The recent report on the number of new licensees in 2017 pointed out, “The number of amateur radio license upgrades was 9,576 in 2017, continuing a slight downward trend over the past 10 years.” While we really need some kind of study to determine why this is so, below is a conversation from Reddit that might shed some light on this.
LS
As you progress into higher licenses the math gets more difficult. We can argue if that’s a good or bad thing, but it is almost entirely what’s keeping me from upgrading now. And I have little desire to design my own tranciever, or even homebrew many circuits. (Not at all a fan of soldering small components). And if I do, I’ll use a kit because I have even less desire to individually buy tiny components.
Does this mean I have no chance of properly operating on HF? How many higher license classes regularly use the knowledge they are required to learn to pass the test? It’s bad enough most of us have to memorize countless useless facts to get a degree and decent career. I’m not looking for a hobby to replace that. Go ahead and call me an appliance operator. That is our future: appliances. Anything short of the most basic radio can’t really be built from scratch. And no, uBitx doesn’t count as its plugging in pre made boards and a little soldering. Not much harder than assembling a PC, and I did that for years with no formal training. Professionally no less.
RY
That is our future: appliances. Anything short of the most basic radio can’t really be built from scratch. And no, uBitx doesn’t count as its plugging in pre made boards and a little soldering. Not much harder than assembling a PC, and I did that for years with no formal training. Professionally no less.
I disagree with your statements. There are plenty of hams that can and do build modern ‘transistor’ or old school tube type rigs… from scratch. I’m one of them. In fact just a few days ago I finished the receive section of a direct conversion receiver, the amplifiers, and double balanced modulator are made from discrete diodes and transistors. All the toroids I wound by hand, band pass filter was made from adjustable caps and more hand-wound toroids, tuned it with a broad band noise source…also made from scratch. The only digital circuit is an arduino nano controlling the si5351 clock source, you’d have to be really old school to make your own analogue VFO these days, simply not worth the trouble.
FWIW the bitx project started in ~2004 as a 20m SSB rig that could only be built from scratch, it was such an elegant and simple design that it gained a lot of popularity among the homebrew crowd. It wasn’t until 2007 or later that folks started commercializing it and began selling kits or premade pcbs. Despite its commercial success, the bitx design remains popular for people who like to build their own gear.
NS
Fair enough, and know I’m not belittling your efforts. I’m hella impressed with folks that have the level of patience required for all that. I don’t have it, and don’t want it. Tubes? Hell no. Again, personal choice not a dig. I love seeing radios glow in the dark, but I’m not nearly committed enough to keep one running,
Me? I’m a fan of SDR based HF tranceivers. Give me a box that does what it’s supposed to and let me do my thing. Built in sound card for digital? Yes please. Built in PC control? Ditto. Yes I’m fully aware I’ll never be able to repair that kind of device, and that’s the idea. I’m not looking for a gadget I need to tinker with and/or maintain. I gave up rooting and ROMing my daily phone years ago. I loved the flexibility, but it came at the cost of my time and sanity, I use vanilla Android for my daily driver. When I want to torture myself, I grab one of the older ROMed tablets I still have and plug it in. Same principle applies here. I do not want another “thing” I need to tend to.
The transceiver to me is a means to an end. No disrespect to those that value the device for what it is, I just want one for what it does. The easier to operate the better. I’d love a smart-device/HF hybrid radio. No PC required for digital modes. Power, antenna, GO!
dan_kb6nu Ann Arbor, MI
Even appliance operators need to know how things work. If you don’t, what are you going to do when things go wrong–as they inevitably will? Are you just going to throw up your hands and never touch the radio gear again? I think a lot of hams do do that because they don’t have the insight they need to make their radio stations more effective and fix things when they fail.
NS
Me? Hell no. I tend to get more interested when things do NOT work as they should. I’ve rolled an APRS iGate and an Allstar node out of a Pi and an HT mostly to figure out how. Especially the node since I don’t ragchew. But that’s my point: I will dig in and learn once I have a need to, but honestly until then it’s useless knowledge in a head already filled with enough. I’ve been playing with radios for well over 35 years now starting with CBs in the 80’s. In fact I’ve “works DX” plenty free banding back then. (All pre-adult and pre-license. No excuse but I did go legit). Do I really need to know things like “what do you get if you put these value transistors in parallel” if I’m not designing my own circuits? If, and I mean if I ever decided to attempt a repair of tiny electronics, I’d replace like for like. So I would know the proper values required.
But to that point, how much repair can one really do to an SDR based tranciever? Short of fixing a stray solder point it’s just about all integrated circuits. And the last thing I want is a restoration project in the shack. I’ll buy a classic car if I want that kind of challenge. LOL.
dan_kb6nu Ann Arbor, MI
I’m not talking about repairing an SDR (although that’s not out of the question). Understanding basic electronic principles can help you in lots of different circumstances. For example, say you want to run two radios off a single power supply. What do you have there? Basically, two resistors (loads) in parallel across a voltage source.
You seem like a smart guy, and the General Class test isn’t rocket science. Just do it. If you want help with the math, let me know, and I’ll help you with that.
JH
First off, listen, you can get that general license. My 8-year old got his technician license before the teacher had covered negative numbers, decimals, and long division. When we came to problems where he needed these skills, I would show him how to do it, but often, ultimately, I’d say, “Just memorize this one.” For example, questions about decibels or logarithms. Yes, it’s not realistic for an 8-year old to grasp a log scale. But I think the material is still relevant and he’ll learn it as he goes when he is ready for it.
