[VHFcontesting] A Little Perspective, Please

[Ward Silver]

> > > Witness the "Doctor is in"
> > > column.  I hope these are not real questions sent in
> > > by readers.  If most of them are, the FCC definitely
> > > need to think about toughening the licensing
> > requirements.
> > 
> > I disagree about tightening the licensing requirements.  I have a
> > friend who has helped me with the mechanical aspects of constructing
> > antennas, who is much more knowlegeable about the mechanical stuff
> > than me, but has little knowlege of the electrical stuff.  He doesn't
> > currently have a license, but maybe someday he will.  It takes both
> > electrical and mechanical skills to put together an effective station,
> > and I don't think one should necessarily be infinitely more highly
> > valued than the other.
> > 
> > Also, if people learn something about electronics in the course of
> > their ham radio experiences, I think that's probably a good thing,
> > regardless of how much they knew when they started being interested in
> > ham radio.
> > 
> 
> We are the only radio service that doesn't require type-accepted
> equipment.  We are the only ones allowed to build our own equipment and to
> modify existing equipment.  This is especially important on VHF, IMO, as
> there is even more potential for interference with other services if you
> don't know what you're doing.  If a person is going to tinker on 5760 or
> 10368 MHz, etc., he should have enough electronics/radio knowledge to do
> it successfully.  
> 
> I suppose new people aren't likely to build transverters and amps for
> these bands right away, so there is a lot to be learned after they get
> their tickets, but most of the questions I see asked in that
> "Doctor is In" column would have been general knowledge by even Novice
> licensees (no pun intended) back in the mid-60's.


I recall a letter written to the ARRL (that was it...just "ARRL", not even a department) by a high-school kid asking the question, "Can a dipole can be made twice as long by grounding one end?"  He only had room for a low, 40-meter dipole and wanted to get on 80-meters.  That was a pretty dumb question, but he got a courteous reply from the ARRL technical staff that answered the question and added some interesting information and a copy of an article about ground-plane verticals (which was the source of the confusion in the first place).  The kid went away happy and figured out another way to get on 80-meters.

Taking a quick look through the rules and regulations, I see nothing about requiring an engineering degree to get a ham license.  Do you have to be an ex-military radio chief?  Nope, nothing about that in there either.  How about a being a senior wireless comm tech.  That's funny, they seem to have overlooked that obvious requirement, as well.  What could the FCC have been thinking?

I teach college electrical engineering labs (Seattle University) and I will agree that kids coming into the program have a lot less hands-on electronics experience than 30 years ago.  Rarely have any of them built squat.  What they have instead is a highly developed appreciation for complex systems based on their experiences building and operating computer-based network applications.  Yes, even gaming networks.  In the old days, the focus was on the box.  Today, innovation is happening at the systems level.  People are getting into the hobby because they are interested in the communications aspects, not necessarily from the design angle - although they can easily decide to pursue it.

As the editor of the Doctor Is In column (lately I've been doing it - I work with answers given by various ARRL staffers) I think you have to consider where the questions can be reasonably expected to come from.  The ARRL doesn't receive very many "How do I convert my home-brew 10 Gbit/sec laser modulator to run from nuclear power" questions - the people asking these questions just don't have a convenient Elmer to help them through the rough spots we all encounter (and often like to forget).  If someone came up to you at a club meeting and asked a simple question like these, how would you respond face-to-face?  There are an awful lot of hams that got into the hobby after cobbling together something out of a magazine and stumbling around on the air rather badly until they were rescued by a friendly local ham or club.

If we want to dry up the hobby for good, and quickly, I can think of no better way than to raise the barrier to entry by demanding skills that are largely disappearing from the general population.  Yes, electronic know-how makes ham radio a lot more fun - but it's not the only thing the hobby has to offer.  We should be figuring out to help those interested learn electronics instead of dissing 'em because they don' t know it already.

I have a couple of kids coming over to play Sweepstakes this afternoon with my boys.  One has his license, one doesn't - neither knows enough about electronics to fill a specimen jar, but after screwing around on Field Day and reading their license manuals, they know something about operating a radio, a little about antennas, a dab of propagation, and are getting exposed to stuff they otherwise would never see.  While they're not operating, we'll be working on the bench to build a new computer and finish some PL-259 soldering.  It will be fun for them - maybe they'll stick with it.

By the way, the dumb kid was me in 1972 and the letter was from Lew McCoy, W1ICP.  It was like a letter from God himself and the league letterhead might as well have been stone tablets.  The detailed, instructive reply went a long way towards cementing my life-long relationship with the hobby.  I now have an engineering degree and more than 30 years of experience - largely due to getting into this marvelous hobby that has room both for newbies greener than June apples and grizzled veterans of the solder wars.  Let's lighten up and figure out how to help others enjoy it.

73, Ward N0AX



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