Don’t get me wrong, having an Elmer (more experienced ham that offers guidance) is an essential part of the hobby. I can’t tell you how many times I was appreciative when an older ham would give me guidance on how to be a better radio operator. So, I can say that I’m glad that new hams are asking these questions and seeking guidance instead of being uneducated, poor operators. To those new people in the hobby, I thank you for that. However, I find it hard to believe that someone who recently passed the license exam could be so unknowledgeable about the rules and responsibilities their license entails.
What do you think? Has it become too easy to become a ham, or is the service making a needed change to keep up with the times?
In my opinion, yes, becoming a ham has become too easy. Of course, I have been hearing such comments since I was first licensed in the late 60’s.
However, I am not really all that concerned that the test questions have become easier. The fact that testing pools are published without variation, the possible answers are all known, and a person of average intelligence can study the answer pool and pass the test by rote with less than a weeks effort and without really learning a thing, these facts do not bother me, things change, after all.
The exact answer pools were not, in the past, available to the potential testee. While the questions were indeed multiple choice the exact answers were not readily available. So a person could not just remember the right answers among 4 (all known beforehand, both correct and incorrect answers) and key on those (as you can today, without knowing why the correct answer is correct), you had to actually know a bit of the background information to select the right multiple choice answer because the wording of the answers varied on each test set. I believe this required a bit more of a basic understanding than today’s format does.
But you hit on a huge factor with the Elmer issue.
The current question pools, indeed any testing pool in the past, do not actually ask enough information to determine if you really know how to operate or how your gear works. Sure, the pools ask a few key points, but they barely touch more than the surface of operations.
There have always been LIDs, there have always been poor operators, and there have always been licensees without a clue. In my opinion it has gotten worse, but then again the trend across society is much the same.
Back in the day (yeah, like that has any definition) you simply did not find a person who, with no exposure to ham radio other than memorizing answers on a web site, would become licensed and on the air. Today it is possible, happens with fair regularity, for a person who has no idea how to operate a ham radio, has no exposure to the hobby at all, to study a few days online and pass all three ham tests. Go from zero to Extra with no contact with anyone who has actually operated a ham radio, and no background other than the 120 questions (combined total questions in the three tests) the testing requires.
I know a couple in person and have seen many more Extras online that say something along the lines of “woo hooo, passed all three exams, does anyone have a suggestion as to what radio I should buy first?” This just flabbergasts me.
When Novice was normally the first step to hamdom an op could build experience while learning the information needed for the next license step. While knowing Morse Code does not necessarily make a better ham operator, the process of learning the Code generally exposes the participant to more information about ham radio than just Code (if the op absorbs that information is up to him/her). In theory a person could use tapes, either paper or magnetic, and learn the required code without any human interaction, but that almost never happened. The process of learning and demonstrating first 5 WPM, then 13 WPM, then 20 WPM, took time and almost universally interaction with other operators both on the air and off the air. Even the people who did this without an Elmer learned something in the process.
My first year as a ham (while working up from my 5 WPM to 13 WPM, a tough step for me personally) every contact I made was on a home built transmitter, rock bound, TV sweep tube final, hand wound coils, and 75 Watts input. Between my second or third hand Hallicrafters SX-99, the home brew TX, crystals, headphones, keys, antennas, everything, I had a good bit less than $50 invested, and this was not an unusual level of setup if you were not wealthy or your dad was not an established ham (at least pretty typical among the guys I knew). How many hams would we bring to the hobby today with that as the entry path?
Yes, ham radio has gotten easier, too easy in my opinion. However the alternative is to turn people away to Xbox, iTunes, online gaming, and Hamsphere. What is a hobby to do? I am not sure there is a “right” answer.
T!
