.

And that leads back to yesteryear. It was not that I enjoyed opening up the transmitter and flipping it over, and checking components. It was necessary. I didn't do it for the fun; I did it because if I didn't do it, I was not on the air.

Like sports cars of the 50s. I had a few of them. And they are great fun to drive, the true feel of a sports car, not some air conditioned, power steering'ed two ton monster nicknamed a sports car. They were the real thing. Very enjoyable. But they had their downside and that was the need for constant TLC. In all of them, a roadside tool kit was a necessity, and was often supplied with the car by the manufacturer. If you drove a 50s British sports car, you carried a tool kit. Period. You might not enjoy being under the hood in the cold rain, but that was part of the requirement for the part you did enjoy, and that was the driving.

In the fifties many of us simply could not afford a ham radio repairman. And we could not limit ourselves to pulling the tubes and going to the drugstore checker. In fact there WAS no drugstore checker. We had to understand the resistors, capacitors, IF cans, transformers, and be prepared to fix them or replace them. We had to be able to find them, to know the symptoms of this or that being bad, and to actually get the old one out and a new one in. Like the sports car, the faster you did the repair, the faster you were back on the road - or on the air.

I'd venture to say many of us can still understand today's rigs. Give us a block diagram of a 756Pro and we'll know what's going on. That doesn't, though, mean we can fix it, because of the special soldering tools, the tiny, tiny components, and the fact special replacements must come from the manufacturer. We have been put out to pasture by modern technology, but we still aren't dumb.

That is because years ago we developed the real foundation in electronics. Remember the schematic? One battery, one light bulb, one resistor, and one switch. And you learned basic electronics from that. It's still basic. And it still applies.

We learned it by necessity. It doesn't go away.

Ed

 

I have to agree with that. I sure didn't want to work on a washer.

And I had the same experience with an electronic tranny.

They didn't have a clue, and I could spend $3000, or spend some time myself. The problem ended up to be a $35 sensor.

My wife's laptop has a video card problem. Hp wants $100 for the board and $300 labor. I search the web and find that most units of this model have the same exact problem. I can get the card for $80. A pain to disassemble, but I sure don't want to give HP $320 for a 1 hour job, that is a defect that should be fixed for free.

If I could find competent people that charged reasonable prices, to do some of this work, I would let them, so you have a good point.

I'm up to +2.75 diopters for near vision, and have a big magnifying lamp, so I know about the eyes.

Now I have to see if that knocking sound in the suburban is "you need a new engine for $5000" as they all tell me.

73 - W6NJ

 

Further clarification:

Beginning sometime in the early to mid-30's there was an Extra Class licence. It was called the "Extra First Class." Like the post-1951 Extra, it carried no additional privileges. IIRC, there was even a 20 wpm code requirement. The "Class A" phone licence was introduced about the same time, to restrict access to the "elite" phone bands of 75 and 20m.

I don't believe there ever was any "cw-only" class of licence before then.

The original code requirement was 10 wpm. Sometime in the late 30's, ARRL petitioned the FCC to raise it to 12.5 wpm, on the theory that 10 WPM didn't require real telegraphy skills, since that was about the limit of one's ability to copy code by counting dits and dahs, rather than learning the sound of the whole character. The FCC accepted the idea, but decided 12.5 was too messy to calculate for giving the code tests, so they upped the ante to 13 wpm. This was all before my day, but the history is there if you are willing to browse the old QST's and RADIO magazines... very interesting reading.

Some correction is due here... Before WW2 there were no 15m or 11m ham bands, but 160m was a full-fledged amateur band, and the most popular band for local/regional communications. Class-B licensees could work phone on 160m and 10m, plus all bands above 30 mHz (mc/s back then). 40m was cw-only for all classes of licence.

After WW2, 15m and 11m were opened for amateur use. We didn't get 160m back for some time, and when we did, its use was highly restricted until after 1980, due to the LORAN radionavigation system that was given priority there.

So after 1945, the Class B ticket could use phone on 40, 15, 11 and 10 plus above 30 mHz, plus what was left of 160 (with severe power and regional frequency restrictions). The class A ticket was still required for the "elite" phone bands on 75 and 20m. Back then 75m was 3900-4000, later eventually expanded to 3800-4000.

Phone was added to 40m after the war because of the foreign broadcast that was beginnig to populate the top end. Most cw operation migrated down to the bottom of the band, and ARRL successfully petitioned the FCC to allow phone on the top end, using the "use it or lose it" rationale.

 

Got to love it when someone can make his point while getting one to fall off his chair laughing.

Thanks, made my day.

