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From: giles@ucf-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.ham-radio
Subject: Code | technical competence
Message-ID: <1382@ucf-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 14-Jul-84 08:31:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucf-cs.1382
Posted: Sat Jul 14 08:31:57 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 16-Jul-84 05:20:19 EDT
Organization: University of Central Florida
Lines: 71

Okay -- I am strongly anti-code (as in code-for-the-sake-of-code), but as
someone pointed out, *I* may be the only one receiving a signal so I have
a responibility to have at least a minimal skill in code.  5 wpm has been
generally agreed upon as a acceptable speed, so I can live with that as a
requirement for a license.

BUT -- IT WILL COST!

(1):  5 wpm on *all* classes.  This worship of code-for-the-sake-of-code
      is *extremely* repugnant to a lot of us you need to keep your upper
      bands.  My personal interests are on *development*, not the actual
      communication.  Perhaps in a few years I my tastes will change to
      where I enjoy rag-chewing on CW, but the emergency communication 
      argument for CW is the only one I (and a lot of others) will accept.

(2):  You want technical competence required -- demand it.  For a general
      class license, all new *and* renewed licensees must build, from
      components, one major subsystem of a radio.  Included must be design
      notes, assembly records (photographs of partially assembled board
      and licensee), and testing results.  Furthermore, each licensee must
      undergo verbal examination by the volunteer examineers.  And I mean
      questions like: if your FM transmitter (if that is what they built)
      changes the modulation level by the amount dm, how does this affect
      the n-th sideband ? (by J' sub(n) (m) * dm).  How is total bandwidth
      affected?  (Dependent upon the location of the zeroes of the Bessel
      functions)  While a person could still learn this by reading a book
      (sin that that is!), the fact it is a verbal exam will ensure that
      the licensee *must* have an adequate technical expertise.

      For the advanced licenses -- you guessed it -- design and build a
      complete transceiver.  This radio must include *both* digital and
      voice capacities.  Furthermore, this radio must be operated under
      the control of both the operator (via the front panel) and a
      computer (via keyboard entries).  Because of the scale of this
      project, individual modules can be purchased pre-assembled 
      (e.g., power supplies, low-level computer i/o, various filters),
      but a significant amount of assembly must be done solely by the
      licensee.

(3):  Serious discussion is started about removing archaic requirements
      for a license.  Included in that is a no-code/digital-only/high
      frequency license.  Everyone keeps saying "not for another 12 years",
      well to me that is "in only 12 years."  And you better believe that
      if I suffer through the higher code speeds (for the advanced
      license -> the technical aspects I want to free from archaic demands)
      that I will be a vocal member concerning such policy.  It will
      be far better to approach the FCC in 1995 united with a new 
      license requirement than divided and sharply quarreling.

A comment I frequently see, "If you don't have to overcome obstacles, it
wasn't as satisfying when you succeed" overlooks one important fact:
THEY MUST BE NATURAL OBSTACLES!  I have been working (on and off) for
2 1/2 years to get in shape to jog over 12 miles along pristine Florida
coast.  That is a very large natural obstacle, as I will be forced to
jog in either soft, loose sand or in the breaking surf (or both).
And after all this time, I am still doing well to travel 4 miles in a
jog.  After I run it, yes, I will be extremely happy.  But if someone
came to me and said "Miss June says she wants to see you *now*, follow 
this path" and it is a torturous path which takes a considerable amount
of effort to complete, and when I finish I find out that a different
path (which the original person knew) was far shorter and more direct,
then when I next see the person who sent me on the long path he had
best run for his life.  I'm not lazy, but I feel *I* am the best judge
of how my time is best spent, and overcoming artifical obstacles is
just above transporting the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific via a 
teaspoon in priority.


Bruce Giles
{decvax, duke}!ucf-cs!giles
giles.ucf-cs@Rand-Relay