I remember being very happy when I got my novice license with just a few crystals.  I was KN5IHO.  With its restrictions it shows that a person really wanted to be a ham.

Tom

I'm thinking more like 75 watts input, crystal-controlled, on slivers of HF cw bands (except 20m), one-year, non-renewable. 

The HF privileges (all modes, not just 'phone) would have to be less than current Generals have, yet enough to be useful.

How about:

All of the WARC bands CW/data/phone

1/2 to 3/4 of the General 'phone bands on 40 and 15.

General CW/data on 80, 40 and 15 (same as current Novice/Tech, plus data allowed)

A bit more of 10 meters - say 28.1 to 28.6

The big limitations are no 160 or 20, no 75 phone, no high power, and a limited choice of data modes.

At the same time, there would be few or no privileges above 470 MHz for Basics. They would have access to all of 6, 2, 222 and 70 cm, but at low power (25 W?).

73 de Jim, N2EY

So now, instead of just starting silly topic after silly topic, you are answering your own threads?

Gene

Come April, it's been 12 years since the restructuring of 2000. Tomorrow it will be 5 years since the end of code testing for amateur licenses in the USA.

We now have just under 703,000 US amateurs, and are growing slowly. Almost 90% of them are either Technicians, Generals or Extras.

A lot has changed but IMHO some things still need to be fixed.
 
With the closing of the Novice to new issues in 2000, the Technician became the default entry license for most hams. The trend had been that way for years; the restructuring just made it official.

But IMHO the Technician isn't a good entry-level license at all. What we need is a "Novice for the 21st Century" license. Something that offers more of a balanced sampling of amateur radio.

The problem is partially that the Technician is VHF/UHF-centric, offering everything above 50 MHz but very little below. Which tends to push newcomers to VHF/UHF, and to cut them off from much of what ham radio has to offer.

The other part of the problem is that because the Tech offers high-power VHF/UHF operation, the Tech test is full of questions about RF safety and VHF/UHF stuff that relatively few newcomers will use. (How many new Techs venture above 500 MHz and/or run high power in the first couple of years they are licensed? )

What I think should be done is to close off the Technician to new issues and come up with a brand new license class. Call it Basic, to give it a name.

The Basic class would require a simple but comprehensive test of..well...the basics. It would allow operation on parts of a few bands with a few modes at limited power, to give newcomers a sample of what is out there.

For example, Basics might be allowed on parts of 80/75, 40, 15, 10, 6, 2, 220 and 440, plus all of the WARC bands, running CW, SSB, FM and a few digital modes like PSK31. Power limit 150 watts HF, 25 watts VHF/UHF. Vanity calls limited to 2x3s only. Basics could not be repeater control ops, club trustees, etc.

With the low power and other limitations, many of the higher-level technical, RF exposure and regulations questions now in the Tech could move to the General, and the Basic could focus more on practical-radio areas. A Basic would be much more of a "sampler" license, rather than the VHF/UHF-centric Technician.

Existing Novices and Technicians would have Basic privileges added, so there would be a linear progression up the license ladder.

The Basic exam would not be "easier" than the Technician; rather, it would focus more on what a beginning ham really needs to know.

Nobody would lose any privileges, nor would anybody be "grandfathered" to an automatic, no-test upgrade. There would still be a considerable amount of incentive to upgrade from the entry-level to General, and there would still be three levels of license open to new issues.

Why not?

73 de Jim, N2EY

After reading all of the above topics. I wonder what new license types and allocation's be should look at, and what is to be grandfather into them ? I would think  Basic, Tech, Gen/advance and Extra? But what should the allocations be, and what should new testing cover. Note: What if the Gen/Extra are combined ?

I agree that the statement is somewhat inaccurate.

A more accurate statement is this one:

"The Extra license has been earned by bright children as young as 7 years old, with no more than a third-grade education".

That statement is true. At least one third-grader, age 8, earned the Extra in the late 1990s by passing all 5 written exams and all 3 code tests. That record has since been broken.

That does not mean every third-grader can do it. But some can - and have.


No. The whole point of mentioning such things is to point out that the license exams do not require a high level of education or expertise in the subject matter in order to pass.


Why is it a slur to point out a fact?


I earned the Novice at age 13, Tech and Advanced at age 14, and Extra at 16, back in the late 1960s. I had no formal electronics training, only what I read in books. Nobody in my family or neighborhood was a ham. It actually helepd me in school because I learned some math and physics on my own years before I reached the grade where it was taught in school.

What really helped me was the knowledge that other kids, younger than me, had done the same  So how hard could it really be?

73 de Jim, N2EY

A 3rd grader can pass the General Class test with just a few days of study.If you want the band usage then STUDY & UPGRADE & if not then live with what you have.Myself I find that being a General Class gives me more than enough band coverage since MOST of my HF time is spent on the WARC bands(17 METERS is my favorite)& there are NO restrictions on those bands for a General that I would gain anything by upgrading to EXTRA! 

Clayton
W4KVW

The FCC does not consider CW "obsolete". They simply don't see any reason to have a separate test for it any more.

There are lots of things hams do which are not specifically tested for. That does not make them "obsolete".

73 de Jim, N2EY