Another opinion piece

which will get me mixed, or maybe mostly negative reviews. But that's OK, it's just me cogitating.

Yesterday we had our monthly VE session. We had five candidates and all were successful. Five new Technicians, one of which was a young man of about 10 -12 years of age. We also had one Tech come in and upgrade to General - but this post is not about that.

With the question pool for the Amateur Extra class license changing in July, I've gotten a lot of questions about it and a lot of people convinced they should upgrade to Extra by the end of June. Not only that, but I am seeing so many people upgrade so quickly. Some will come in successive three months in a row in order to go from Tech to Extra. 

By now you might be thinking "Where is this going?" or "How can this be a bad thing?" or maybe even "OK, pudding brain, what's got you going now?"

This rush to upgrade is a product of the VE System, IMHO.  It's never been easier to get a license or upgrade your license class than ever before. No more going to the FCC, and in many cases, having to set time aside and travel long distances to do so. A good thing, right? YES! But maybe too good of a thing?

Here's what I mean. Back when I took my Novice test in November of 1978, I had to wait until January 1979 to get my call sign from the FCC. Even though the Novice license became a renewable thing, I was of the old mindset of the need to upgrade to General within a year. I did that six months later in June of 1979. But here's the catch ....... I remained a General for the next four years! I did not upgrade to Advanced until some time in 1983. I spent those years operating, learning, making friends and in general, just enjoying the hobby. After I upgraded to Advanced, I remained in that license class for another eleven years until I eventually became an Extra in 1994 - some fifteen years after I was originally licensed. And my Extra Class exam was the only one taken under the VE System, which I am not knocking, obviously. My point it was the first time that I did not have to travel to Manhattan or Langhorne, PA to enter an FCC office.

Let's face it, going to the FCC was a royal pain in the butt. But in its own way it kind of forced many Hams to slow down, smell the roses and enjoy your license class privileges for what they were. I'm sure for not all of us, but for most of us, there was no self imposed deadline to upgrade as fast or quickly as was possible.

And in that time, if you were active, you learned a lot. Either through an Elmer, if you were lucky enough to have one, or through trial and error as I did. Looking back on it, when I was a Novice and even a new General, I didn't know jack. I knew the theory and I knew the basics, but I still had a lot to learn. And I did, by joining a club and watching other Hams and talking with other Hams and always listening, listening and more listening. And by building Heathkits - learning how to solder, identify and measure components, how to read a schematic and all that other fun stuff.

These days, it seems like so many candidates are more consumed with upgrading, and only learning answers to questions without even bothering to learn the reasoning and why and wherefore behind the question. As a result, I see this with a lot, certainly not all, but a lot of new Extras who, if asked, could not build a dipole if you gave them a supply of wire, feed line and insulators. And even worse, some who wouldn't even know where to go and look up the procedure for doing so. 

The purpose of this post is not to condemn upgrading your license class. Far from it, upgrading is a fantastic and noble thing, However, don't make it your end all and be all in Amateur Radio, just so you can flaunt your credentials that you're an Amateur Extra.  To put it another way, you can purchase and own the latest "smart" refrigerator that does everything for you, including walking the dog. But if there's nothing inside of it, what good is it? Take the time to stuff that fridge with food, so that you can enjoy fantastic and delicious meals for years to come.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!