 

I didn't see incentive licensing as a bad thing. I lost privileges just as many others. I still don't understand how any reasonable adult could believe they were hurting anyone but themselves by refusing to upgrade or by quiting amateur radio in protest. My upbringing called that "cutting off your nose to spite your face".
I thought that publishing the class of license in the callbook and having differing calls that denoted the likely class of license merely appealed to the basest egotistical instincts. Its all water over the dam now.

 

A few reactions: I was first licensed in 1957 at age 15. I took the Novice and Technician tests simultaneously and received KN1BOW and K1BOW. I was unaware of the history of incentive licensing; to me at the time it seemed natural that one could advance to higher classes of license and obtain higher privileges. I didn't really have an Elmer or anyone to tell me about the history of ham radio other than what I read in magazines. I did not realize that people had lost privileges when license classes were restructured.

I was a geek before anyone used the word, and I didn't have money to spend on ham radio gear, so making my own gear out of parts I scrounged from taking apart old radios and televisions seemed natural to me. I was happy to continue using c.w. after I graduated to General, although I was also eager to homebrew an a.m. rig, and when a neighborhood ham gave me a modulation transformer that made it possible for me to build a modulator and to plate modulate my homebrew 100 watt c.w. rig I was overjoyed. SSB seemed out of reach in my high school years, home-brewing an SSB rig was not just complicated, it couldn't be done without some pretty expensive components. I did experiment with a double-sideband suppressed carrier rig on 6 meters, but there was nobody around who could receive it in 1959-1960!

The code was hard for me. I knew I wanted to be a ham for a couple of years before I actually took the Novice test, getting up to 5 w.p.m. was a struggle without anybody around to coach or teach me. After I got on the air getting up to 13 w.p.m. was also a struggle. This was in the days when the Novice license was good for one year and non-renewable. I had to go to the FCC office in Boston to take the General exam, and I flunked the code test twice. I finally passed with only a week or two to go before my Novice license would expire. Fortunately, I also had the Technician license and the FCC endorsed my Tech license for General privileges on the spot, so I would not have to wait for several months for an upgraded license to come through the mail.

Near the end of my Novice year I built a 6 meter receiving converter (from a kit) and built a homebrew 6 meter a.m. transmitter from handbook circuits (a really messy piece of construction, but it worked). I was afraid I would not pass the General code test on my last try and would be exiled to VHF. I also feared that if that were to happen I would never get to operate HF again, because there was no code activity to speak of on 6 meters in the area where I lived, and I had little hope of ever getting my code speed up without being able to operate on the air.

I have heard some people say that code is easy, and that everyone should be able to learn it quickly. Well, it was not easy for me. In my later life I have been a teacher of one kind or another for more than 30 years and I now know that not everyone learns things the same way, and that not everyone learns easily the same kinds of things that other people can learn easily. So I understand the need to allow access to the ham bands without requiring a code test, especially as there are many really interesting things to do as a ham that do not require code, and conversely, there is little to motivate anybody to want to learn the code before getting a ham license. I still find code very hard, but I have now held an Extra Class license for over 30 years -- 15 years after getting my Novice license I worked very hard to get my code speed up to 20 w.p.m. and passed the test at the FCC officer in Boston. I use c.w., and I can honestly say that I could still pass that 20 w.p.m. test if I had to (give me a week to practice!) but I have never managed to improve my c.w. skill much beyond that level.

Getting back to the original point, incentive licensing worked for me. I wanted the General license for its privileges on h.f., and I wanted the Extra license for access to those little 25 khz-wide slices of frequency at the bottom of the h.f. c.w. bands.

As I understand it, the ARRL is currently proposing that current Technicians should get access to h.f. privileges when Generals no longer need a code test. I agree with this. I also would like to see some kind of code test for access to some part of the c.w. bands remain, even if it is only 5 w.p.m. for an Extra Class license. I would also like to see some part of the bands available to non-Extras reserved for c.w., opr at least narrow-band modes that are compatible with c.w. I worry a little about how we will deal with people who have not passed a code test using c.w. -- I think they need to be encouraged to use the mode even if they didn't have to pass a test first. Perhaps they will start with computer-assistance.

A final note -- I understand the point of the original post about the perception of the value of ham radio as a training ground for c.w. operators, but I think historically it has been equally valuable as an incentive for technical training. In my early days as a ham, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, ham radio was very attractive to many young people who later went into science and engineering. The widespread adoption of modes such as SSB and FM which require equipment that is difficult to homebrew has had a negative effect on ham radio's importance in motivating people towards technical careers. One of the reasons I feel that encouraging c.w. is important is because simple c.w. equipment can still be homebrewed.

