[TVARC] Tech ARRL

[Bruce Cusanelli]

SB QST @ ARL $ARLB010

ARLB010 FCC Invites Comments on ARRL Technician Enhancement Proposal

 

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QST de W1AW

ARRL Bulletin 10  ARLB010

>From ARRL Headquarters

Newington CT  March 15, 2019

To all radio amateurs 

 

SB QST ARL ARLB010

ARLB010 FCC Invites Comments on ARRL Technician Enhancement Proposal

 

The FCC has invited public comments on ARRL's 2018 Petition for Rule Making,
now designated as RM-11828, which asks the FCC to expand HF privileges for
Technician licensees to include limited phone privileges on 75, 40, and 15
meters, plus RTTY and digital mode privileges on 80, 40, 15, and 10 meters.

 

Interested parties have 30 days to comment. The Technician enhancement
proposals stemmed from the recommendations of the ARRL Board of Directors'
Entry-Level License Committee, which explored various initiatives and gauged
member opinions in 2016 and 2017.

 

"This action will enhance the available license operating privileges in what
has become the principal entry-level license class in the Amateur Service,"
ARRL said in its Petition. "It will attract more newcomers to Amateur Radio,
it will result in increased retention of licensees who hold Technician Class
licenses, and it will provide an improved incentive for entry-level
licensees to increase technical self-training and pursue higher license
class achievement and development of communications skills."

 

Specifically, ARRL proposes to provide Technician licensees - both present
and future - with:

 

* Phone privileges at 3.900 to 4.000 MHz, 7.225 to 7.300 MHz, and

21.350 to 21.450 MHz.

 

* RTTY and digital privileges in current Technician allocations on 80, 40,
15, and 10 meters.

 

The ARRL petition points out the explosion in popularity of various digital
modes over the past 2 decades. Under the ARRL plan, the maximum HF power
level for Technician operators would remain at 200 W PEP. The few remaining
Novice licensees would gain no new privileges under ARRL's proposal.

 

ARRL's petition points to the need for compelling incentives not only to
become a radio amateur in the first place, but then to upgrade and further
develop skills. Demographic and technological changes call for a "periodic
rebalancing" between those two objectives, ARRL maintained in his proposal.
The FCC has not assessed entry-level operating privileges since 2005.

 

The Entry-Level License Committee offered very specific data- and
survey-supported findings about growth in Amateur Radio and its place in the
advanced technological demographic, which includes individuals younger than
30. It received significant input from ARRL members via more than 8,000
survey responses. "The Committee's analysis noted that today, Amateur Radio
exists among many more modes of communication than it did half a century
ago, or even 20 years ago," ARRL said in its petition.

 

Now numbering some 384,500, Technician licensees comprise more than half of
the US Amateur Radio population. ARRL stressed in its petition the urgency
of making the license more attractive to newcomers, in part to improve upon
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, "that
inescapably accompanies a healthy, growing Amateur Radio Service."

 

ARRL said its proposal is critical to develop improved operating skills,
increasing emergency preparedness participation, improving technical
self-training, and boosting overall growth in the Amateur Service, which has
remained nearly inert at about 1% per year.

 

The Entry-Level License Committee determined that the current Technician
class question pool already covers far more material than necessary for an
entry-level exam to validate expanded privileges.

ARRL told the FCC that it would continue to refine examination preparation
and training materials aimed at STEM topics, increase outreach and
recruitment, work with Amateur Radio clubs, and encourage educational
institutions to utilize Amateur Radio in STEM and other experiential
learning programs.

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