Passed my EXTRA CLASS Ham Radio exam tonight (vanity)

ARRL/VEC ^ | 4-8-2009 | Me

[cerberus]

Try communicating to the other side of the planet without a phone line/cable while off the grid, on 10 watts, completely independent of any software or supporting elements, for free.

For less than the cost of that 10 watt transceiver, I can buy two Magic Jacks and communicate with people I have some reason to want to communicate with (privately even) for practically nothing. I can run the thing on auxiliary power too if I want.

Again I am not bashing ham radio, but in anything short of a total global meltdown, email, VOIP, or even POTS are much more efficient and useful ways to communicate worldwide. Besides with ham radio you have no privacy and cannot carry on business over the air.

Ham radio is great, but it's mainly a hobby and not a practical means of carrying on essential communication. In certain dire emergencies, it can be much more and I fully support keeping hams around.

[dragnet2]

Personally, the internet has diminished my interest in ham radio.

Try communicating to the other side of the planet without a phone line/cable while off the grid, on 10 watts, completely independent of any software or supporting elements, for free.

For less than the cost of that 10 watt transceiver, I can buy two Magic Jacks and communicate with people I have some reason to want to communicate with

Uh...Magic Jacks?

Don't you have to plug those into a telephone line, and need a computer to operate?

[dragnet2]

VOIP, or even POTS are much more efficient and useful ways to communicate worldwide

BTW, speaking of communicating, if you'd read back, my position wasn't about efficiency, it was was simplicity, free communications, being off the grid, and using extremely low power.

Of course, you can spend lots of money per month hooked up to the web, VOIP, and hundreds of others schemes to take your money on monthly installment plans...

But that's not what I'm talking about.

[mylife]

Found the Kaito 1102 on sale today for 59.99

http://www.jr.com/product/productListing.jsp?Ntt=kaito+1102

Just ordered one.

Also, my Ten Tec RX320D had the front end blown out in a bad storm this AM while I was asleep :(

[calex59]

Remember when we had to draw diagrams of circuits to pass the exams? I hold an advanced class and will never upgrade to Extra because Advanced is no longer offered and it is a unique license to hold because of that. KI6JH.

[calex59]

In other words is the test related to the actual needs to operate the equipment as it exists today? Why have a test at all? Is the test designed to be deliberately difficult as a means of apportioning out a limited number of band spots? if so, is that the way the government should do it? Should it be by lottery? Should it be auctioned? Should be granted only according to a public service? Should be withheld from conservatives?

To answer some of your questions, although I am not the guy you posted it too!:) The test are on digital electronics, the code requirements have been reduced for most grades and eliminated on others. The reason you must pass tests is because hams are supposed to be able to work on their own equipment and therefore must be able to keep interference down on the bands and not splatter across the bands and to avoid being on the wrong bands. This is an amateur license and thus is not subject to, and never should be, drawing by lottery, depending on service needs or any other idiotic reason, politics certainly don't enter into it. Your last question was especially on the stupid side, unless of course you were being sarcastic.

[editor-surveyor]

Later

[nathanbedford]

unless of course you were being sarcastic.

[calex59]

I wasn’t being sarcastic, it is customary to put a Sar tag on the end of a sentence or comment when you mean sarcasm because it is not possible to tell speech inflections when reading type. In the future you might want to do that.

[nathanbedford]

No, I regard sarcasm and irony to be valuable tools of writing which should not be diluted by condescending signals to the reader about how to interpret what he sees.

I have never used sarcasm tags and cannot consider that I will do so. I want the reader to have an investment too in making the communication effective.

Thank you for being answering many of my questions about ham radio. What I am trying to find out is whether access to a national asset, which is by its very nature limited and not available to everyone who might like it, is allocated reasonably. I now understand the necessity that people be trained so they don't interfere with other bandwidth allocations. But does that mean that the right to broadcast is allocated reasonably? What is the standard? Can anyone who can pass the test gets such a privilege?

[Clinging Bitterly]

True it's a hobby, and some folks take it more seriously than others. And it's not for everybody.

But it is used to provide communication in situations that fall well short of total global meltdown.

[Clinging Bitterly]

...RX320D had the front end blown out...

Ouch. For the heck of it I checked the schematic for a lamp fuse or something easy, didn't see it. But likely fixable unless a near direct hit.

We're not in an area that has so much of that but still must take precautions. Our group's repeater site suffered a strike some years ago that took out pretty much everything in the building. We had the usual arresting gear installed but nothing will protect from a direct or near direct hit. It was tough because we built that site from the bare ground, including a lot of the electronic gear in the building.

Our damage was about 50 grand and I think between our tenants they may have had a bit more. But everyone was insured, so for us just a matter of long weekends and late nights to rebuild. Got hit again the next year but it wasn't a scrap everything & start over scenario like the big one.

[Admin Moderator]

Knock off the profanity and personal attacks, please.

[Clinging Bitterly]

Remember when we had to draw diagrams of circuits to pass the exams...?

That was a bit before my time. In 1982 I still had to go to the FCC to take the test but it was all multiple choice.

Having Technician Class prior to the 1987 divergence (when it was automatically changed to "Technician Plus" I carried the element 3 credit of a General. But the next two phases of restructuring where they first eased the Morse requirement and then eliminated it entirely, the license class reverted to Technician, which reflected a knowledge level somewhat lower than I had actually achieved. So in essence, I was downgraded in status at least. I'm not sure why they did it that way but perhaps it was difficult for them to mine the database of Tech Plus holders and divide them according to how they achieved it (whether or not they had passed element 3). So I had to go to a VE session to be made whole, while you still carry the status and privileges you had before.

But I'm happy with the outcome in my case.

[Clinging Bitterly]

Surely you know of sources other than this forum wherein you may find answers to your several questions. If one didn't have reason to believe otherwise they might think you a troll. Read:

http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/Documents/cfr/1998/47cfr97.pdf

Meanwhile,

You know what's in the cup. Drink.

[nathanbedford]

This is a political forum not a ham radio forum. We are not all enthusiasts. You brought up the matter of your obtaining a license and I congratulated you for it. I asked very legitimate political questions on a political forum to which I have not yet received an answer for the most important: upon what basis are licenses allocated and therefore the right to use the public's airwaves?

Why in the hell is it so difficult to get the answer from all you experts? is the allocation process fair? Is there a quota system, if so what is it based on? do the tests relate to a real and practical technical need? Did the Morse code tests when they were used? these are fair political questions which do not by their nature or by the mere fact of posing them denigrate your technical achievement.

Instead of answering these questions every expert who has replied has for the most part simply talked around them. Now you give me your backhand for a troll and serve up a photo of a coffee cup which I can only understand to be some form of condescension. You give me lengthy regulations instead of answers and do not even have the courtesy to cite the relevant paragraphs.

Why do I get the impression that ham radio is some sort of elitist cabal which gets prickly when the public asks you to account for what you all are doing with the public's airwaves?

[cerberus]

But it is used to provide communication in situations that fall well short of total global meltdown.

I'll certainly concede that.