[CW] QRM and Technician License Expansion

[Richard Knoppow]

    I pretty much agree with this. I think one problem for those 
of us who learned code a long time ago is that there was not much 
practice material available. W1AW has been around for a long time 
and some had access to code practice machines or records but it 
was not like now where there is on line practice materials and 
free programs that send code on any computer.
    There were a lot of books purporting to teach you the code 
but they were all print. No sound material. I agree you can't 
learn code that way. I think not even sending if you want a 
decent fist. The ARRL provided and still provides an excellent 
service by having on air code practice.
     I think one problem with "youth oriented" is that telegraphy 
  or even  just radio, is not a current widely used and somewhat 
glamourous technique. I think it was its pervasiveness that 
encouraged kids to want to learn it. Maybe even some of the kids 
in a trace one sees with their noses in an iphone.

On 3/19/2019 12:41 PM, Bruce Prior wrote:
> I have no objection to a Morse code requirement, but it won't fly 
> when ITU doesn't require it. One of the worst things I ever did 
> was to memorize a dot-dash chart on order to qualify for my First 
> Class Boy Scouts badge. It slowed down my Morse comprehension for 
> decades, because it introduced a visual element into what should 
> be an aural process. If we're going to teach Morse code, it 
> should be by sound. It's actually easier to learn Morse at faster 
> character speeds, like 20 WPM or more.
> 
> I agree that we badly need a youth-oriented entry-level license. 
> The ideal time is about 11 years old or 5th grade. We can quibble 
> over frequency privileges for such a youth license, but it 
> definitely should have a low maximum output power, say, something 
> like 25 W PEP. 75 W is definitely too high. I'd suggest that the 
> youth license expire when the licensee reaches age 21. Of course 
> anyone can upgrade to General and Amateur Extra at any time. The 
> original terminal one-year Novice license was a bad deal for me. 
> I had barely mowed enough lawns and carried enough newspapers to 
> pay for a very basic Heathkit Novice station by the time my 
> license had expired. Nobody in my family had ever heard of Ohm's 
> Law. Back in the day, the written exam for the Technician license 
> was identical to General Class. That was way beyond me when I'd 
> barely started junior high school.
> 
> We could grandfather Technicians with limited /HF/ digital and 
> voice/image privileges and allow the renewal of those licenses, 
> but not encourage more people to enter Amateur Radio at the 
> Technician level. The standard adult entry license should be 
> General Class, and it should have no prerequisites, which means 
> that some of the Technician Question Pool nees to be folded into 
> General Class. That's what happened when the Advanced Class 
> license was grandfathered and the questions migrated into the 
> Amateur Extra Class Question Pool.
> 
> 73,
> Bruce Prior N7RR

-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL