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FCC Relaxes Entrance To Ham Radio
Randy Rathbun writes "In a very bold (and IMHO, much needed) move, the FCC today released major changes to Part 97, which is the rules for the Amateur Radio Service. Among the changes are that there is only a 5 word per minute morse code exam from now on (getting rid of the 13 and 20 wpm exams), and reducing the number of license classes from six to three. The text of the changes can be read in this PDF document. You don't need to know morse code to get on the air on bands above 30 MHz, btw."
Phil Karn, KA9Q
Right. Much needed for the manufacturers of Ham Radio appliances and for the continued existence of the ARRL, perhaps. But certainly just the opposite of what was needed for the "health" of Ham Radio, IMO.
I recently allowed my license to simply expire. I just somehow never got around to renewing. I once was very active. I had an Advanced Class license. Obtained when one really had to work to get one. (I took my General and Advanced Class tests at the Federal Building in down-town Detroit. Administered by FCC personnel.) In the past: I was active in both CW and phone (that's Morse code and voice, for the non-Hams out there) on the low bands (translation: HF - those bands below 30MHz). I was also active in VHF (FM, SSB and packet) and UHF. Built my own antennas. Maintained my own gear. Built some of my own gear. Was actively involved in the Amateur Radio Public Service Corps in my county. Was once actively involved with what was once a major repeater group in my area. Hardly ever went anywhere without a rig close-at-hand.
What happened? In a word: disgust.
There has been a serious decline in the "quality" of the hobby. I mean a really serious decline. These days one finds more appliance-using "lids, kids and space-cadets" on Ham Radio that one does seriously interested, knowledgeable and talented Operators. It has become, IMO, little more than high-end (and I use the term loosely) CB radio.
I think the final straw was hearing something like the third horribly-bungled Skywarn weather net in a row--and hearing the net control operator receive compliments for it--that I finally just gave Ham Radio up as a lost cause.
Ham Radio "operators" like to laugh at "CB radio types" as clueless, redneck yahoos. Well y'all ought to take a look in the mirror some time. Here's how: turn the radios off for a couple of months and then turn them on again and just listen. Be prepared for a shock. Prior to Ham Radio I had been involved with organized volunteer public service CB radio groups. Their professionalism far and away exceeded what Ham Radio has devolved into today.
For those who might accuse me of being a quitter--who might ask "Why didn't you stick around and help the hobby?": I tried. I really, really tried. I tired of tilting against windmills. Just try to correct somebody's bad operating habits these days. Just try to explain to to one of the average current crop of Hams that "QSL" does not mean 10-4. (Or "right". Or "correct".) Just try to tell some Ham that trimming ones coax does not really improve VSWR. Or that they're over-modulated/over-deviated. Or that their transmit power far-and-away exceeds their receiver's capability. Try to explain to a "modern" Ham on a 2m repeater why listening for "breaks" is important. (Much-less finding someone on 2m or elsewhere that has a clue how to handle emergency traffic!) Or, conversely, why one shouldn't "break" into a conversation unless they either: 1) intend to participate or 2) have urgent traffic. Arrrrgggg.
FCC and ARRL keep pushing the entry barrier down and the hobby just keeps declining--both in "quality" and participation. Somehow it never seems to occur to these two that the effects just might be related. Well, in my case they most definitely were.
Bitter? You bet I'm bitter. Having witnessed what was once an enjoyable hobby, populated mostly by Hams I could honestly regard as peers and superiors, degrade to the wasteland it is today.
You can keep it.
Morse code is fun and people won't stop using it. But to have a test on copying Morse code by ear required to get any ham license that allows operation below 30 MHz in this day and age is rediculous. The average ham is older than 60, but ham radio should be a resource for young people to learn analog electronics, RF, wide-area networking, etc. I'm hoping that this change will start to address the age gap in ham radio, and I'll be working on a campaign to get young people into the hobby and on to our HF bands.
One of the best things about this decision is that it ends a very ugly acrimonious situation in ham radio that has persisted since 1990, when the no-code VHF license was introduced as the first foot in the door for modernization of ham radio. A lot of the older hams alienated the younger ones because they felt that no-coders weren't real hams. Now, those younger hams will have the same licenses as the older ones, and will be in their faces on the HF bands.
You can read more about this in my editorial The World's Most Silly Technology Law.
