[AMRadio] Extra Class downgraded to advanced

[D. Chester]

Here is a brief history of the Advanced and Extra class.

Before 1951, the licence classes were Class A, equivalent to the Advanced; 
Class B, equivalent to General and Class C, equivalent to Conditional. 
Sometime prior to WWII there had been something roughly equivalent to the 
Extra, called the Extra First Class but I think it had few takers and  was 
discontinued some time before the War.  It carried no additional operating 
privileges.  Class A was required for phone privileges on 75 and 20m.  There 
originally was no phone band on 40m, and no 15m band at all.  So, Class B 
phone operation was limited to 160m and 10m.  Otherwise, Class B had full 
amateur privileges on all amateur frequencies.  Class B licensees could 
legally operate a KW of CW in the Class A phone bands; they just couldn't 
operate phone. Following WWII, with the advent of  the LORAN system of 
radionavigation, amateurs had all but lost the 160m band, so that in effect, 
Class B ops had phone privileges only in the temperamental 10m band.

The FCC first proposed the new Extra Class in the early 50's.  The original 
intent was to go to a super-incentive licensing system and  replace old 
Class A with the more difficult Extra, proposing to require the Extra for 
full amateur privileges. But before taking any final action, they abruptly 
did an about-face and created a new Extra class that would carry NO 
additional privileges.  Class B was re-named General, and given full 
operating privileges.  The original Class A was re-named Advanced.  New 
Advanced tickets were to no longer to be issued, but existing Class A 
licences would continue to be  renewed as "Advanced" and like Extra, carried 
no additional operating privileges beyond General. Quickly to follow was the 
creation of the Novice class with its limited privileges, as a new 
"learners" ticket. Prior to Incentive Licensing, there had never been any 
Extra Class-only sub-bands.

By 1963 or so, there was grumbling that the elimination of the restricted 
phone bands was a bad idea.  With the advent of the Novice Class and the 
newcomers it brought, the bands were becoming more and more congested to the 
point that people at ARRL began thinking that maybe we should go back to the 
old Class A and Class B restricted phone band system. The issue was debated 
for several years, until the FCC finally came out with their own Incentive 
Licensing rules that became effective in 1968, IIRC.  It was the FCC's idea 
of a "compromise" to segment the bands into sub-bands and sub-sub bands, 
leaving no-one, pro- or anti- Incentive Licensing, exactly happy.  A classic 
example of "Be careful of what you ask for; you just might get it, but not 
like what you get".

The Advanced Class exams were re-instated and new licences were issued. 
Originally, the Extra Class exam consisted of 100 written  questions and 20 
wpm  code.  The newly-created Advanced class exam took 50 of those questions 
and used them to form a new written exam with no additional code test. The 
Extra Class exam consisted of the remaining 50 written exam questions, plus 
the 20 wpm code.  To go from General to Extra, one had to take the Advanced 
Class AND Extra Class written elements.  So, to go from General to Extra 
still required the same 100 questions plus the 20 wpm code.  The Advanced 
Class became a "half-way" step along the way towards Extra with some 
additional, but not full, amateur privileges. If the candidate failed either 
the Advanced Class or Extra Class written element, he  had to re-take the 
entire exam at a later date.

One of the biggest mistakes of the Incentive Licensing debacle was the 
failure to grandfather in full operating privileges for existing General 
Class licensees as of the date that I.L. went into effect, resulting in loss 
of privileges for more than 50% of licensed amateurs.

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This message was typed using the DVORAK keyboard layout.

http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/
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