Carl,
I dont know the current requirements for various levels of licenses in the
UK but over here even a certified retard can pass an Extra as no CW is
required and anyone can be trained to memorize enough of the question pool
to eventually pass.
I can confirm that in Chile we have that same situation.
In my opinion, though, the problem is not lack of CW testing. I don't
see any reason why CW proficiency should be tested, while at the same
time proficiency in other specific modes is NOT tested. Instead I would
say that the main problem lies in the fact that there is a limited,
open, published question pool, from which all exam questions are taken.
Any fool can memorize the questions and their correct answers, and score
100% in the exam, without understanding even one word of what he memorized.
The exam should really test knowledge and understanding of radio, not
the ability to memorize sentences.
And the second problem is, of course, the low level of the questions. In
this regard I would like strongly differentiated levels. The novice exam
should be easy, to encourage people to start in the hobby. The only
knowledge that should be required from a novice is the minimal one that
allows him to operate without causing serious trouble to other people.
General class should be quite a lot harder, so that only people who
understand matters like intermodulation, relationship between a waveform
and its spectral display, and who are able to repair a radio and build a
power supply, know how to participate a contest and survive a pile-up,
can get a general license. And the extra class exam should really be
"extra", requiring profound knowledge and proven exceptional activity as
a ham, so that it is a challenge to obtain that licence, and a honor to
hold it.
But we are far from that, and getting ever farther away. And that's true
in most countries.
Manfred
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Visit my hobby homepage!
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