Bruce Perens K6BP
Bruce Perens.
Anyone notice a strange correlation between the coming of a day that many consider to be apocalyptic and/or provoking major crisis and the freeing up of the ham airwaves which have proven absolutely vital to maintaining communication and order, and even saving lives in some cases, in other major natural disasters? Perhaps the government knows something we don't? The truth is out there my friends ;)
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I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
This provision will no doubt signal the beginning of the end of morse code (IIRC the only reason there's any requirement at all is because we have an international treaty requiring it), in the hands of an expert, morse code is totally amazing to watch. I've seen crusty old hammers with keyers (boxes with switiches that emits streams of dots or dashes when depressed) that can do morse faster than they can talk. It's really incredible to not even be able to discern between dots and dashes when these people are having entire conversations in them. Skilled morse oding seems to be destined to become a lost art along with blacksmithing, writing machine code, etc.
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I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
...but I would guess that morse code was the very first digital communications system.
I guess it would depend on your definitions, but one could make the argument that DNA got there first.
Steve M
Like I said, there is room for interpretation based on definitions.
However, you certainly do not need two intelligent beings. Animals communicate all the time. Ants have very sophisticated communications systems.
Steve M
When I took the test for a Technician license, I had to pass a 5 WPM code test and the General written test. That is the same as the new requirements for the General license.
I've never bothered upgrading since I got a Technician license. I could easily pass the written test but I hate morse code. Now I might try for an Extra license.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Mostly two way, although there are some one way propagation beacons.
Is ham all private or is it also commercial?
Commercial traffic is prohibited.
Is ham radio sort of like a bbs type community?
There are bulletin boards that you can access via packet radio (radio modems).
Do you meet new people on ham radio or talk to ones you meat in real life?
You meet lots of new people, esp. on the HF (high frequency) bands.
What kind of transmit ranges are possible?
You can cover the Earth with an HF (3-30 MHz) radio. VHF and higher frequencies are generally limited to line-of-sight, just like broadcast FM radio. There are amateur satellites that can extend the range of VHF/UHF stations.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I'm practicing for the higher WPM morse tests, the writtens are easy to study for. Oh well, time to get my General license :)
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
I severely doubt it; on issues of already-commercialized segments of the spectrum (i.e. everything except Ham), the FCC is in bed with the big corporations that own the spectrum (and don't want competitors). For starters, try this article from Reason.
My Blog. Sela Ward can sell me long distanc
I am sure Bruce Perens will have more to say but in the meantime go to http://www.nocode.org/ (this is an organization reponisble for lobbying of the FTC regarding this issue.
Also, make sure you chek out The World's Most Silly Technology Law , an editorial by Bruce Perens over at technocrat.net
Cheers.
Nick
God listen to us.
This reminds me of the time I sat next to an elderly, retired engineer at a banquet, and listened to him reminisce about the time they got THE BIG COMPUTER UPGRADE. You know, the "stored program jobbie".
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Well, I remember back when I was a kid with a ham license sending and receiving CW with another kid whose was chirping like a canary. We discussed it for a while and it turned out that he had a home built rig that was basically an RF oscillator stuck to an home brewed RF amp stuck to a string of wire, with a code key stuck between oscillator and the power supply (i.e. the oscillator fired up everytime the key closed and shutdown when the key came back up).
Of course it was an incredibly half assed way to build a radio, but it worked well enough that we could communicate using 5W probably five hundred miles apart! My nephew just got his codeless novice, and his first rig is an incredible little 2m handheld that can access just about any place on the world on a sophisticated network of repeaters using maybe 5W. However, he could no more build this for himself than you could assemble a functional web server out of a barrel of surplus electromechanical relays. He's having a lot of fun, but he's not really learning any electronics. The new licensing tests don't require that you know anything about circuits.
The cool thing about CW is that a kid can sit around and dream up a rig with no outside guidance and build it himself out of probably less than $100 of parts. It may not be done the "right" way, but he's going to learn a lot.
CW also enables people in third world countries to communicate without the kind of sophisticated repeater networks that exist in this country. And, no matter what you say, CW is the most reliable form of telecommunication there is. It takes only a few watts to go hundreds of miles, so it can work during a prolonged power outage. It doesn't require any kind of intermediate linkages like repeaters or sattelites.
