>From Rob K5UJ: > I also have decided it was a mistake to eliminate the CW > requirement for the license, not because it is necessary for > communication (it is not) but because it is necessary to communicate > with the most basic simple homebrew rig, a CW transmitter. > > Now, even if we teach homebrewing in the form of electronics lessons > and construction skills, the builder of the most basic rig, a crystal > controlled cw transmitter, will not have learned cw already from > getting his license. He will have his completed project and not be > able to do anything other than key a dead cw carrier and un-key it. > Of course he can learn the code at that point, but wouldn't it be more > fun and easier if he already had that skill ready to go? Many have > said, and I also in the past, that no one wants to learn CW now with > all the high-tech gadgets in our lives these days. They miss the > point--it is not all about CW only, but CW in combination with > learning about radio, building a basic rig as a learning experience > and then using CW to communicate with it before moving on to more > advanced circuits and transmitters. > > Dropping CW from the license test has been one more step in turning > ham radio into glorified CB.
Another step in that direction occurred years ago with "Novice Enhancement", when the FCC granted Novices and Technicians access to 10m phone, but restricted it to SSB. A Novice (now Technicians) cannot legally build up a simple, low power AM transmitter and use it to get on the air on phone for the first time. He can't even re-crystal an old crystal-controlled CB rig, or reset the synthesiser in a more modern one. It is highly unlikely that a new Novice or Tech would undertake the project of building a homebrew SSB transmitter. Instead, he must buy a plastic radio, setting him immediately on the path of appliance operation. I recall my very first attempt at phone, a "cathode modulator" that used a 6Y6 tube and carbon mic, that plugged into the key jack of my single 807 CW transmitter. I didn't really know much about modulation and how to properly tune and load the thing, so my modulation was probably no more than about 20%, but I was able to get on the air and make my voice heard. I must have had a half dozen contacts with that rig before I built up a simple plate modulator with a pair of 1625s. > I think we need to focus on learning electronics as an attraction to > ham radio and bring back a Novice type HF privilege CW license because > we lost the introduction to ham radio that involved building and > getting on HF right away. Now we have new people starting out with 2 > meter FM handy talkiies and it is not the same. > In Canada and UK they now have an entry level class called a "Foundation" licence. Licensees in that class are not even allowed to build or modify any kind of a transmitter. They must start off using plastic appliances from the outset. There has been a lot of clamour in recent years, since the elimination of the old Novice class, to re-establish some kind of entry level licence other than the Technician in the US. I am afraid that if such a ticket were ever created, it also contain a similar restriction against homebrewing. Things improved slightly with the phone band expansion and elimination of the old Novice sub-bands. Technicians can now operate CW (restricted to the former Novice power level, IIRC) in the General class CW bands. So conceivably, a new Tech could start out on HF with a homebrew CW rig even though the code test was not part of his exam. This may encourage a few Techs or prospective Techs to learn CW, since that is one way they can operate in the lower HF bands before taking the General class exam. But last time I looked over the Technician question pool, there weren't a lot of questions about that type of operation. The exam was oriented more towards VHF/UHF and repeaters. Don k4kyv _______________________________________________________________ This message was typed using the DVORAK keyboard layout. http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/ http://gigliwood.com/abcd/ ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/amradio@mailman.qth.net/ List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Post: AMRadio@mailman.qth.net To unsubscribe, send an email to amradio-requ...@mailman.qth.net with the word unsubscribe in the message body. This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
