Hello Jay, Bob, Kay, and Dave.
Wow! I didnt expect quite so much resistance. Never thought Id find
myself disagreeing with all four of you at once. Its a bit of an honor. I
ll give it one more shot. Here are some of the reasons I think you are
wrong. Please rip them to shreds if you can :-)
[Jay] The Novice license didnt fail because there werent enough
frequencies. It ceased to be of interest when prospective Amateurs could get
a license by just taking a written examination. It wasnt a matter of
frequencies. Though Techs have a wide range of VHF/UHF frequencies and modes
to choose from most of them have self limited themselves to the local FM
repeater pairs. Either they arent interested in HF or arent willing or
interested enough to acquire 5 wpm Morse proficiency. Most of those folks
never try weak signal VHF or UHF. Why? I suspect it is because they like the
solid contacts on FM. However, the truth is I really dont know why.
1. The interest of potential Novices in HF
Perhaps it is true that potential Novices arent interested in HF. If so,
then the intro license concept as it is being discussed by most interested
parties is going nowhere. You are right to point this out, and I think we
should put some serious thought and energy into determining if this is true.
The last thing we need is to do is dream up a new license class, and have no
one come to the party. If there is no interest on the part of potential
new hams in HF access, then the current Technician should suffice.
2. Adequacy of Novice frequency and mode privileges in
attracting new hams
On the other hand, perhaps the problem, or part of it, is that the
out-of-the way, CW only slivers of 80, 40, and 15 were simply insufficient
to provide meaningful QSO opportunities. Frankly, I felt this way when I
was a Novice, but since Novice was the only show in town, and I was highly
motivated, I stuck with it. Just now I grabbed my old Novice logbook, and
discovered that from my first QSO on 11/6/1961 to 7/29/1962 when my General
arrived in the mail I made all of 61 contacts. Thats about 6 per month.
My next 61 took place in the next 8 weeks, and by the end of 1962 I had
several hundred. Thats more like 30 per month. Even back in 1962,
availability of QSOs on the Novice segments was a feeble fraction of those
availability on the General portions.
Of course, more recent Novices did get 10 meter phone privileges. Still,
this was the only place they could go for HF phone, which is probably what
most of them wanted. 10 meters has its charm, but it is only a small piece
of HF. As we all know when 10 is hot, its hot, when its not, its not,
and its not alot. I suspect that my observation from 1962 has not lost
its validity.
3. Interest in passing a Morse test
To some degree, the presence of a Morse test must have been a deterrent to
potential hams back in the old days. Certainly, when the no-code Technician
was introduced we did see a surge of licensing activity, though it doesnt
seem to have lasted. Perhaps other demographic factors came into play.
However, given the current regulatory environment this is a dead letter.
Morse isnt relevant to a modern intro license.
4. What kind of QSOs do new hams want?
It is clearly true that most techs are not interested in VHF/UHF weak signal
work. Although one possibility is that they crave solid contacts such as
one gets on FM, I think the real reason lies in the availability of
communication partners, the same problem that I believe is at the root of
the failure of the old Novice license. Most of the time the range of
VHF/UHF weak signal is a few score to a few hundred miles, particularly with
limited antennas. From my shack, with 180 Watts and 10 or 12 elements, I
can usually work 100 miles or so, and often a few hundred miles, on 2 and
440. But what I find is that I hear the same 50 or so hams. Not much
variety. I can find this many on a single local repeater (Im thinking of
my home turf, W1DC, 147.72/12.)
[Jay] Any survey is open to question and improvement. I have all the
electronic replies and could if I had the time enter the information in a
relational database. That doesnt seem necessary when 73.8% of respondents
say the entry level license should permit power levels of 100 watts or more
and only 8.3% think entry level licensees should have full General
privileges.
5. Survey data
The survey results are interesting and suggestive, but they may not say what
you think they say. If you were to ask me whether the intro licensees
should have General privileges without the specific proviso that it would be
at QRP power levels, I would also answer no.
Furthermore, since I believe that this situation calls for some
out-of-the-box thinking and some off-the-beaten-path solutions, the most
fruitful approach is probably to develop good alternatives, analyze them
thoroughly, and then explain them to the membership. Only after this is
done does it make sense to query the membership, which of course we should
do. I would suggest a format in which alternatives were presented, and each
one were rated on an approve/neutral/disapprove scale.
[Jay] Ive worked enough QRP to know that it can be very frustrating for a
new ham to keep getting stomped on by medium to big power. It was tough
enough with 75watts as a Novice. Sure I can do quite well running 100 watts
with a Yagi at 40+ feet, but that is as much a function of modern gear and
45 years experience as anything else. My 15 years teach license classes and
running VE teams convinces me new hams are very easily discouraged. I just
dont think 5 watts in the ocean will do it. I think they will be less
likely to be discouraged if the allocations are meaningful and they have a
fighting chance based on power. The phrase I like to use is that the
allocations and power limits should be intriguing but not satisfying.
[Kay] Before we go for an introductory license with a QRP power limit,
perhaps we Board folk should walk for, say, 6 months in the newcomers'
shoes. I don't know how to dial back our operating skills. Stuff cotton in
our ears? Wear oven mitts when we're on the key? But we could disconnect the
amps, dial the RF output back to 5 watts, and use only the sort of simple
antennas at low heights that a beginner might be likely to set up. No Yagis
on great big towers. No ootching the power up when we crave to bag a new one
or want to work a contest. We could do that for half a year in these days of
sagging sunspots and see how it feels.
