[UK-CONTEST] UK/US licensing (Off Topic)

[Bob Henderson]

It is highly unlikely anything written here will impact the UK licensing
system, though I don't propose to let that deny me my 2 cents.

I have long shared concerns the current scheme incorporates an entirely
undesirable barrier to entry to those amply qualified.

Never before has this great hobby faced so much pressure from competing
interests for the HF spectrum we use.  PLT interference is rapidly rendering
the HF spectrum unusable for many licensed radio amateurs and short wave
listeners.

Radio and electronics professionals should be welcomed into the hobby with
open arms.  They should not face multiple barriers of time consuming
triviality.  There should be no free passes but a fast track really should
be available.

Development of the current system appears to have focused so tightly upon
facilitating access for the ordinary candidate, that unjustifiable barriers
to entry were unthinkingly placed before the extraordinary.

The more professionals inside, committed to defence of our hobby; the fewer
outside attacking it.  We can hardly be making friends of those excluded due
to unproductive, time consuming bureaucracy.

The US model with its fast track capability apparently works.  Why then is
the UK so attached to its partial copy, which doesn't?

Bob, 5B4AGN