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Originally Posted by Haoleb
I have the Technician class license.
NH7XJ
I'll probbably never use the thing but it was part of my first year of electronics technician training to get the license. I believe this coming year we are supposed to take a GROL test or something like that. And we will be able to upgrade our license priveleges but i doubt i will. I dont know any morse code  well unless you consider dit dit dit -dot dot dot- dit dit dit heck, thats all id ever need! |
Brandon (Haoleb - NH7XJ),
I just looked up your call on the Buckmaster callsign server. Your license is valid for quite a while yet; you may change your mind about getting back on the air before it is time to renew.
I have a General class license, but don't use it much anymore except for 2 meter FM since I moved into an apartment over five years ago (no outside antennas allowed). I bought a Barker and Williamson AP-10 apartment portable antenna about two years ago; it works, but I can't operate CW (which was my favorite mode for some 20 years when I lived at my previous residence, a three-bedroom house in a Cleveland suburb) because my signals trip the GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) in my kitchen. The rig doesn't seem to bother the kitchen GFCI or the one in my bathroom much on sideband, but I haven't had much luck with SSB since I've been here (never had much luck with it at the other house either, and I had a much better antenna there). The best I've been able to do with sideband here has been 20 miles, directly across Lake County, Ohio, but I think that's because I've been on the wrong band (40 meters). Perhaps I should try 12, 17, or 15 meters in the daytime.
I think you mentioned in one of your posts quite a while ago that you were off the air anyway, because your antenna was down and your transceiver wasn't working at the time. However, if you have 2 meter FM, you can still operate through the local repeaters in your area. I believe you are in a suburb of Honolulu, so it is likely you should be able to use the city's repeaters (or there may be one or more local repeaters right there in Kailua Kona) without much trouble. I am a member of a local radio club here and use their repeater often, as they have a 2-meter ragchew net every Thursday at seven p. m. Eastern time; there is also an NTS traffic net which meets three times each week on another repeater near here.
Just because you operate only 2 meters or any other VHF/UHF ham band doesn't make you any less an amateur than if you had an Extra class license and worked the world with a kilowatt on HF. Some hams with General or higher licenses will look down on or even scorn Technician or Tech-plus licensees (this kind of snobbery has been going on in ham radio for years), but that isn't right. Technician class amateurs are just as much a part of the hobby as are hams with General and higher tickets. (I had a Technician, later Technician plus, license for ten years before upgrading to General in 1985.)
As to your comments about the GROL exam, I never heard of any radio amateur ever being required to take that test simply to upgrade, and I've been a ham over 30 years. Hawaii is a State of the U. S. and is under the FCC's jurisdiction (the other 49 states don't require a GROL as a prerequisite to an upgrade to a higher grade of amateur license).
You don't have to know much Morse code to get an amateur license these days. In fact, the FCC has reduced the code requirement to 5 words per minute for every class of license and is going to drop the code test altogether before long. I personally think this will be a huge mistake if it happens, as the code tests have traditionally separated hams from users of that other band (eleven meters). If the code requirement for ham licenses is in fact abolished eventually, our amateur bands may well become kilowatt clones of the Citizens Band. The latter went to the dogs when the FCC ceased issuing licenses for it over 20 years ago. I can only hope the same thing doesn't happen to ham radio, although the elimination of the code test seems to me to be a step in that direction. The written exam for amateur licenses is still 55 questions and requires a 74 percent grade to pass (41 questions correct). However, since many hams today memorize license manuals to pass these tests, even the written exam is the proverbial piece of cake.
I am all for progress; goodness knows we need more people to become involved in amateur radio
but, IMHO, this is going too far. Time was when getting an amateur license was a challenge; not anymore.
I am not about to give up my license or my equipment just because the hobby seems to be going all to pieces, but I am extremely disappointed at what it has become (and where it is headed), with licenses being as easy to get (almost) as falling off a log, broadband no-tune HF and VHF gear, etc.
The FCC still regulates the hobby and enforces its rules, however (fining and/or suspending or revoking licenses of scofflaws when necessary), so I guess it isn't in too bad shape--yet, anyway, IMHO. But it may be in awful shape before we know it; I'm not looking forward to it if or when it happens.
The much-relaxed licensing requirements (including the eventual abolition of the code test) and the instant-memorization license guides (time was when people really studied for these tests) may well make an utter shambles of what was once a very orderly and worthwhile hobby. Hams still perform public service (the NTS traffic nets, communications for community events, etc.), so there is some hope the hobby won't go to pot, but as far as the ease of getting the license goes, well, that is too much.
73 (best regards),