That said, undoubtedly CW is going the way of the wire telegraph, very soon now. I'll be sorry to see it go.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I'm a Ham operator (KC8DDC), and I think your claim that morse code (BTW, we call it CW) is destined to become a lost art, and that the only reason its still in use is because of the licencing requirement, is way offbase.
:)
Even if the CW requirement were to completely dissapper, CW itself will not disapper anytime in the forseeable future. There are situtations where, right now, CW is the only viable communactions mode (one example is adverse conditions such as severe interferance, and weak signals). Also, many hams use it for contesting and DXing, and there are hams who use it as thier primary communcations mode because they enjoy using it.
Rest assured, despite what the pro-code lobby says, CW is not going away anytime soon.
The fact is that wireless communication has become a commodity item, and as a result some of the reason people take up amateur radio in the first place has disappeared. Why after all, would someone engage in something that requires expensive equipment and a special license when they can go out to the local electronics store and pick up a pair of FRS radios for under $150? Or suffer through static crashes and the ins and outs of HF propogation when they can grab a cell phone and dial any phone on the face of the planet?
As wireless services become more prevalent, fewer people will have an interest in rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty. The state of the radio art is no longer being advanced in amateurs' workshops, it's happening in the labs at Motorola and Qualcomm. While it used to be true that many EEs were also hams, I think the current working conditions many of us suffer through make us less inclined to do things similar to what we do at work during our off time. Amateurs are, after all, by definition people who do something for the love of it. Why do something if it's neither necessary or fun?
I still do it because people don't tend to want to talk to you if you pick up your cell phone and dial a number at random. Having a yak with people I know on the way to work in the morning makes the commute go by faster. And even though I know this message will be read by people around the world, I'm still tickled to be able to talk to someone halfway around the world with no wires.
Fewer interested parties means fewer participants, and it's sad to have to predict that the hobby will probably have dwindled to almost nothing in 20 more years. Compounding the problem is the fact that in this country, amateur radio is the classic nerdy hobby, even more so now that computers are commonplace and using the internet has become the hip thing to do. Several years ago I was having a chat with someone in Europe about this topic. It seems that in his country (and I forget which it is), people who take up the hobby are regarded as people who are doing something useful with their spare time and not sitting down at the bar quaffing beer and watching soccer.
I'm one of those (and probably the only one who will post on slashdot for attribution) who thinks dumbing down the code requirement is a Bad Idea. I expect to get flamed for it, but this is one issue I've given a lot of thought to over the last 20 years or so, and don't expect to be convinced otherwise.
Ham radio is not only about technical innovation. Yes, that's one purpose, and one that I, too, believe is important. It's not the only purpose, however. The basis and purpose of the service, as expressed in 97.1, includes fostering international goodwill and providing emergency communications when needed. It takes more than a technogeek to accomplish these ends. One must be able to *communicate*. The dual nature of the ham tests serve, IMAO, to point that out: you can answer all the theory questions they can throw at you and still not be an effective operator. The code test provided some way to check that. To get the Extra ticket, you had to be a well-rounded ham, both a skilled operator and at least fairly knowledgeable technically.
The FCC has goofed here, aided by public pressure from well-meaning techies who can't see that building the technology isn't enough: you have to make use of it, too, to provide communications.
Jay Maynard, K5ZC (licensed as Amateur Extra in 1977)
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Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
Just like you hoped the no-code Tech would, too? Not to mention bringing in a flood of technically competent folks to revolutionize the state of radio communications, all on a shoestring budget in the ham bands, results published in QST and CQ. Right.
The simple truth of the matter is that the no-code license has failed in its stated objective. The average age of hams has risen at one year per year of elapsed time, and that rate is unchanged before and after the advent of the no-code license. As I've contended all along, the real problem is that ham radio is not attractive to kids today. Your campaign is 10 years too late, and ham radio will suffer for it.
One of the best things about this decision is that it ends a very ugly acrimonious situation in ham radio that has persisted since 1990, when the no-code VHF license was introduced as the first foot in the door for modernization of ham radio. A lot of the older hams alienated the younger ones because they felt that no-coders weren't real hams. Now, those younger hams will have the same licenses as the older ones, and will be in their faces on the HF bands.