With regards to the general, I don’t really think the math is stepped up that much. Lots of folks have trouble with the math, but it can be overcome with repetition and memorization. It’s not insurmountable. Keep at it and you will get there. I think removing the math would be attractive to a lot of folks but the math is there for a reason, it reminds us that what we do isn’t purely magic — there is a real reason for how things work!
It seems to me that, for some reason, this guy is either afraid of the math, or afraid of failing the test, or some combination of the two. I don’t think he’s alone, either. If we’re really concerned about how few people upgrade, then we need to figure out a way to address these issues.
In his first comment, LS asks, “Does this [not understanding the math] mean I have no chance of properly operating on HF?” The answer to that question is, of course, no. But, I’ll stick by my opinion that understanding the technology—and, yes, the math behind it—will help someone get more out of amateur radio, and that’s the reason LS should make an effort at learning it.
David says
I think we don’t need to push people into taking exams. The person who wants to stay a technician, whether or not they understand what their appliances are doing inside, is perfectly welcome. There are few things that one actually needs a General or Extra license for, other than access to a bit more spectrum.
When someone is really interested they will study, and at some point their own desire for accomplishment will prompt them to take an exam. Passing an exam should not be waved about as a status symbol.
Dan KB6NU says
I agree 100% that we shouldn’t push people into upgrading. Gordon West, WB6NOA, often says that new Techs should get some ham radio activity under their belts before they upgrade. I’m not so sure that I agree 100% with that, but the point is well taken.
What I’m saying here is that one shouldn’t let the fear of math or fear of failing the test get in the way of upgrading. It seems to me that this fellow is plenty smart, and that with a little effort, he could easily get the General Class license. I think he would have more fun with ham radio with a General Class license, and he shouldn’t let his fears get in the way of that.
Earle / Hatboro, PA says
Hello–
I would like to see your texted “quotes” in darker text. I seem to strain and squint whenever I read those items. My laptop has normal brightness set up, and I don’t have this problem with any other site. I realize you are trying to distinguish the story from the quoted parts and I appreciate that. Any other technique that might fix this? Bold text? Color?
BTW, nice site, good stories. Keep it up.
Dan KB6NU says
Yeah, sorry about that. The appearance of the quoted text is a function of the WordPress theme that I’m using, and to be honest, I’ve never been happy with they way quotes look, either. I’ll see if I can tweek it a little.
Joe Myers says
Dan,
I think this is a good discussion and highlights just where our hobby is today. Like the state of the car hobby (NS alluded to restoring classic cars) which once had a large number of hobbyists- remember hot rods up and down the street, back in the day? Automotive technology has advanced a lot, too, and there seems to be fewer hands-on, technical car enthusuasts, as well.
General electronics as a hobby has many adherents, including those into PC’s and Linux boxes, those into various cellphone technologies, coders/programmers, makers and hackers and many more. What perhaps separates us in amateur radio, a little, is that we are entrusted with the precious public RF spectrum we are allowed to use and to properly manage that may need a little more diligence. Understanding that what we do affects this national resource and having a better knowledge base may help each of us with protecting that.
There is plenty of room for the plug and play operators as long as they are safe with antennas and RF energy in the shack and the environment, plus are mindful of our responsibilities in the federal code. The true homebrew and technical hobbyists will always be a part of our hobby as much of the innovation comes from them, Dr. Taylor and his colleagues are a major example of that.
Maybe this is where the ARRL is finding itself as it proposes to increase the HF spectrum for technician licensees. That may not be such a bad thing after all.
Chuck K4RGN says
“Appliance” is a pejorative term even if it’s accurate. But let’s be honest, the hurdle to understanding radios has risen. Compared to 1970 when I was first licensed, it’s not easy to look at a processor-driven radio (SDR or not) and figure out what’s going on at any level deeper than a block diagram. For one thing, you don’t have the source code for that processor. This is the tradeoff for higher reliability, more flexibility, better performance, and lower prices (relatively speaking) for modern radios. And then there are SMD challenges if you really want to maintain a modern radio yourself. I don’t have the eyesight or the surgical hands to do it.
Even people running FT8 have relatively little idea of what the algorithms in WSJT-X are actually doing. What percentage of hams have ever looked at the WSJT-X source code? Costas arrays, LDPCs, DSP… this is stuff that generally takes at least an undergrad degree to understand.
Meanwhile, compared to 1970, far more hams seem to experiment with antennas. You can still get dirt under your fingernails that way, and you don’t have to recite Maxwell’s equations in your sleep to do good antenna work.
Walter Underwood says
I’m in an Elmers group on Facebook and we keep helping with questions about this basic stuff which either is on the test or maybe should be. Things like power supply capacity, batteries, antenna lengths, etc.
A recurring question is whether an ATU is needed on output of the 100 W amp if you already have one on the output of the QRP rig.
This doesn’t even get into the mysteries of SWR and whether resonant antennas are always, always better than non-resonant.
Dan KB6NU says
What this says to me is that we really need to figure out a better way to Elmer new hams.
Walter Underwood says
I would draw a couple of more limited conclusions.
First, the test is covering the right topics. This shows that amateurs need to understand these things in order to enjoy the hobby.
Second, just putting them on a multiple choice test isn’t working. People pass the test and don’t understand the material.
The UK tests include a practical exam, where you have to actually do things.
Foundation (like Tech but with some HF at 10 W): https://www.essexham.co.uk/train/foundation-practicals/
Intermediate (like General): https://www.essexham.co.uk/intermediate-practicals
wunder