[Bob] Dxers have a saying, "Life is too short for QRP. I'm sure that's an
oversimplification, but there very well may be some truth in there.
[Dave] I think Kay's analysis is correct.
6. Frustration with QRP
You are absolutely correct that new hams get very easily frustrated. The
problem is worse now than it once was, since the art of Elmering seems to be
in decline. Ive noticed that a substantial number of hams get a ticket and
never, ever, make a QSO. This is a problem that cries to be addressed. Tom
s GOTA initiative speaks to this.
In the context of an entry class license, though, we need to compare the
frustrations involved in using QRP with the frustrations involved in having
limited operating spectrum or modes. Im firmly convinced that the latter
problem is far more severe than the former. Here, I believe, lies the key
point on which you and I disagree, and it merits some elaboration.
In a contest or pileup situation, it is true that the disadvantages
associated with QRP are very large. Operating at this level is a game
enjoyed almost exclusively by very seasoned operators who are attracted to
the challenge. These are not newbies.
But this is not the scenario with which we should be concerned. Rather, we
should be looking at the day-to-day, low stress, recreational QSO. In this
environment the typical newbie will search the band in hunt-and-peck mode
looking for someone calling CQ. She is likely to encounter one of three
situations:
a. another QRP station calling CQ, perhaps another newbie.
In this case the calling station is very likely to be able to hear the
caller, assuming reciprocal path characteristics and operational skills.
b. Another station, not QRP, who can hear her. In this
case the chances of making contact are still good unless the bands are so
full that the CQing station gets a callback on all or nearly all CQs.
c. Another station, not QRP, who cannot hear her. This
case is frustrating. On the other hand it is reality, and even those of us
with more equipment and experience encounter this and have learned to live
with it.
Let me add another observation, this one from the world of contesting. Ive
found, when Ive had an opportunity to compare, that in a contest situation
(admittedly, not directly apropos), the effect of running low power is more
like delaying the band opening and accelerating the band closing. That is,
when things are wide open, low powers performance relative to high power is
better than when the bands are not fully open. The intro class operator
confronted with this effect may be able to change her fortunes with a simple
band change.
To sum up, while there is unquestionably a handicap in being QRP, I believe
that in the environment in which the typical newbie will operate the
handicap is not large, and in any event, is much smaller than the
disadvantage associated with limited frequency/mode privileges.
Furthermore, there is little chance, for political reasons, of giving
newbies both high power (ie. 50 200 Watts) and broad frequency/mode
privileges. The Generals would scream bloody murder.
7. Are there any intermediate positions?
There is actually a range of alternatives bounded by two limiting cases.
One case is broad frequency/mode privileges with QRP power. The other is
limited frequency/mode privileges with high power (I consider 50 Watts as
high power, since it is only 3 dB down from what most hams run, and because
there are no modern rigs at that power, the real result will likely be 100
Watts anyway.)
Between these two lies a continuum of solutions. Keeping in mind that the
privileges for the intro license class must be substantially less than those
of the General, the possibilities include:
a. dont allow newbies on the WARC bands
b. allow newbies only on the WARC bands
c. limit newbie access to UHF/Microwave
d. allow phone privileges, but offset, perhaps 25 kHz, from
the current General privileges
There are others, Im sure. Obviously, I believe that the broad privilege
low power end of the range is the right solution, but politics being what
they are, there is certainly space to consider other ways. But before we
decide to go down this path I wish to insert some cautionary notes:
a. the notion of putting intro licensees at frequencies
that have low use has the appeal of smoothing out frequency usage and
perhaps not aggravating the General class license holders. It would also be
a huge mistake, however, because this is the thinking that creates ghettos.
For example, with the old Novice license, Novices were specifically and
intentionally excluded from 20 meters. The new intro class licensees must
be specifically included on 20 meters.
b. When the bands are open on Saturday afternoon, you can
find a QSO almost everywhere. What about off hours or marginal conditions?
In these cases activity on HF tends to collapse to the bottom portion of
each subband. This is where the intro licensees need to be. Putting them
way up at the top of each band is another way to create a ghetto.
c. The intro licensees need a range of experience in both
modes and bands. They should have a piece of every or nearly every band and
subband.
8. Tools to help us reach the right solution
I am a little concerned that most of the data being relied upon by all of us
are purely anecdotal. Use of such subjective information is a great way,
perhaps even the best way, to conceive and express a new thought, but at a
certain point it is a very good idea to insert some rigor. In our case we
easily could develop tools and models to help us predict the results of any
schemes we wish to consider. For example:
a. A survey of usage of various 25 kHz band segments could
tell us where the activity is and when it is. Something as simple as noting
the number of signals appearing at 30 dB or more above the noise might be
sufficient to let us know where there is enough activity to support
plentiful QSOs by our intro licensees.
b. Some experiments involving stations of various power
levels working the same bands might tell us something about how big a
handicap a QRP restriction would be in making recreational QSOs.
Lets consider gathering some real data real soon.
9. Thanks for hanging in through all 5-plus pages
To summarize, its my belief that if HF is of any interest to potential new
hams, then the old Novice scheme was woefully inadequate. A new scheme, if
we are to have one, must be crafted carefully, because it must both satisfy
the need of intro class licensees to have plentiful QSOs and equipment, and
the political reality that the intro class privileges must be substantially
less than those of a General. For a number of reasons the best option for
this is a plan relying on power restriction rather than frequency/mode
restriction.
73,
Mike
K1TWF
