[Amps] repair of older Command Tech VHF-2000 amp

[Manfred Mornhinweg]

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

========================
Visit my hobby homepage!
http://ludens.cl
========================