[TowerTalk] Dumbing down? maybe a reason

[Jim Miller WB5OXQ]

I am a 58 year old ham, licensed since 1974 and an extra class since 1993.  My wife, KA5EPM, is a general class, licensed since 1979.  I have been interested in ham radio since the mid 50s but I did not get a license sooner for need of an Elmer.
I have read a lot of history of commercial and amateur radio and It has become my opinion that the lack of knowledge of later licensees is probably due to a large part that commercially built transceivers are easy to obtain and perform very well so the need to build your own is gone.  Obviously in the very early days of radio you had to build your own receivers and transmitters and without a good knowledge of electronics you could not do that.  Therefore amateurs experimented, studied the writings of others and strived to build a better performing radio.  Because of this many who might be good operators and many who might have been able to enjoy the hobby never became a ham.  My first experience with ham radio was in 1959 when we moved to Jackson Mississippi and a ham, K5SMM lived a half block away.  I visited his shack, a room in the garage, filled with military surplus equipment powered by home built power supplies and also using a home built antenna tuner, all mounted in a big rack.  Mr. Lonnie Daniel let me talk with other hams he had contacted while I was a guest in his shack and I got the bug real bad but I did not know how to find the necessary help to get a license at that time.  Mr. Daniel could repair radios, tv sets and build his own ham gear as many earlier hams did. Now, that degree of technical knowledge is not required so I see that as the reason many of today's hams do not have that kind of expertise.  Putting questions on exams that nobody will need to know the answers to, in my opinion, do not make the hobby better.  Questions of proper operating practices, rules of operation, and antenna construction are good ones to know.  I am not a fan of CW and learned it only because I had to.  I do not know if removal of the CW requirement is detrimental to the quality of operators but making the tests more difficult in terms of good operating practices and antenna design are very important in my opinion.  Hams at least need to know how to build their own antennas and that does not require rocket science!  I too agree that some of the questions on my extra exam in 93 were wrong.  I do not know why the advanced exam was eliminated either.  That was the toughest test for me and I barely passed it and breezed through the extra.  Enough of my 2 cents and I am sure there are those who will not agree with me and that is ok.  I just hope everybody does not blame what many call dumbing down on the exams and realize that it has been doing on for a long time.  I have an associates degree in electronics and I could probably have build my hf amp but never built my Orion!  73 to all
WB5OXQ, Jim in Waco