Greetings to all.
I plan to send the following letter to the ARRL on behalf of myself.
I welcome constructive suggestions to improve the wording or content of the
letter, which will be sent to the League no later than Friday, November
24th. So, if you have suggestions for additions or changes, please get them
to me a.s.a.p.
73,
Tom Hammond N0SS
_________________________
Tom Hammond - NOSS
5417 Scruggs Station Road
Lohman, MO 65053-9537
573 893-2813
14 November, 2000
Dan Henderson, N1ND
ARRL - Contest Section
225 Main Street
Newington CT 06111
Dear Dan:
I'm sending this to you in the hope that you will either forward
it to whomever actually should receive it or that you will
respond and give me a better addressee so that I may send another
copy directly to them.
I have been active in ARRL Field Day activities for at least the
past forty years. And I have always felt that the one change made
to Field Day which made the most profound impact upon new
operators was the addition of the (free) Novice/Technician
station to all classes entry classes above class 1A. Prior to the
recent FCC Restructuring, this single change in the Field Day
rules has led to more Novice and Technician operators upgrading
to higher classes of license than any single change made before
it. This, because it gave many new operators their first REAL
look at HF operation and most of all, their first real hands-on
experience with CW operation. I've seen operators walk into the
Novice/Tech tent on Saturday afternoon, copying barely over 5
WPM, and walk out the next day, copying OVER 13 WPM. While this
may not be the norm, our club (the Mid-MO ARC) has documented
proof of the benefits of the Novice/Tech tent by way of post-
Field Day CW exams which were administered within a day or two
following the Field Day operation. almost a 90% pass rate.
However, I must say that I have also observed a steady decline in
number of such operators in the Novice/Tech tent since the advent
of the codeless Technician class license was initiated. Where we
used to see 8-10 operators taking part in the Novice/Tech tent
over a weekend, we now see 1-2 operators.
This is NOT to cast ANY dispersions upon the codeless Technician
Class license! I have no quarrel with the license per se.
However, it is obvious that its establishment, particularly when
now combined with the reduction of the Morse requirement to 5 WPM
for all license classes, and the elimination of the Novice class
license altogether, is going to further lay grounds for a
significant reduction in the number of CW-proficient amateurs in
the coming years. As we older ops fade away, as we must in time,
I feel that we will not be replaced by nearly as many budding CW
ops from the newer ranks of our fraternity.
If the League wishes to at least help support the continued
prosperity of the Morse mode of operation, I wish to offer the
following suggested change to the rules for future Field Day
operations.
Beginning in the year 2001, I propose that the Novice/Technician
tent at Field Day should be completely eliminated and replaced by
a new station designation. possibly something entitled "Newer
Operator Tent". This tent would not only be an operating site for
Novice/Tech operators but also for ANY operator who was licensed
less than 18 months, or ANY operator who had a demonstrated Morse
Code proficiency of less than 13 WPM going into the Field Day
activity for that year.
This new station would provide newer and less proficient
operators a place in which they could operate without feeling
that they might be hindering the 'production' of contacts of the
higher speed stations while allowing them to still be very
productive members of the Field Day operation.
In our club, we try to encourage our newer operators to take part
in Field Day, and to also help operate at ANY of the stations
(when appropriate supervision is provided). However it is our
experience that many ops tend shy away from the "General and
above" stations because they feel that they would only slow down
the operation. I feel that the establishment of a more 'friendly'
station for less experienced operators could provide a big boost
to many operators (and not only beginners) who wish to operate
but who don't want to slow down the main operation.
Of course, my suggestion could be seen as a means for certain
groups to bring in 'ringers' to operate in the 'free' station.
operators whose abilities should classify them as 'experienced'
operators. This is always a potential problem, but possibly not
significantly more of a problem than it could be now. there's
still the a current possibility of bringing in ringers, even to
the existing Novice/Tech tent scenario.
The decision of who was eligible to operate in the Newer
Operator's Tent would have to be a 'good faith' determination,
made by the chairman of the Field Day operation for that group.
or possibly by the club president or the club VE group, if one
existed. Since it could not longer be directly determined by
license class alone, each participating group would have to make
an honest effort to qualify operators. But in the end, I feel
that we would have a much better chance of regaining much of the
lost participation once enjoyed by the Novice/Technician Field
Day stations.
If we don't start doing something MORE to help encourage CW
activity by our newer licensees, the mode IS going to suffer
significantly.
Very truly yours,
Tom Hammond N0SS
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