Mirror, mirror.

[NS7X]

What if?

"I tried really hard, but I just couldn't pass that test."
"I never would have gotten my license had the FCC not dropped that requirement."
"Frankly, it's an obsolete skill.  There's no longer any reason for the FCC to demand proficiency in it."
"I just don't like it.  Never have."
"If you want to learn it, there's nothing stopping you.  In fact, more people are getting the ARRL Handbook than ever before."
"I have a brain disorder which keeps me from learning math."
"Why should I be expected to learn how to use a Smith chart when the internet will tell me everything I need to know?"
"Ninety-eight per cent of us will never build a radio, so why should we be forced to learn Ohm's Law?"

What if, instead of a no-code license, the FCC came up with a no-theory license?

Just askin'.  
 

[KD3Y]

4 hours ago, NS7X said:

What if?

"I tried really hard, but I just couldn't pass that test."
"I never would have gotten my license had the FCC not dropped that requirement."
"Frankly, it's an obsolete skill.  There's no longer any reason for the FCC to demand proficiency in it."
"I just don't like it.  Never have."
"If you want to learn it, there's nothing stopping you.  In fact, more people are getting the ARRL Handbook than ever before."
"I have a brain disorder which keeps me from learning math."
"Why should I be expected to learn how to use a Smith chart when the internet will tell me everything I need to know?"
"Ninety-eight per cent of us will never build a radio, so why should we be forced to learn Ohm's Law?"

What if, instead of a no-code license, the FCC came up with a no-theory license?

Just askin'.  
 

My response would be...

1 ) Go study some more.
2 ) I said that.   Still do.  LOL
3 ) But it's true.  I see no need to "require" something that the military doesn't even teach anymore.   Amateur Radio is a HOBBY, not a JOB.  I'm never going to use CW for anything but fun.  Fun should only be mandated at Army social functions.  LOL
4 ) Thats why it should not be required.  Amateur Radio is a HOBBY, not a JOB.
5 ) I agree.
6 ) The Americans with Disabilities Act requires me to allow candidates to use hearing aids during the FCC exam, ARRL and the FCC says I have to accomodate blind people, deaf people, people with no legs, people with service animals, people with no arms, so why wouldn't it also cover other documented mental disabilities?   I've not run into a situation where math was required for a disabled person to pick up a mic and check into a net.  There are devices sold to accomodate deaf hams, blind hams, and hams with motor skill impairment.  The only math required today to be a ham is how much you pay the retailer who ships your plug-and-play station.  Ham radio is an out-of-the-box hobby nowadays.
7 ) What is a Smith chart? I'm an Amateur Extra.  Never seen one that I know of'
8 ) He's right, you know.   I'm an ARRL VE, VP of my ham club, volunteer at the County EOC, active daily on 40 meters, built my own J-pole, my own 10 meter and 20 meter dipole, and my GMRS J-pole.  So far I've never used Ohms law.  It's like when I was in college persuing my Computer Systems and Networking degree.  I had to learn to add/subtract in hex, binary, & octal.  I remembered that long enough to get the degree.  In 23 years I've never found a situation where I've had to do math in binary, hex, or octal.  I've worked IT for S3, WalMart, Piggly Wiggly, tutored Visual Basic programming at the community college, and worked for the County Public School System installing networks.  Never needed binary, octal, or hex math.   Now if I was designing processors, sure.  But I couldn't qualify for that job with only a Network Security/Hardware degree.

What if, instead of a no-code license, the FCC came up with a no-theory license?....
They already did, Brother.  It's called "go to HamStudy.org and memorize the question pool."

