The ARRL Letter, Vol 26, No 04

When is everyone that thinks the dispute is about code vs. no-code going to realize that it has nothing to do with code? It's about standards. The FCC had no business eliminating the Element 1 exam without compensation for removal of the only licensing requirement that required any work. The written tests are a joke. The United States is the only country that publishes the questions and answers to its amateur radio exams.

All that anyone needs to do to pass any of the written exams is go through the pool 2 or 3 times, do a few practice exams on this site, and passing is all but assured. One can get an Extra class ticket without knowing anything about electronics and radio.

If the FCC was going to abolish code testing, they should have made the written exams more comprehensive and they should have withheld the new question pools from the public domain. To do what they did is a blatant dumbing-down of standards.

Any NCTs that disagree with what I am saying are obviously looking an upgrade with no work - a free ride. This is what is at the core of this whole dispute. IT'S NOT ABOUT CODE TESTING. IT'S ABOUT STANDARDS.  

 

this is directed to KC0WCM
I Passed 22 Navy Electronics schools and have tried for 40+ yrs to learn code but am tone deaf due to my navy electronics jobs, and so are 100's of others, which does not make us any less qualified to be good radio operators, Which the navy intrusted me with this privalage for 16+ yrs. Please reply. KD5HLG

OH I failed to mention unless you were born before 1955 I was a proficent rec/trns opreator before you were born.
                                          and by the way I am an electronics enjineer with 2 pattions.

 

You didn't read the entire post eather sir. I said

"And I understand there are some that have a harder time with code then others But there are Way's to get help with it. I'm mainly talking about the ones who don't think they should pass a test for a mode they will never use. It's imature and selfish! "

I know hams that have the same problem. there is a good side to the droping of code . However code can be givin in flashing lights or vibrating pad to help

 

AMEN thats exactly what im trying to say!

But someones going to cut this post down again so theres no excaping it.

To the others

Befor you reply back to me about it read my post a few times untill you understand it.
Stop thinking im against the few with hearing problems I run Heavy equipment Its very loud, also my hearing isnt the best eather and i had a hard time with the tones also, I have to have a very low pitch to hear it.
So i understand but that shouldn't be a reason to drop the code!
If that was the case I dont comprehend what i read out of books Im hands on so taking the writen test was harder then the code exam.

Should i call the FCC and tell them they should drop the writen exam for my handicap?

 

sigh......

 

Im sorry I bore you

 

i wonder if the countries that also dropped the code had as many people complaining they should have kept the code or boy am i glad they dropped the code?

 

First of all, the way this Country is being Ran not Run..
It's Enough not Enuff.
Getting is with two t's
And again another error, Techs think the deserve, no,no,no It's, Techs think theY deserve.
And Achieved is not spelled Acheved. I'm sorry I had to bring these matters to your attention....

I might not know Code, but, at least I can Spell....

And when there are Hams out there, with your attitude, I wouldn't waste my time or money upgrading my ticket. I'm happy being just a plain old Tech.

 

One thing you have to give the NCT's credit for is the fact they are extremely patient if they waited THIS LONG for code to go away

It definetely goes against the grain of most people today who seem to be the most impatient people in the world.

...then you have weirdos like me who aren't going to upgrade even after this, and wait and see what happens to HF with this change before considering the jump and investment

 

The written test will not be made more difficult.
Written testing will go the way of code testing. Every reason for elimination of the code test can and will be used against the written test. The last undue burden will be lifted from the otherwise qualified.

It is not a bad thing. The Elitist that held that those who can not or will not pass code a test are lazy and will bring the demise of ham radio are wrong!
Those that hold people should pass any written test are wrong. They are elitist. It will not bring the demise the of Ham radio.
It was said the code test would be always be, the elitists were wrong
It is said the written test will and should always be. The Elitist will be wrong.
The written test should not keep anyone otherwise qualified from being on HF. The test will be something to be proud of passing as long as EVERYONE can pass it and if they can not. They pass anyway.(see pro code)
To the NoCode Licensees that would stop ANYONE from operating HF you are the ELITE .
you will fit in.

 

I guess I just don't get it. The No Code is a done deal. We are now inline, good or bad, with the rest of the Ham World. Why do these discussions continue? Get over it and move on....

73

KE5FMR

 

preach it brother!

KE5FMR: NCT

 

Michael, would you please explain to us why someone should have to "earn" access to something they already own?

Just like our US National Parks belong to all of us, the Amateur Radio spectrum is, by international decree, ALSO public property. It belongs to each and every of us on the planet, whether we are licensed to use it or not. What's more, there is a clear legal precedent in both ITU Radio Regulations as well as US law that underwrites and promulgates that fundamentally basic concept.

