FCC Invites Comments on ARRL Technician Enhancement Proposal

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

snip
Anyway

The Technician License was originally an experimenters permit to play with 220 MHz and above. Radio control; radio experiments-- modulated oscillators on goodness knows what frequencies somewhere around "220" or "420".... nasty regen receivers.... *

Maybe if you were well heel'd ($$,) inventive, or lucked upon a piece of war surplus gear you could sport an acorn tube front end receiver. Transmitters ? something crystal controlled using an 8Meg 'rock' on "420 ?" (that's what 70cm. was called)-- lots and lots of tubes! to get up there.

Snip

Lauri

___________________________________________________

* like in my 1958 copy of the ARRL handbook

When I was about 10, I got a bunch of QST magazines at a garage sale, one of which had featured an acorn tube based super regenerative 420 mc walkie talkie in a huge aluminum Bud box.

That got me interested in the hobby, but sadly my morse code comprehension was awful which thwarted my getting into the hobby for decades. I just did not have an ear for it.

I attribute this handicap to not being allowed to have accordion lessons. Instead a trombone was given to me as the school band had no place for an accordion player ( or an unenthused trombone player).



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[RFI-EMI-GUY]

When I was a Tech, I had to do my DX'ing on 6-meters only and that was my incentive to upgrade.
The current license structure is fine.

When I got my Tech , though I was really not into contesting, I reviewed the VHF contest results and figured that 2M SSB was the sweet spot for large numbers of stations. So my initial operations focused on 2M DX. That morphed into dabbling with 6M and then satellite communication on 2M an 70CM was my primary focus. 2 meters can be quite surprising at times.

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[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Yet, TDM is a very appropriate question for the 21st century.
And I think that's part of the issue. The question pool is stuck in the 20th century, some of the questions from the mid 20th century.

It's time to update the question pool using topics from this century. It's also time to update the license structure to reflect the current state of the hobby.

Some ideas for questions:
Understanding basic electrical and RF safety.
Understanding how to wire up a mobile radio using proper wire gauge, fusing, grounding, etc.
How to properly tune an antenna.
Part 97 rules, especially parts that pertain to what amateurs are permitted to do, as in NOT part 90, not Part 95, etc.

I think that one thing that is changing the paradigm entirely is SDR. There are tons of non hams, playing in the SDR field with equipment as advanced as an USRP or as basic as an RTL dongle. These are folks that are keenly skilled with coding yet may not have a clue as to the basic concepts in your suggested question pool. No doubt they need to know these things, but the hobby/ service cannot afford to turn them away and expect to be relevant 10 years from now. I think the technician license should be modified somehow to encourage these folks. I suggest an alternate question pool for a digital tech license.



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[mmckenna]

I think that one thing that is changing the paradigm entirely is SDR. There are tons of non hams, playing in the SDR field with equipment as advanced as an USRP or as basic as an RTL dongle. These are folks that are keenly skilled with coding yet may not have a clue as to the basic concepts in your suggested question pool. No doubt they need to know these things, but the hobby/ service cannot afford to turn them away and expect to be relevant 10 years from now. I think the technician license should be modified somehow to encourage these folks. I suggest an alternate question pool for a digital tech license.

I've got a guy who works for me like that. He can code stuff for us that we never dreamed of. He's dabbled in SDR and BaoFengs, even went as far as to get his tech ticket. I doubt he's ever actually had a QSO, though.
He has no interest in vacuum tubes, dipole HF antennas, or building a QRP rig. So, while he has the license, he'll likely never use it.
I have taken some time to give him some training on our trunked radio system, how the trunking works, basic radio programming and the like. He was interested and picked it up quickly. But to him, he saw it more as a coding challenge.

And maybe that's an approach. Rather than tying the license to a list of predetermined questions in a pool, it needs to be looked at from a completely different angle. I'm sure that'll annoy the purists, but a good exercise none the less.

I kind of like Ms. Coyote's approach with a "entry license". Very basic requirements, lets you in the door to play. No requirements for a question pool made up of out of date and/or overly specific technology. Let people in, let them find their interests, let them excel.
Might get some new blood in the hobby.

One license class. Have access to all the available amateur radio spectrum. If someone wants a quiet/safe place where they can do their own thing with like minded individuals, then figure it out. Use the technology and skills to make that happen.

 

[needairtime]

There may be a lot of SDRs out there (and using an SDR doesn't require a license!), but very few SDT's...
FCC was very upset about 802.11b/g/n SDT's, and I suspect getting widely available, cheap commercial SDTs that aren't completely locked down to hams is going to be tough...

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

There may be a lot of SDRs out there (and using an SDR doesn't require a license!), but very few SDT's...
FCC was very upset about 802.11b/g/n SDT's, and I suspect getting widely available, cheap commercial SDTs that aren't completely locked down to hams is going to be tough...

I was watching a video yesterday of a hackers conference where a a hacker rooted one of those Chinese DMR two way radios and wrote promiscuous code to allow it to scan any DMR channel or timeslot. Another video was a hack of a cheap toy two way message device that is in the ISM band. There is no shortage of existing SDR transmitting devices ready to be repurposed for ham radio or whatever.

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[needairtime]

That's the thing, if you can hack your 802.11b/g/n/... device out of band (it was designed to be an ISM band device too!) to get off band, sure - if you can hack it, you got it - but there aren't any that are freely hackable from the start because of the FCC rules.

Currently you have to exploit these devices to get it off band. Some are quite hard to exploit because of the FCC requirements to get certification in the first place.

Going back to a pet peeve, hopefully there is a question that demonstrates the difference between software defined radio versus software controlled radio... annoying when the two get mixed up, and sometimes a software defined radio is firmware/mask locked to be a software controlled radio due to FCC requirements -- and really can't be considered a SDR anymore (RDA1846 - try making it do AM/SSB). Unless it is hacked somehow despite the firmware being normally inaccessible to the user.

