[Antennas] License ease(was random wire)

2003年1月25日 14:06:59 -1000

> We have a problem in this country the FCC and/or the
> VEC community does NOT want to admit. .....
> ........ Extra Class is supposed to be the highest level of
> expertise. It's now available for a quick course!
>> Any comments on how to fix it?

The problem is that both written exam questions and the correct
answers are published. Unfortunately, I do not believe this
can be stopped; I believe there is some government law which
mandates that all "federal" type exams must have published
questions and answers.
At least for FCC exams, the publishing of the exams and questions
came about because of those who actually "stole" questions from
the originally "secret", before being seen, FCC tests. This then
led to the publication of Q and A manuals/books. After a period
of time, the FCC realized this was going on to a huge extent;
that is, most of those taking the tests had memorized the
correct answers. As the FCC had only a fixed number of
prepared exams for all the various commercial and amateur
exams, it didn't take too long for all the questions to be
out in the public domain. And the original purpose of the
tests was, in a sense, defeated.
I am not sure when the FCC went to approving the publishing of
questions and answers. But their attempt at credulity was to
have very large pools of questions/answers. The idea being,
that it would be pretty tough to memorize them all. However,
any one who has looked over, at least the amateur exam
questions pools, recognizes that many of the questions in
the sets are asked several times -- just with the same
question being asked in various ways. So even with 500,
or whatever the number actually may be, questions in a
given exam level pool, there may only be 80 really different
ideas being tested, or some such lower number than really
500 different ideas available for testing.
The actual questions now used during the amateur license exams
are prepared by a committee of amateurs; a group of folks
selected by the "official" VEC administrators: the ARRL,
W5YI, etc. I am not sure just now who the present members
of the question pool committee are, but they are hard at work
constantly updating and administering the publication of the
pools of questions. I do not believe it would be possible
for these folks to create several hundred absolutely different
questions for each of the amateur exam levels.
So how, maybe, to re-establish the idea that the Extra Class
represents the highest level of "expertise"? Only thought I
might suggest is to go back to an earlier requirement, from
the 50's and earlier I think: you must hold the General
license class ticket for some extended period of time before
you are eligible to "sit" for the Extra exam. What period of
time? Was a year at one time to hold Class B before you
could take the Class A exam. Perhaps a year as General
would give a new, active ham at least some appreciation
for the technical and operational elements of amateur radio
that might lead him/her on to Extra "expertise" level, if
that is felt to be a desired meaning for the Extra ticket.
I think much of this was discussed a few years ago; remember
the great Restructuring Debate? The result of that was the
elimination of CW tests faster than 5 wpm! The written exams
were only sort of tossed about in that debate, and wound up
pretty much as they were before, well maybe the questions
pools got deeper, but probably no more difficult, just more
variations on the same old ideas.
The fundamental change brought about by "restructuring" was
more holders of General and Extra Class tickets. See:
http://www.ah0a.org/FCC/Licenses.html
Before "restructuring", i.e. end of March, 2000:
figures rounded to nearest thousand,
Extras.....76,000
Advanced.....102,000
General....110,000
Total US licenses.....677,800
And, as of January 19, 2003:
Extras......103,000
Advanced....84,000
General....140,000
Total US licenses......683,600 .
You can clearly see the effect of restructuring, only
5000 more license holders, but 27,000 more Extras,
and 30,000 more Generals.
Hmmm, did the Novices, Techs, and Advanced who moved
up in grade really learn enough to be considered at the
"highest level of expertise"? Should we care really?
Should the following be deleted from the US definition
of the Amateur Radio Service? :
Part 97 1 Basis and Purpose of Amateur Radio Service
"b) Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability
to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.
(c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service
through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the
communications and technical phases of the art.
(d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio
service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts."
These are three of only five purposes for our "service", 60% for
advancing the radio art, advancing the technical phases of the
art, and providing to our nation trained electronic experts!
Oh, what is included in the "other" 40% of the amateur service?
"(a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the
public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with
respect to providing emergency communications."
We certainly put a lot of effort into that one, and get a lot of
recognition for that work.
"(e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability
to enhance international goodwill."
Well, if you ignore some behavior during DX pile-ups, we may
be doing ok in this area.
This piece is too long, and certainly does not contribute to the
art of antenna theory and radiation; but the topic arose on this
reflector, hi.
Just thought I would toss in some "food for thought", as nothing
is going to change. Except, I don't think whatever the real
goals of restructuring might have been, they have not been attained.
73, Jim KH7M