And, while it is true that the FCC has been given the responsibility (via our elected and appointed officials) to control ACCESS to that public resource, THEY still don't "own" the Amateur Service. WE do. So, the issue becomes one of the FCC establishing MINIMUM standards for granting and controlling access to it, NOT in people having to somehow justify their existence in order to "earn" that access by completing a series of "hazing rituals" and overly-comprehensive "achievement tests" that go well beyond those minimum standards.

Clearly, all this "I had to earn it" nonsense is a direct result of the FCC's decades long incentive licensing nonsense that has forced learning down our throats (or up various other orifices of our bodies) one question and/or one Morse character at a time. That system has then "rewarded" us for enduring that ongoing assault on our brains (or, in the case of Morse, our ears and our fingers) by giving us yet another sliver of the Amateur Radio spectrum to play in.

So, yes, in that sense, it is absolutely understandable that folks like you have been brainwashed into believing that you have "earned" those privileges, and are (in your minds) now justifiably angry that newcomers won't have to endure as much pain and suffering, and/or could possibly (gasp!) even “get something for nothing.”

But what seems to continually get lost in such "I had to earn it" rants is the fact that our US Government has apparently convinced FAR too many of us that we're such lazy bums that the ONLY way we'll ever learn anything about the art and science of radio is for overpaid Government bureaucrats to treat us like a group of monkeys in a zoo, feeding us "treats" (access to added frequency spectrum) for performing just as the "Big Brother" (the US Government) wants us to.

And, certainly, your reluctance to let go of such discriminatory "rites of passage" and blatantly obvious "hazing rituals" (like tests for Morse) is quite understandable. That's because it is apparent that you (and far too many others like you) have framed your entire life in Amateur Radio around a single way of doing things only to now be faced with a stark, new reality.

But, unfortunately, the "I had to earn it" issue is just one more example of how our big, benevolent, US Government took simple governing rules for the Amateur Service laid down years ago internationally and then, by adding layer upon layer of "Mother May I?" gobbledygook, hatched their own over-regulated, "incentive licensing" foolishness that went WELL beyond the original intent of the international Radio Regulations.

While doing so, the FCC also carved up the internationally allocated, BANDWIDTH-BASED Amateur Radio spectrum into smaller and smaller slivers of license class and operating mode-based sub-bands (and sub-sub bands). And, then, to top it all off, they set up a complex, multi-tiered, caste-like licensing system to hand out access to those frequencies much like the Boy Scouts earn merit badges.

The end result of such bureaucratic overkill is that nowhere else in the world is the Amateur Service as over-regulated as it is here in the United States of America.

But what is absolutely unconscionable is the fact that the FCC set up all this incentive licensing foolishness in our Service to fulfill THEIR public policy goal of "creating a trained pool of communications experts and technicians". They did so by forcing ALL of us into learning more and more about ever-more-irrelevant electronic theory and communications techniques…like Morse...before granting us full access to radio spectrum that each of us (as US taxpayers) already own! Such knowledge requirements go WELL beyond that which is minimally required in the international regulations for us to be safe, courteous operators in the Amateur Service.

The bottom line here is that the FCC's so-called "incentive" licensing system…a system that forces learning of "nice to know'" information in order to obtain a "full privilege" license in the Amateur Service…has absolutely NO BASIS in the ITU regulations! What's more, nowhere is it written internationally that one of the main purposes of the Amateur Service is to serve as a "trained pool of communications experts and technicians". NOWHERE!

So, rather than being angry that someone else might be granted easier access to what you and others had to "earn"", I suggest you might want to direct that anger at your US Government for hijacking our Service years ago and then holding all of us for ransom unless and until we complete a series of ever-more-irrelevant "achievement tests" to "earn" access to it back…one stupid test question (or Morse character) at a time.

Keith
KB1SF / VA3KSF

 

It is a done deal and well it should !
It is not a bad thing. The Elitist that held that those who can not or will not pass code a test are lazy and will bring the demise of ham radio are wrong!
Those that hold people should pass any written test are wrong. They are elitist. It will not bring the demise the of Ham radio.
It was said the code test would be always be, the elitists were wrong
It is said the written test will and should always be. The Elitist will be wrong.
The written test should not keep anyone otherwise qualified from being on HF. The test will be something to be proud of passing as long as EVERYONE can pass it and if they can not. They pass anyway.(see pro code)
To the NoCode Licensees that would stop ANYONE from operating HF you are the ELITE .

 

It seems rather sad that all the other information in this letter, being more pertinent to the forward movement of the hobby, has apparently been overlooked by the bickering over "spilled milk".

"==>ARRL BOARD ACCEPTS NATIONAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLANNING COMMITTEE REPORT" would make for a more meaningful discussion...

OK, two cents spent...