I'm in the group that thinks you shouldn't have to be an electronics engineer to get a license to simply push a button and talk on a radio.  We have plenty of hams that can cite forumlas and do complex math and tell you how far your megahertz travels on a moon-bounce and back in how many seconds and what strength it'll be when it gets back to earth, but are still A-holes on the radio.  I got a friend (aquaintence, more accuratley) in our club that I had to "speak to" gently a few months ago.  We were chatting on our repeater and I inquired what they were up to, and his reply, "Aww not much we're just out here F'ing around in the shack" (he used the actual word).   Now that's ultimately between him and the FCC, but as he was on our club repeater and representing our club, then I felt I should remind him of the regulations.  I have a duty as a club officer to make sure the club reputation is preserved, and I felt the language shone a bad light on our club.   No amount of physics knowledge would've made him comment differently, most likely, if that is his vocabulary.  You don't need a physics degree to understand that cussing on the radio is an FFC infraction.  My journey in ham radio is like this,  I never had a ham in the family and never had any radio experience or interest at all growing up.  I wasn't interested in the CB fad when I was a teen in the 70's.  My first experience with a radio was in the Army, and I didn't have a clue about what to do with it.  I could recite the proper format for a fire mission, turn the knob to the freq they told me to, change the battery, and that was about it.  After the military I got into law enforcement, and used a radio 12 hours a day, 6 days per week.  But the only "skill" that required was pushing the button and talking.   I didn't get into ham radio until a couple of years ago, but I studied the question pool, and passed the Extra.  Once I got my new ticket all I knew was how to plug the thing in and how to push the button and talk.  THEN was when the learning started.  I've learned more since getting my ticket 2 years ago than I did the previous 50 years.   All a ham radio license should require is that you know enough not to electrocute yourself and to not be a jerk on the radio.   I found it silly after I was gifted that boofang to learn that simply to push the button and talk that I had to cite physics laws and mess like that.  I feel that any person (like myself) who wants to proceed on the ham journey and build antennas and work in eComs and build radios, the question pool certainly isn't going to qualify them for that anyway.  If they want to proceed with their learning, they will do it without a governmnet mandate.  I'll admit that after I got my ticket, and ordered my first radio, I had to google if I wanted a SO-239 connector or N connector when it came to selecting that option.  I didn't know the difference.  I had never installed a PL-259 on a cable until last year.   I actually went to one of our guru's in the club and asked him, "Will you show me how you put on a 259?  I'm ashamed to say I'm an Amateur Extra and have never terminated a piece of coax".  Then I watched several youtube videos and being an old guy who installed 10baseT networks back in the 90's I figured it couldn't be that difficult.  If I could terminate cable TV, CAT 5, fiber optic, and T-baseT I figured terminating LMR-400 or RG-213 coudn't be that much more difficult.  I ordered the connectors from DX Engineering and now I'm soldering SO-239's on my J-poles and tuning them to 145.450 for the guys in the club who want one.

Some people get the knowledge and then get the ticket and some people (like me) get the ticket and then get the knowledge.   Thanks to my Elmers who haven't banned me from their houses yet for going over there every couple days with dumb questions, I'm in the later group.

Most of them are just faking it anyway.
I was "volunteered" to do a presentaion at the club meeting and I chose moon-bounce as a topic.  I spent weeks learning about it and scraped up a pretty decent presentation that would take up 20 minutes of the time needed to have a decent club meeting presentation.   Being the clown that I naturally am, I made sure to specify during the lecture that to get the best results with moon-bounce, you had to do moon-bounce on a full moon.  If you did it on the quarter moon you'd lose most of your signal into outer space.  My joke was a flop because all the "experts" in the audience who have been hams for 100 years and knew everything about everything ham radio were listening wide-eyed and nodding their heads. 
Except for this one Marine in his 30's in the back of the room whom I saw was smiling at me.  I never let on the joke, he never said anything, but after the meeting he came up and shook my hand and introduced himself and said, "You know that on a new moon, the moon is still there in the same spot, right?  The sunlight just isn't reflecting off it?"  I said, "Yeah, I know.  But apparently you and I are the only ones in the room who know that because no one raised their hand and spoke up."

So don't assume that because someone has been a ham since 1930 and had to learn CW, and had to walk 15 miles uphill to the FCC testing station barefooted in the snow, that he's a guru.  I assume the "experts" all went home and waited for the next full moon to try out their moon-bounce skills. 

Edited January 9, 2023 by KD3Y

[NS7X]

Thank you, Sister, for your well thought out response to my post.  I disagree with you on several points, but by and large, I think we're on the same page.
de NS7X 

[K3MRI]

Love you both! My dream for Ham Community... civil collaboration with a sprinkling of informed discord. Just came up with that 😎😇

[NS7X]

😉