[TenTec] Extra Class Licensing

[Jim Miller WB5OXQ]

I will say A-Men to this.  When I was an elementary school age boy I became
interested in ham radio mostly due to my cousin, WA5OHB, licensed in the
early 60s and to a neighbor K5SMM, both of which were electronic technicians
and could build and repair radio equipment nto to mention their antenna
systems.  Remember kits like Heathkits?  Knightkits?  Kits are not popular
anymore and I doubt many of the new hams want to or would enjoy building a
radio from a kit much less taking military surpluss equipment and converting
it to amateur use.  It is too easy to gop to the candy store and buy
something plug and play.  I will admit i do not know as much aobut
electronics and the early hams did, but my background in electronics helped
me to pass my extra class exam and I did it during the 20 wpm days too.  I
am not a CW fan but I do realize the decline of electronic expertise in
recent licensees and of course memorizing answers to test questions will get
you a license but not knowing the reason that the answer is what it is
causes the decline in new hams ability to design their own antennas or
recognise malfunctions in their equipment.  I am glad to see new hams on the
air but e would like to see more questions that require an understanding of
electronic fundamentals.  I am asked often buy new extra class hams to build
them a simple half wave dipole so they can get on the air.  Many would
rather employ an antenna tuner to make their transciever like a non resonant
and ineffecient antenna work instead of building a correct antenna.  Enough
from here I guess. WB5OXQ


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Reid" <jimr.reid at verizon.net>
To: <wa6fbh at aol.com>; <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2004 6:23 PM
Subject: [TenTec] Extra Class Licensing


> Wa6bfh at aol.com wrote, in part:
>
> > I first started really worrying about Ham radio in the early 90's....
>
> > Most of the folks I run into can neither speak of radio electronics, nor
> > many other areas........... Now it seems that concepts
> > of resonance, reactance, bandwidth, or even DC Ohms law are beyond
> > the average Ham!
>
> > Do you think there might be a link to the reduction of licensing
standards,
> > and this other condition?
>
> Hi John,
>
> Of course,  and also the general decline of good science teachers
> in the high schools, even the middle school level,  am afraid!  Many of
> those now "getting" amateur licenses are only interested in communicating;
> not in the technology at all.
>
> I note that there has been a  huge increase in the number of those holding
> Extra Class licenses these days,  now at  105,863 at the end of Sept. '04!
> That is up from  77,530 the month the drop to 5 wpm CW  and the other
requirements
> were relaxed for the Extra and other classes of license.  Also,  that same
month,
> April,  2000,  there were 678,539 US amateur license holders;  today that
has
> dropped to  674,297.  end of Sept. again.  So yes,  it is MUCH easier to
get
> an Extra Class license, or any class from General on up than 4 1/2 years
ago,
> the total number of US hams is down  over 4000 holders, but there are
> 28,300 more Extra licenses --Expert in all areas of amateur radio
> technology??--  over the same 4 1/2 year time spread!!
>
> There is a fellow out here right now preparing to take the Extra test at
the end
> of this week.  Only a week ago I had to explain what pi was to him and why
> it was involved in calculations of  inductive and capacitive reactance --
he
> listened,  but the only  "idea" I believed he grasped was that the number:
> 3.14159......... was not magic,  it is only the numerical value of the
ratio
> of the circumference of a circle divided by the diameter of that same
circle,
> and what is "magic" about it is that it holds for ALL circles -- even the
> circle scribed by a sine wave if looked at not vs. time,  but actually
versus
> the locus of a single point on a circular wheel rolling along a plane.
>
> We made a start on his understanding about reactance -- energy stored
> for a time in either a magnetic or electric field (inductive or
capacitive)
> and not available at the moment for energy transfer,  or "lost" just for
> the moment in a "reactance",  but recoverable while that energy lost in
> "resistance" has been converted into heat,  and is lost to our radio
> energy transfer purposes for all time (some times we want that,  of
> course!)
>
> As all of the linear RF behavior of radio is in sine waves,  the number pi
> sits as part of the "bedrock" of what we use to do arithmetic to come up
> with numbers useful to our understanding/designs for our hobby.
>
> Our new,  4 1/2 year old license standards, as low as they now are,
> only serve to provide licenses to those who have never learned the
> concepts and principles that "early" radio amateurs found so fascinating
> and were eager to learn and explore.  Of course,  all the correct answers
> to EVERY question on any of the amateur license exams are published
> and available for memorizing.  Yes there are hundreds of questions in the
> pool,  but many are the same question asked several different ways;
> so it is NOT that hard to just memorize all the correct answers,  which
> are easily recognized when the test is taken as,  again they are all
> printed right there in multiple choice format and just exactly as you
> had studied/memorized!
>
> What I don't understand is why some want an amateur radio license.  And
> I suspect that many who do get one,  very quickly learn that they are
> completely ill prepared to do even the most simple tasks to get a station
> up and operating successfully on the ham bands.  As a result,  they soon
> drop out and go on to using their cell phones and the Internet for their
> personal communication desires,  hi.  This lack of understanding to get
> a station going seems to hold even for those who have gone out and
> bought everything from HRO, Ten Tec or some other,  even the antenna!
> "Read the manuals,  they are too long,  I'll just turn this stuff on and
get started,
> that's all I need to do.........".
>
> Rambling on too long,  so will stop.
>
> 73,  Jim,  now W6KPI,  gave up the KH7M call a couple weeks ago,
> went back to my 1950 call rather in protest to what is going
> on now.  I no longer felt any pride whatsoever in holding a 2x1 call.
> So I returned to what is certainly recognized as a very old call,  hi.
>
> BTW,  the Novice and "Conditional" class licenses began later on in
> 1951,  and in my opinion,  things seem to have gone down hill since,
> at least since the time  that your new Novice/Conditional license
> could last for more than 1 year, after which you were originally
> required to upgrade to General IF you wanted to continue in the
> hobby and contribute to the art of radio and communications
> using same.
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