Oh, so now the FCC can change human nature with a simple Report and Order? Those of us who had to work to earn our privileges are going to be as resentful of those who do not under the new scheme as was the case with the no-code Tech. This change will, if anything, perpetuate the alienation and division, and spread it to the HF bands as well. Many older hams have resented, and IMAO rightfully so, the dumbing down of the entrance requirements in the name of attracting the "right people" into the service, especially given the 10 years of failure to do anything of the sort that we've seen.
The real solution, as I have been arguing ever since the no-code argument started, is to convince people that ham radio is worth the entrance requirements. No matter how low you set the barrier, the real problem is not getting people past it - the widely diverse ham population before 1990 is all the proof anyone can ever need that desire will conquer all - but getting people to want to climb over it. We should have tried better marketing in 1990, instead of assuming that people were too dumb any more to pass the requirements. This change can only continue the slide toward chaos and lawlessness that we've seen - case in point, the 147.435 LA repeater, a blight on the face of the service if there ever was one - ever since the requirements were first lowered.
Jay Maynard, K5ZC
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Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
(In fact, in the US it's silly to talk about "licensing" forms of communication, as all of them should be covered by the First Amendment, but that's another argument for another day.)
The First Amendment covers content, not manner of speech. You can say anything you want, but the government has a right to regulate how and when and where in order to keep the peace.
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Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
Unfortunately, since amateur packet radio is among the most inefficient digital communication modes known to man, such a cluster would be frustratingly slow. All the really cool stuff, at least with wireless networking, is taking place in the license-free bands because license-free is cheaper and you don't have to answer questions about Ohm's law to get access to them.
For more information about wireless networking, you can start at The wireless field test at Old Colorado City communications/ or you can go to the Wireless LAN/MAN Modem Product Directory.
Wireless networks are the way of the future, it's just that Ham Radio isn't the way to get there.
Jonathan Guthrie, KA8KPN, Amateur Extra class (now grandfathered) since 1980.
The ham bands that require passing electronics and morse code tests have some very intelligent people frequenting them.
.au CSIRO. People who have made scientific discoveries. People that have a genuine love for science.
:)
Many scientists, doctors, and engineers how work for companies like NASA and the
Whiney loosers? These are the types that gave you the internet and other technologies you probably take for granted.
I can't say for sure, but I would guess that morse code was the very first digital communications system. It punches through noise that analog voice comms could not.
The internet has not made ham radio obsolete, it has probably made the hams appreciate their medium even more! The internet has an unmeasurably low signal to noise ratio that even makes CB seem like it is populated with nuclear scientists.
War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
I am sad that they had to resort to this in order to keep interest alive in such a valuabel tool.
;)
Morse code is, and will always be extrememly important as a tool and in emergency situations. But Amateur Radio really is hurting right now for younger members. Going to a meeting, you only see ages 50 and above... which really is too bad, it is a fun hobby that I think kids would relly enjoy if their parents knew about it and gave some support.
I got my license when I was 12... and I also learned morse code at that age. It certainly is not that difficult, only a little intimidating at first.
Now those darn kids got "chat" over the internet
The ARRL posted a press release here describing the change that is in HTML format so you don't have to read that PDF file. Personally, I think this is a very Good Thing. The avaerage age of Amaterur radio is rising rapidly, and one major barrier to entry was the morse tests. With so many other things to interest young geeks now, that has seriously reduced the number of young people getting involved. I hope this helps alot!
WRCT Pittsburgh, 88.3FM
Well, there actually was a reason for the law. To quote Mr. Perens:
" There was a logical reason to pass this law in the 1920's. Military stations needed a way to order the hams off of the air if the country went to war, or if the hams were interfering with the military stations during peacetime. Since the military didn't have any voice radios, they required the hams to learn Morse Code so that they'd understand when they were given government orders. Another reason for having the hams know Morse was that the government wanted telegraphers for communication during wartime. It took a long time to train a telegrapher, so it was easier to just draft a ham who had already learned the code. "
Since the law is etched in international treaty, the requirement for Morse apparently can't be repealed by Congress, only slackened (as it just has been). Some see this as a way to let more people into the field of amateur radio, most hams I've spoke to though just think it's neat (kind of like programming, I guess), plus it turns their hobby into an exclusive club. One guy I know says he usually likes to just sit there and do morse code instead of talk because it's easier.
I recommend reading Mr. Perens' article at http://perens.com/Morse.html , it gives a good background on the topic.
(Sorry, Bruce, I got here first...)
Ryan Kirk