How to Fix the Technician License

Once again, I am in the middle of teaching a Technician license class and I notice that some of the exam questions seem off target. I look at the exam through the lens of “what does a licensee need to know to get started at the Technician level?” My approach is more pragmatic than purist. Here are some specific examples of bad questions: Frequency limits for HF beacons [T1A06], reverse function on a VHF/UHF transceiver [T2B01], radiogram questions [T2C10] [T2C11], transverters [T7A06], mode switch on amplifier [T7A09]. Maybe these are not “bad” questions, but they aren’t the most important things a new Tech needs to know.

Most Technicians are going to get started with simple VHF/UHF equipment, focused on local or regional communication. Tech’s do have operating privileges on the HF bands, with CW, Phone, and Data modes on the 10m band. They also get some CW privileges on 80m, 40m, and 15m. While CW is an attraction for some newbie licensees, most Technicians are interested in phone and maybe data (digital). So that points them to 10m as their only HF option. The thing about 10m is that it can be an absolute blast to operate or the band can be painfully dead for long periods of time. Note that we are past the peak of the solar cycle and headed downhill to the quiet time for 10 meters.

Some History

Way back in the olden days when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, the entry level license was the Novice license. This license provided CW privileges on the HF bands and required passing a 5 WPM Morse code test.

 

Note that the Novice license had CW and phone privileges on the 2m band. The 2m phone privileges were removed in 1968 as part of the “incentive licensing” changes. (In retrospect, this seems like a bad idea.) Also note that in 1952, Technician licenses had all privileges above 220 MHz, but nothing below. When introduced, the Technician license was explicitly designed as a special-purpose experimenter’s license focused on VHF/UHF and higher frequencies. It was not intended as a general entry-level license like the Novice; it targeted technically-inclined people who wanted to explore and develop equipment and techniques on the bands above 220 MHz.

With time, Novice licensees gained 220 MHz to “enhance” their privileges, and Technicians were given the 6m and 2m bands. In 2000, the current licensing structure of Technician-General-Extra was implemented, and Novice licenses were no longer issued. By 2007, the Morse Code requirement was completely eliminated, with Technician licensees receiving the same Novice HF privileges. (I am glossing over some of the details, but this captures the main progression.)

Some important observations are:

• The Technician license was conceived as a “techie” license, not a beginners license. It had VHF/UHF privileges but no HF privileges.
• The Novice license was the beginner license, with some basic HF (CW) privileges (and in the beginning, 2 meters!)
• The Novice exam was very basic compared to today’s Technician exam. It was intended to be an easy entry point, requiring some study but not too much.
• Over time the Technician license evolved into the entry level license while carrying along the technical content from its techie roots.
• The changes to the Novice and Technician license privileges have been ad hoc and incremental, resulting in what we have today.

The Technician License Today

The Technician license today offers all amateur privileges above 50 MHz (at an allowed power level of 1500 watts PEP). Technicians also have CW, Data, and SSB on the 10m band, along with the slices of CW “Novice” privileges on 80m, 40m, 15m, 10m. Some folks assume that a Technician can also run data emissions on 80m, 40m, and 15m, but that is incorrect.

The Technician license today is not a good on-ramp for a new amateur radio licensee. Or maybe I should say that it works (lots of people pass their Tech exam every year), but it is not optimized for attracting new people into the amateur radio service. The exam includes questions on the ionosphere, HF propagation, HF beacon stations, international communications, etc. These are things that most newbie Tech’s are not going to need to know, getting started with relatively local VHF/UHF communications. But these topics are in there because the Tech license privileges include HF. At the same time, the Technician exam retains a lot of technical topics from its origin as the Techie license.

A Better Licensing Structure

If I were in charge of Amateur Radio licensing (hey, it could happen), I would implement a more streamlined licensing structure that provides a more effective licensing progression. It would still have three levels of licensing:

• Communicator License: All amateur privileges above 50 MHz, with a power limit of 100 watts PEP. No HF privileges. This license is intended to be an on-ramp, not a barrier to entry. The technical depth of the exam would be more like the original Novice exam and focus on the key things that a new licensee needs to know (call signs, operating procedures, band plans, etc.)
• General License: Keep the existing operating privileges. However, it is important that this license remains a reasonable step up from the Technician Communicator license. Towards that end, the license exam should be tuned to focus on the new topic areas associated with the General privileges (HF operating, propagation, etc.) The current General exam repeats much of the Technician material, which can be dropped.
• Extra License: No changes in privileges or exam content.

Transitioning to this new structure would be a challenge. Taking away operating privileges has never been popular for obvious reasons. A likely approach would be to grandfather in all Technician licensees with existing privileges but not issue new licenses (similar to the Novice and Advanced licenses today.) Or we could add in the Communicator license as an additional license class, while retaining the Technician license. But the FCC is looking for ways to simplify their rules and regulations and either of these approaches would increase regulatory complexity for many years.

Unless I am named FCC Chairman, I don’t think this is going to happen. What I’d really like to see is a fresh look at Part 97 licensing, working from first principles that prioritize getting people into the hobby and advancing their knowledge over time.

These are my thoughts. What do you say?

73 Bob K0NR