73, Al n1aw@arrl.net

 

w6nj- sir thanks for the info , 73 Bill

 

K3UD,

Thank you for the nice and factual review.  Well written and properly intended.  I do not agree with the comment written by one of our colleagues that "Ham radio is dead."  However we a certainly not as vibrant as we should be.

I was licensed in 1968 as a novice at age 13.  Worked on my cw (crystal controlled of course!) and some how passed my general...black box at the FCC office, etc.  Soon thereafter my advanced.  Why?  Obviously to get band priviliges and to find DX.  After about 5 years of activity I headed off to college, medical school, training, service, etc.  Got back in briefly in 1990 but still very much distracted by jobs, family, CC&Rs.  Two years ago back in.  Still very exciting and interesting.

Observations, however, are that manners and interpersonal intercourse on the band is much less than it should be or (as I recall) used to be.  Hamfests are underwhelming.  I took my extra a year ago, what a piece of cake.  The VEC didn't have a clue as to RF theory, CW, etc.  They were all 20 years my senior but still couldn't copy more than 5 wpm.  Is that important? No, however the perceived decline in our hobby is not made better by eliminating the code or dumming down the theory.  No I don't have the answer, but maybe incentive licensing should be restored.  Perhaps replacement of code with the newer modalities, etc.

Not sure why the decline, as others have suggested, probably the internet and "shrinking" of our world.  My son, 20 y/o, and a real nerd like his father, just doesn't understand the excitement in talking to someone on the radio.  Why do that when you can use a cell phone.  Certainly generational but not inaccurate.

Enough rambling.  Thanks again for the nice review.  When I finally have an epiphany and figure out what is needed to improve ham radio I'll let you know, Hi Hi.  There is still lots of excitement to be had; unfortunately however, there is something missing in our approach.

73's
Bill

 

What would help ham radio? I agree, incentive licensing would be a major asset. Of course we still have incentive licensing, but in a different format than in the late 1960s.

My plan would be pretty simple, really. I'd reinstate the original Novice, although I admit I may not would require Morse. I'd like to, but the reality of today is virtually no non-ham would enter this hobby if the code stood in the way. Back "in the day" the interest was higher, so the code was not a barrier. Today it definitely is, and part of the reason is culture. We have a "right now" culture, and the code takes too much time. No one wants to wait for anything; they want it immediately. And without calling them lazy, which they probably are not, they simply have no ambition to learn something so outdated. And they have no time to waste on learning much of anything, to be honest.

I'd make the Novice license good for two years, and non-renewable. Up or out. But it would probably have some level of limited voice operation on HF, a narrow range of frequencies, and with low power - 50 watts output, perhaps.

We need a "real ham radio" entry level. The Technician ticket is not that at all. It doesn't provide entry - it is a bit like standing outside the bakery and smelling the cakes.

Despite the griping, incentives work everywhere. You have an incentive to move from 8th grade to 9th grade. You have an incentive to do a good job at work so you can be promoted. In ham radio, incentives were especially good, for although many won't admit it, they did actually force hams of that time to learn more, to become better qualified technically as well as operationally. It is simply that today's culture doesn't believe in incentives. They want to start at the top of any endeavor, with the top level benefits.

Correct. The VEC often has virtually no knowledge of what the average ham used to. And anyone will admit the VEC program began with a very high percentage of given away licenses (or sold) to buddies. That continues today but to a far lesser extent. And many of those people from the late 1980s who bought their licenses are considered today's OTs, though they know little about ham radio.

The Extra class license is indeed relatively, compared to years ago, easy to obtain. Plus the really bad aspect of it is one can be that "expert" ticket holder with absolutely zero experience in ham radio. The old two-years-in-grade rule was a good way to at least somewhat assure the Extra really was "extra." He knew something, not only due to the level of the test and theory, but due to his minimum two years experience as a General or Advanced. I know quite a few people do come into ham radio today with an electronics background, perhaps from the military. And they pass the Extra test. But they know zilch about ham radio. Nothing about the bands, nothing about propagation, nothing about the rules, nothing about operating, nothing about anything other than some basic electronics. And they are tomorrow's Elmer. That's sad.

Radio. The very word is antique on the ears of our youth of today. No one listens to radio, not AM or FM, and not ham. They download music, play computer games, listen to satellite music. Telling them to play radio is like telling that kid with the 2005 Mustang to go ride a bicycle. Huh? No way!

How do you make it exciting? There is one word: challenge. We lost the challenge. We lost the mountains to climb. They are either mole hills or are gone completely. And the trend is to continue to whittle them down. If ham radio had been easy back in the 50s, I would not have become a ham. I think that's true of many in the 60s and even the 1970s. It became easy with the VEC program, and easier still with the licensing enhancements that brought us a permanently renewable Novice ticket, and a Technician ticket without code.