 

[rescue161]

Participation licenses for everyone!

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

That's the thing, if you can hack your 802.11b/g/n/... device out of band (it was designed to be an ISM band device too!) to get off band, sure - if you can hack it, you got it - but there aren't any that are freely hackable from the start because of the FCC rules.

Currently you have to exploit these devices to get it off band. Some are quite hard to exploit because of the FCC requirements to get certification in the first place.

Going back to a pet peeve, hopefully there is a question that demonstrates the difference between software defined radio versus software controlled radio... annoying when the two get mixed up, and sometimes a software defined radio is firmware/mask locked to be a software controlled radio due to FCC requirements -- and really can't be considered a SDR anymore (RDA1846 - try making it do AM/SSB). Unless it is hacked somehow despite the firmware being normally inaccessible to the user.

The ETTUS USRP among various other compatible SDR development boards will generate RF in virtually any modulation format from I/Q and need little more than an amplifier and filter to be a transmitter.

A lot of newer commercial LMR radios are SDR at the core, but the firmware is so locked down (by encrypted means) that only the frequencies and functions are user controllable by external programming software. Still not impossible to hack those products if you have the skills.



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[mmckenna]

Participation licenses for everyone!

Kind of like "Safe spaces" for the Extras where they are protected from the plebes?

 

[rescue161]

Yep. It was tongue in cheek, but ham's are never going to be satisfied.

 

[mmckenna]

Yep. It was tongue in cheek, but ham's are never going to be satisfied.

I know. I like poking fun at the hams that get an elitist attitude. It's so much fun when they get riled up and start spitting and foaming.

 

[KB4MSZ]

Humility is just one of my many fine qualities.

 

[cmdrwill]

for after all, there was code involved in front of an FCC examiner.

And the Novice, First Class RTo, ect, in front of the witch, examiner, at the FCC in Los Angeles.

 

[wwhitby]

One license class. Have access to all the available amateur radio spectrum. If someone wants a quiet/safe place where they can do their own thing with like minded individuals, then figure it out. Use the technology and skills to make that happen.

I actually think that it is time to do exactly that. One license class for everyone. Once you get in the front door, you can get involved in whatever area you are interested in. For example, I have no desire to learn CW, but I am very interested in digital modes and modulation.

To be honest, incentive licensing really hasn't worked as designed. I've heard that for over 20 years now. As a wise man once told me, when the horse is dead, you dismount.

Edit: Thinking more about this, it does have merit. It would be a good thing for emcomm, where everyone would be able to operate every radio in every band. And, there have been times where it is hard to get three Extra class hams to be VEs for a testing session. Any ham would be able to supervise testing sessions.

Also, going back to my point about practical knowledge, I recently helped one ham design a ground system for his antenna, mast and radios, and i'm helping another ham do the same right now. Both of them are Technicians who have been licensed within the past year. The latter ham had even been told by an Extra class ham not to worry about grounding anything!?!?! More questions about the importance of grounding might help......

 

[mmckenna]

The latter ham had even been told by an Extra class ham not to worry about grounding anything!?!?! More questions about the importance of grounding might help......

^^^ this is the sort of stuff that makes me question the value of the "expert" classification. I put much more value into someone saying "I don't know, let me research that" than coming up with a quick answer.

I see this enough both in and outside amateur radio. People are more interested in providing an answer than providing an accurate answer.

 

[PrivatelyJeff]

And, there have been times where it is hard to get three Extra class hams to be VEs for a testing session. Any ham would be able to supervise testing sessions.

I’ve been sort of having this problem. There is only one group near me that does the test regularly and it’s on a day/time when I’m not free. One idea I had was that the FCC should just move to letting people use a professional testing service like many professional groups use (nursing, EMS, LE, etc). You pay a fee, go to a professional testing location where you show ID and paperwork for what you are testing for and they put you at a locked down computer. The system can pull from a the whole pool of questions, at random and adapts to your answers, so if you get a question right/wrong, it will give you a different version to confirm if you do or do not know something. If you pass, they contact the FCC who then issues you your license.

 

[alcahuete]

I’ve been sort of having this problem. There is only one group near me that does the test regularly and it’s on a day/time when I’m not free.

Hams are usually a very good group of people, and most of them actually want other folks to join our ranks. I would reach out to the group and ask if they could do a special session for you. My work schedule is all sorts of crazy and I ran into exactly the same problem. When I took my General exam, a group of 5 VEs showed up JUST FOR ME.

So I would try that route. But yes, that isn't to discount the very valid point that you have. The VE session is extremely outdated. It's great networking, no doubt, great for asking questions, talking shop, etc., but it really is very outdated.

 

[PrivatelyJeff]

Hams are usually a very good group of people, and most of them actually want other folks to join our ranks. I would reach out to the group and ask if they could do a special session for you. My work schedule is all sorts of crazy and I ran into exactly the same problem. When I took my General exam, a group of 5 VEs showed up JUST FOR ME.

So I would try that route. But yes, that isn't to discount the very valid point that you have. The VE session is extremely outdated. It's great networking, no doubt, great for asking questions, talking shop, etc., but it really is very outdated.

I tried that when I initially contacted them but no one seemed interested. I even tried contacting them and just about every other group for 60 miles around me about testing on field day last year and no one was doing it. Lucky for me I do happen to have my local groups meeting/testing day in May free so I will try then.

 

[alcahuete]

I tried that when I initially contacted them but no one seemed interested. I even tried contacting them and just about every other group for 60 miles around me about testing on field day last year and no one was doing it. Lucky for me I do happen to have my local groups meeting/testing day in May free so I will try then.

That really is a shame.