The US Amateur Radio Licensing requirements MUST be changed!
I am bristling over the thought that a person who has no prior license and/or knowledge of amateur radio in the span of 45 minutes can go from no license to an Amateur Extra Class License. That is like giving a baby a loaded gun.
Shame on the ARRL for doing that! Imagine a person who takes the State Boards for Medical Doctor and passes without having any practical experience as an intern and he or she is going to service you.
The original licensing process recognized that hams need to learn about the hobby through a practicum that awarded privileges based on time in the trenches. The Novice license was only good for one year and then you had to move on. But in that year the Novice had to learn about the hobby and in essence was doing penitential service.
I was a Novice for three months and then took and passed the General Exam taken before an FCC examiner, where I had to demonstrate Morse code proficiency and pass a regulation and technical based exam. Ditto for the Extra Class where it was an exam at the FCC Office and a greater code proficiency and a more rigorous exam. I saw the Morse code requirement as a screening mechanism, which has now been rendered to the dust bin.
The ARRL is a business and while touting serving the US Hams as a unified voice for Hams responds to only one thing... The Offshore Advertisers. Want to sell more and expensive Ham Gear then make the license so easy that it multiplies the customer base dramatically. When was the last time the ARRL really did something for Hams?
QST is nowhere near where it was in the 1950's and 60's featuring projects that provided learning and upgrading of skill sets. There are no technical learning aspects doing contests. Even this weekend 20M is constipated with CQ Contest.
KWM-4, A Challenge to the 45 Minute Extra's
Our hobby needs a reset and another piece of evidence of how the ARRL has "dumbed down" the hobby. There are about 770,000 licensed US Hams and only half of those have HF privileges. The rest use Baofeng UV35's. So, in reality the Tech License is the minimum standard for getting on the air and no incentive to advance the license status other than make the Extra so easy to obtain by taking a test where the questions are known in advance.
In the late 1970's I decided to take a Real Estate License course as my GI Bill paid for it. I was not interested in selling real estate, but my goal was investing in real estate thus an opportunity to learn.
The 1st day in class the instructor said let me be clear we are not here to teach you about real estate but to teach you how to pass the exam. They even had a cocktail party for the class after the exam, and the price of admission was you had to supply three questions that were on the exam. The License test base had 2000 questions and by knowing which questions were on the last test then these were eliminated for the next test. This now reduced the question base for the next exam. Shady... Yes!
I turned to AI to capture my bristle with a bit of iambic pentameter
🎙️ “The Extras Who Can’t Tune a Rig”
(iambic pentameter, rhyming couplets)
They stride on air with callsigns trimmed in gold,
Proclaiming “Extra Class,” both proud and bold.
Yet twist a dial, the VFO runs wild;
They blame the rig like some offended child.
They boast of bands from top to bottom rung,
Though half their coax still lies loosely hung.
They speak of filters, gain, and S‑units too,
But ask for help — they haven’t got a clue.
Their license says they’ve mastered every test,
But solder fumes have never touched their vest.
They pass with ease through mem’ry’s fleeting door,
Then ask, “What’s SWR again… and more?”
Still on they talk of DX far and near,
While tuning wrong and splattering the sphere.
Yet in their hearts, enthusiasm glows —
A spark that every seasoned ham still knows.
For skill may fade or never quite ignite,
But love of radio still burns as bright.
Them that know can make things go. Anyone who is an Extra should be able to scratch build a KWM-4. Some of us Extras can even design such a radio. Check N6QW on QRZ.com for more info on the KWM-4.
