[KL7AA] Program Change AARC meeting this Friday - Petition to remove the code tests

[Jim Larsen]

With the concurrance of Dan O'Barr of the program team for this Friday, Craig
and Dan will slip their program to September.

In its place will be Jim Wiley, KL7CC, who has just returned from the July
25th National VE Conference at the FCC in Gettysburg, PA.

As of today, the NCVEC has filed a petition with the FCC to drop the code
requirements for all levels of amateur radio.  (will be available for download
on http://www.KL7AA.org later tonight)

Jim will discuss the petition, the future plans for NPRMs and will also show
Power Point Slide show of the Remote VE Testing program being developed by the
Alaska VEC and also a Powerpoint slide show of the new FCC ULS system due up
later this year.

Discussions should be lively and it is certainly a current event.  Very
current...and our VE leadership is in the thick of it. (See below)  See you at
the meeting.

73, Jim
-- 
Jim Larsen, AL7FS
Anchorage, Alaska
http://www.qsl.net/al7fs
=======================================

Subject: Morse Code Petition Filed
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 09:04:39 -0800
From: Jim Wiley <jwiley@alaska.net>

RE: Morse code testing  petition

The attached MS Word file is the NCVEC petition as filed with the FCC
today.   The NCVEC voted at the recent annual meeting to  draft this
petition and submit it ASAP.   The committee selected to draft this
petition consisted of :  Fred Maia, W5YI, (Committee Chairman) (W5YI
VEC);   John Johnston, W3BE, (Laurel ARC VEC);  Scott Neustadter, W4WW,
(Central America VEC);  Jim Wiley, KL7CC, (Anchorage ARC VEC).

In case some of these names are unfamiliar,   John Johnston,  W3BE,
formerly with the FCC, is the individual who originally wrote most of
what we know today as the "Part 97" regulations that govern Amateur
Radio.   Scott Neustadter, W4WW, is an aerospace engineer with Boeing
Co., and is the individual who heads up the national VEC Question Pool
committee, and in fact is the person who generates most (but not all) of
the theory questions found on exams.  Scott is, in the truest sense of
the word, a genuine "Rocket Scientist".    Fred Maia, W5YI,  started one
of the largest VEC organizations in the country.  I am unsure whether
his group or the ARRL VEC leads in number of exams given.  Fred sold his
business about 3 years ago, and remains active as a virtual consultant
in Amateur Radio licensing matters.  I joined the committee for two
reasons, first, because of  the ongoing project we (the Anchorage ARC
VEC) initiated to do remote testing, and also because it looked like
something that could be very interesting.  The members of the committee
were nominated from the floor at the July 25th VEC conference in
Gettysburg, PA, and were approved by a vote of all NCVEC representatives
present.

This petition is the first of a series that we (as the NCVEC) plan to
file.  Assuming that the first petition is successful, we will follow up
in several months with additional petitions concerning modifications to
the amateur radio licensing structure,  and reallocation of the present
Novice CW bands on the 80, 40, and 15 meters.   Experience gained with
the results of the first petition will be used to guide us in filing the
follow-on petitions,. all of which are related in some way.

All of this will be discussed at the upcoming AARC general membership
meeting, this Friday.  Plan to attend, and bring your questions.  I will
answer them if I can.

- Jim, KL7CC