[RTTY] ARRL Board Meeting - Approved modified HF band plan changes

[Peter Laws]

On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:40 PM, Michael Adams <mda at n1en.org> wrote:



> Perhaps that's one of the reasons someone (formerly?) at the FCC speculated on eventually only having one license class.

I've always said 3:  an entry level with limited privileges (think
post-Novice Enhancement Novice, c.1990), a regular license that gives
you everything, everywhere, and a top-level license for those that
want to administer exams or get a Group A callsign.  No one listens to
me - ask my wife.


> Personally, I view the proposed expansion of privileges as one possible response to two questions:
>
> 1. Why don't more techs upgrade...or even become active?
>
> 2. Are the old novice band HF CW privileges an anachronism in an era where code is not a prerequisite to licensing / where new CW ops generally get interested in code only after spending some time on HF?
>
> If one possible answer to the first question is "they get stuck on 2m and never have their potential interest in HF whetted", and if new hams are learning code only after being exposed to HF.... updating the novice-like privileges to be more digital-focused rather than CW-focused makes a certain amount of sense....even if I'm dreading the mess that a gung-ho non-elmered tech could cause if they had access to a few popular frequencies.


So few people seem to realize that Technicians, in addition to having
**every possible privilege above 50 MHz**, have CW privileges
equivalent to General class (save for the 200 W limit) on 80, 40, 15,
and 10, data equivalent to General class (save for the 200 W limit) on
10, and SSB on 10 from 28.3-28.5 MHz (again, at 200 W).  It's been
that way for nearly 10 years now.

The 200 W thing is meaningless, of course, since the vast majority of
hams regardless of license class run 100 W radios without an amp.

My contention is that adding data on more bands will not encourage any
more hams to upgrade that those who have already done so.  If they
aren't playing with SSB, CW, or data on 10 m, then why would they be
interested in CW or data on 80, 40, or 15?  It's not like the test is
much harder than Element 2.

Stupid, IMHO.

Bring back a real Novice with the current Tech privileges below 50 MHz
and something akin to the old Novice privileges above 50 MHz.



-- 
Peter Laws | N5UWY | plaws plaws net | Travel by Train!