07-12-2011, 03:40 PM
Thanks for reading my post Al, and for your interesting comments.
As to Morse, it was a ludicrous requirement for gaining access to the LF/HF bands which had no logic to it.
Think about it - you had to take an exam in one mode (CW) to be permitted to use another mode (SSB) in which you were not tested. It was claimed that the logic was so that if you went on a shared band in which amateurs were not the primary user, you could understand a request (or rather a demand) sent in CW by shipping for example, to move off the frequency you were on. This claim was nonsense of course - shipping and the armed services had abandoned Morse before the Morse test was scrapped.
The Morse test caused a rift in the hobby too, with so called 'Class As' who held a full licence, deriding 'Class Bs' who'd passed the RAE but not the Morse, as 'Lazy Bs'. There never was a Class A or Class B licence, despite that commonly held belief. The BR68 licence booklet stated 'Amateur Radio Licence Full' (A or B). Those who like to be called 'Klarsays' and fought for the Morse test to be retained were cluless about regulatory frameworks and why the Morse test had to go. It is a cornerstone of all regulations that any impositions must be both necessary and proportionate. the Morse test was neither necessary nor proprotionate. It was as ridiculous as expecting someone who only wishes to drive a car to also have to take a test on a fork lift truck which they've no intention of driving.
The same amateurs who derided the Morse test being scrapped also derided the three-stage licence structure saying 'you can now get a licence out of a conflake packet'. Again, they fail to understand regulatory principles. The level of skill needed to use a commercial limited to ten watts, is little more than that for CB or a taxi radio. the Foundation Licence syllbus adequately meets that requirement and safeguards against the risk of interference to other spectrum users, notably air traffic control and the emergency services, by inept operators. The Intermediate licence permits 50 Watts and home-brew - again, proportionate to the additonal knowledge gained and demonstrated by assessment. The Full licence (not as some like to call it, the 'Advanced' licence), permits full power on all bands. Only one licence stands on its own feet - the mandatory Foundation Licence. It can't be skipped as the other two aren't complete qualifications in their own right - each bolts onto the other, so a full licence needs the FL and Inter.
When I studied for the Radio Amateurs Exam - in mid career and with two young children - we'd move from Nottigham to Spalding then to Grimsby in less than a year, and I was in the final year of a three year course leading to a professional qualification, which involved eleven subjects over the three years, and a case study. I was doing two nights at night school for that and the RAE was another night on top. I studied it for a year, took and passed a two-hour essay style exam, applied for a B licence, and thought that members of the local amateur radio club might have congratulated me. Not a bit of it - I was told (and not in jest) that a B licence holder was 'only half an amateur' until he 'shown commitment' and passed the Morse. These were people who'd passed no exams at all in some casesv - they just came out of the services and were exempt from exams, yet had the temerity to call me 'lazy!!
I bit my tongue, and visited a kindly amateur in his late 70s who I knew to be an accomplished CW operator. I asked if he'd teach me, and he said yes, on two condtitions: (1): 'Come for an hour two nights a week after work and in three months you'll be ready for the 12WPM test, but if you miss a night, don't bother coming again. (2): 'Take me with you to the Coastguard station near Skegness where you'll be taking yor test as I don't get much and it will be run day out for me'. It was a deal, and three months later, we made the journey from Grimsby to the Coastguard station, where I was in and out in ten minutes. The examiner was very good - he said 'put these headphones on and have a little practice run and write down what I'm sending', which I did. He then said 'now have a little practice run at sending', giving me some text to send. He then said 'right,that's it - if you'd have made a mess of it, I'd have told you and given you another go, but you didn't. I'm not allowed to tell you if you've passed or failed, but don't let it keep you awake at night wondering'.
A few days later, my pass slip came, and a couple of weeks after that, my new callsign and A licence.
The local club used to have a Monday night net on 80 Metres, (to filter out the 'lazy Bs'), so I broke into the net giving my call sign. The guy who'd called me 'half an amateur' didn't recognise my callsign but thought my voice was familiar. When I told him who I was he said 'but I thought you were a B licensee'. I said 'I was for a few weeks, but now I'm an A - it's no big deal - an A is only a B with a piffling 12WPM Morse test. I spent a year at night school and a two hour exam to pass the RAE, and three months and a ten minute test to pass the Morse'. Boy were they miffed! Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Much more important to me was that I passed all eleven subjects of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Dimploma, and the case study, leading in time to Fellowship of the CIM.
Nowadays, it's Foundation Licence holders who are the 'underdogs' and the target of invective from some established amateurs, too many of whom - instead of encouraging newcomers - refer to the FL as the 'Fools' Licence' even though were they themselves coming into the hobby, they too would have to first take the FL assessment.
I can't think of any other hobby where this bigotry exists, and where newcomers are derided in this way. A licence for any activity is based upon the miniumum requirement to safeguard risks. That's why a fishing licence is obtainable over thecouter, an amateur radio lcence with a few basic assessments, a driving licence with a theory and practical test, and a pilots' licence harder still, for obvious reasons.
A licence is not - as some amateurs seem to believe - a reward for effort, it's a legitimate expectation if you pass the mimimum requirement to hold such a licence. Whatever the activity, it's a starting point from which to gain experience, hence, talk of 'dumbing down' is nonsense. You don't need a licence to be a woodturner, but the standards of skill I often see by amateurs is little short of astonishing. You can't be a woodturner without a lathe, but you can be a radio amateur without a soldering iron or reel of solder, so how come some amateurs think they're rocket scientists?
