[Elecraft] QRP in Novice sub-bands

[Fred Jensen]

N2EY wrote:

 > The NPRM also seems to me to be saying that FCC's vision of the
 > future is that Techs will be all VHF/UHF, Generals will have most
 > privileges, and Extras will have it all.

Life really is like a circle, no?  In the very early 50's for HF we had 
General, Advanced (if you wanted to work 20 and 75 phone), and Extra ... 
plus the Techs who cared only about VHF/UHF/uWave and had been around 
for quite awhile.  FM hadn't been invented (well, OK, it had but the 
SCR-522 was an AM rig).  Then came the novice around '52 (wildly popular 
despite lots of restrictions), and the Advanced went away sometime in 
there, yielding just about what Jim describes above.  When I got my 
Extra in '56, I don't remember gaining any new privileges.

Then, in the early 70's and not content with simplicity, we 'improved' 
on this fairly simple and workable structure with incentive licensing, 
billed variously as "critical to the future of amateur radio" by some 
and "the end of western civilization as we know it" by others.  I do 
know that it got quite complex, but being an Extra, I paid little if any 
attention to the multitude of sub-bands (and since I didn't have an 
amplifier, the power restrictions in them weren't a problem for me 
either).  I still don't know where any of the sub-bands are without 
looking at my ICOM chart on the corkboard.  I also don't know the 
difference between a Tech and Tech+, but it appears that won't matter in 
a few more years.

If there were to be a vote (and I knew my vote would be counted), I'd 
vote for simplicity.  I never really did understand the value of all 
those sub-bands anyway.  And now, we already have a growing class 
structure of "20WPM Extras," "5WPM Extras," and "zeroWPM Extras."  I 
don't think this bodes well for the fraternity.

73,

Fred K6DGW (ex KN6DGW)
Amateur Radio Operator
Auburn CA CM98lw