It is not likely code is the answer. But challenge is. And since there gripe is "It's a hobby, I don't want to be an electronics engineer" then there should be different tiers, some for the ones who enjoy the bottom, and others for those wanting and willing to advance. And that means incentives. Then, for those who are willing to remain at the bottom of the ham ladder, so be it. For those willing to climb a little mountain, they get more rewards.

We are, though, probably headed, in the not too distant future, to a single class of license. The FCC does not want the ham radio headache at all, and they do not want to reinstate any kind of licensing procedures that increase, not decrease, their workload associated with us.

I've tried to get a few kids interested in ham radio. But there are two routes to go. The first is to take the kid's police scanner (if he has one) and plug in some area repeaters. The second is to loan him a general coverage or ham band receiver and let him listen to HF. The first method simply has zero appeal. If, though, he could listen to HF, and hear, first hand, people six states away talking with each other, and understand that it is because of a radio and a big outside antenna, he will see something he doesn't see on the internet. The question, of course, is how do you feed this kid an HF radio? Not many of us have spare receivers to loan out, and especially for an outside antenna.

I'm very uncertain that ham radio can be fixed. It is badly broken, and the trend appears to be to continue to break it. You and I may want to fix it, to make it challenging and dramatic and exciting, to restore the fraternal feeling, to get the technical and operational parts of the hobby reinstated. But we are not in control. The FCC is. And they want to simply the service. Such simplification was our downfall.

I would reinstate incentive licensing. With real meaning. I would once again establish a Novice ticket with access to HF, and with a limited, non-renewable term. I would require that a person first be a Novice for one year, before he could get a Technician license. Why? So a new ham would have to start on HF, not on VHF CB. I would reinstate the two year General/Advanced requirment for the Extra. I would restore the 20 wpm test for the Extra, or at the very least a 15 wpm test. I may would dispense with code testing for the Novice and for the Tech, but would retain it for General, perhaps at the current 5 wpm, or maybe at 8 wpm.

I would stop attempting to recruit with the "cell phone" concept of "You can keep in touch with family." That was a serious mistake made in the 1990s, and brought us the spouse conversations of "bring home a loaf of bread" on the repeaters.

I would also stop recruiting based on "you can save the world." I would focus first on fun. Talking to friends, participating in contests, talking to people in other countries. The theme would be "it's fun, and it's educational, too."

For many years, virtually NO ham entered ham radio for the express purpose of doing public service. They entered for the technical challenge and the operating fun. Yet most hams were both ready and willing to perform in support of public service and/or emergencies. It just wasn't the goal. Making that a goal created the wannabe cop who thinks since he has passed a basic Technician ticket, he has circumvented the police academy and can now walk onto the scene and announce, "I"m a ham and I'm in charge. " And some do exactly that.

I agree, it is difficult to explain talking on the radio. First the kids have voice communication, just about anywhere in the world, by Voip. They have chat rooms that have people in them from various countries. They have cell phones, too. And they are familar with FRS. They may even know about CB radio.

What does work is this. Show them Morse code. Put your radio on CW and make a contact. They immediately connect it with the movies they have seen in which Morse code was used in WW-II, or other places, maritime emergencies, and the like. And it is different. No matter how you feel about the code, show some youngster a CW operation, and he will likely ask questions. Show him PSK31 and he says "I already do that on IM." But he doesn't do CW. Once you have his attention, then do voice, and explain you are not going through a phone line or ISP. It is antenna to antenna. But you need to hook him first, and CW does it.

Ed

 

The only problem I had with incentive licensing was losing spectrum as a general at the time it came about. I felt, and still do, that the existing general class licensees should have been "grandfathered" to extras. Only new general applicants would take on the new restrictions of the class.

73,

 

Until the mid '80's, it was legal to buy beer in NC at age 18. My son was 20 when the law was changed to age 21. He lost the ability to buy beer and had to wait until it was legal again.
The bar will never be raised so high in amateur radio that I will not rise to the occasion. I became interested in radio and in amateur radio via a crystal radio kit for my 9th birthday, broadcast band dx'ing and swl'ing. There were and are those of us that you couldn't run off with a stick. Thats the difference between mildly interested and deeply hooked. W5HTW has it right in his many posts. Bravo Ed

 

You said it!!

 

OK, so who of you old timers who feel they got crapped on by incentive licensing are genuinely PO'd enough to finally break free and get out of the hobby (and donate their equipment to me?)  Lemme know.  

Ken

 

I have about a thousand kilograms of boat anchors! You may remember that when I moved out of Petaluma I dumpstered a lot of antenna stuff... Mike got some, fixed it, and put it on the air. Some I have to sell, though.

Howya doin'?

Cortland
KA5S