Not ranting - just rambling again!
As to Morse, it was a ludicrous requirement for gaining access to the LF/HF bands which had no logic to it.
Think about it - you had to take an exam in one mode (CW) to be permitted to use another mode (SSB) in which you were not tested. It was claimed that the logic was so that if you went on a shared band in which amateurs were not the primary user, you could understand a request (or rather a demand) sent in CW by shipping for example, to move off the frequency you were on. This claim was nonsense of course - shipping and the armed services had abandoned Morse before the Morse test was scrapped.
The Morse test caused a rift in the hobby too, with so called 'Class As' who held a full licence, deriding 'Class Bs' who'd passed the RAE but not the Morse, as 'Lazy Bs'. There never was a Class A or Class B licence, despite that commonly held belief. The BR68 licence booklet stated 'Amateur Radio Licence Full' (A or B). Those who like to be called 'Klarsays' and fought for the Morse test to be retained were cluless about regulatory frameworks and why the Morse test had to go. It is a cornerstone of all regulations that any impositions must be both necessary and proportionate. the Morse test was neither necessary nor proprotionate. It was as ridiculous as expecting someone who only wishes to drive a car to also have to take a test on a fork lift truck which they've no intention of driving.
The same amateurs who derided the Morse test being scrapped also derided the three-stage licence structure saying 'you can now get a licence out of a conflake packet'. Again, they fail to understand regulatory principles. The level of skill needed to use a commercial limited to ten watts, is little more than that for CB or a taxi radio. the Foundation Licence syllbus adequately meets that requirement and safeguards against the risk of interference to other spectrum users, notably air traffic control and the emergency services, by inept operators. The Intermediate licence permits 50 Watts and home-brew - again, proportionate to the additonal knowledge gained and demonstrated by assessment. The Full licence (not as some like to call it, the 'Advanced' licence), permits full power on all bands. Only one licence stands on its own feet - the mandatory Foundation Licence. It can't be skipped as the other two aren't complete qualifications in their own right - each bolts onto the other, so a full licence needs the FL and Inter.
When I studied for the Radio Amateurs Exam - in mid career and with two young children - we'd move from Nottigham to Spalding then to Grimsby in less than a year, and I was in the final year of a three year course leading to a professional qualification, which involved eleven subjects over the three years, and a case study. I was doing two nights at night school for that and the RAE was another night on top. I studied it for a year, took and passed a two-hour essay style exam, applied for a B licence, and thought that members of the local amateur radio club might have congratulated me. Not a bit of it - I was told (and not in jest) that a B licence holder was 'only half an amateur' until he 'shown commitment' and passed the Morse. These were people who'd passed no exams at all in some casesv - they just came out of the services and were exempt from exams, yet had the temerity to call me 'lazy!!
I bit my tongue, and visited a kindly amateur in his late 70s who I knew to be an accomplished CW operator. I asked if he'd teach me, and he said yes, on two condtitions: (1): 'Come for an hour two nights a week after work and in three months you'll be ready for the 12WPM test, but if you miss a night, don't bother coming again. (2): 'Take me with you to the Coastguard station near Skegness where you'll be taking yor test as I don't get much and it will be run day out for me'. It was a deal, and three months later, we made the journey from Grimsby to the Coastguard station, where I was in and out in ten minutes. The examiner was very good - he said 'put these headphones on and have a little practice run and write down what I'm sending', which I did. He then said 'now have a little practice run at sending', giving me some text to send. He then said 'right,that's it - if you'd have made a mess of it, I'd have told you and given you another go, but you didn't. I'm not allowed to tell you if you've passed or failed, but don't let it keep you awake at night wondering'.
A few days later, my pass slip came, and a couple of weeks after that, my new callsign and A licence.
The local club used to have a Monday night net on 80 Metres, (to filter out the 'lazy Bs'), so I broke into the net giving my call sign. The guy who'd called me 'half an amateur' didn't recognise my callsign but thought my voice was familiar. When I told him who I was he said 'but I thought you were a B licensee'. I said 'I was for a few weeks, but now I'm an A - it's no big deal - an A is only a B with a piffling 12WPM Morse test. I spent a year at night school and a two hour exam to pass the RAE, and three months and a ten minute test to pass the Morse'. Boy were they miffed! Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Much more important to me was that I passed all eleven subjects of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Dimploma, and the case study, leading in time to Fellowship of the CIM.
Nowadays, it's Foundation Licence holders who are the 'underdogs' and the target of invective from some established amateurs, too many of whom - instead of encouraging newcomers - refer to the FL as the 'Fools' Licence' even though were they themselves coming into the hobby, they too would have to first take the FL assessment.
I can't think of any other hobby where this bigotry exists, and where newcomers are derided in this way. A licence for any activity is based upon the miniumum requirement to safeguard risks. That's why a fishing licence is obtainable over thecouter, an amateur radio lcence with a few basic assessments, a driving licence with a theory and practical test, and a pilots' licence harder still, for obvious reasons.
A licence is not - as some amateurs seem to believe - a reward for effort, it's a legitimate expectation if you pass the mimimum requirement to hold such a licence. Whatever the activity, it's a starting point from which to gain experience, hence, talk of 'dumbing down' is nonsense. You don't need a licence to be a woodturner, but the standards of skill I often see by amateurs is little short of astonishing. You can't be a woodturner without a lathe, but you can be a radio amateur without a soldering iron or reel of solder, so how come some amateurs think they're rocket scientists?
Not ranting - just rambling again!
Regards, David.
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
