Q.  Where exactly in the FCC rules does it say what it is that a person needs to know to qualify for an amateur operator license? 

   A.  Section 97.503 says that a written examination for a license grant must be such as to prove that the examinee possesses the operational and technical qualifications required to perform properly the duties of an amateur service licensee.

   Each written examination must be comprised of a question set:  Element 2 must concern the privileges of a Technician Class operator; Element 3 must concern the privileges of a General Class operator; and Element 4 must concern the privileges of an Amateur Extra Class operator license.

   Q.  What does a ham need to know? 

   A.  Our volunteer-examiner coordinators consider that knowledge base to be in their pools of over 1600 questions: technical rudiments (60%) necessary to making meaningful our good amateur and good engineering practices (24%) and our FCC rules (15%).  The remaining 1% does not fit into those other categories.  See BE Informed No. 39 VECs' Question Pool Syllabi.

   Q.  Don't those FCC exams cover everything? 

   A.  The FCC hasn't prepared or administered our examinations since 1983.  That is the job of our volunteer examiners.  Section 97.507(b) requires that each question set utilize questions taken from the applicable question pool.  Section 97.523 says that all VECs must cooperate in maintaining these pools.  

   There must be at least 1200 questions distributed among the three pools:  Technician 350; General 350; and Amateur Extra 500.  The questions in the VECs' pools, therefore, establish what it is that our VECs consider a person needs to know in order to properly be the station licensee or control operator of an amateur station transmitting from any place where the amateur service is regulated by the FCC, with the privileges of the class of operator license grant held.

   The distribution of the questions in their pools, moreover, indicates what the VECs deem to be the most suitable privileges for each operator class, under any type of conditions.  In particular, it appears that they consider Technician and General Class Operators to be authorized far too many privileges, notably excessive transmitter power limits, unwarranted emission type privileges and unsuitable special operations privileges.  This is evidenced by questions concerning Technician Class operator and, to a lesser extent, General Class operator privileges appearing only in the higher level pools.

   Q.  There is a detachment between operator privileges and the question pools.  The only differences between Technician, General, Advanced and Amateur Extra are frequency privileges and shorter call signs.  

   A.  It has been traditional for our amateur service community's rule-making petitions and comments to neglect taking into account the effect our called-for changes would have upon the question pools. 

   Q.  To maintain 850 questions for the General and Amateur Extra Class pools means having to use questions that should have been asked in the Technician Class pool.  As privileges stand now, there should be a 100 question test for Technician, 15 questions for General and 5 questions for Amateur Extra. 

   A.  Our VECs have identified the knowledge base required to operate properly any amateur station anywhere the FCC regulates our amateur services under any set of circumstances.  Their conclusions are similar to yours.

   Another view is that practically all privileges should have been covered in our VECs' Element 2 Technician Class pool.  Our General and Amateur Extra Class operator licenses, therefore, are unnecessary and superfluous, creating a waste of resources to include in the ULS the four classes of operator license grants when the incremental privileges between them are so insignificant.

   Q.  What types of questions do the pools contain? 

   A.  The questions are arranged into ten sub-elements for each classes of operator license.  Here is an overall summary:

            Rules - 14.1% 

            Procedures - 11.7%

            Circuits, equipment - 11.7%

            Antennas, feed lines - 11.7%

            Electrical components - 10.8% 

            Practices - 10.0%

            Electrical principles - 9.1%

            Modulation - 8.3%

            Propagation - 7.5% 

            Electrical power, RF hazards - 5.0%

   Q.  But, what does an amateur operator really need to know? 

   A.  There are at least two very different standards for that. 

   Standard One comes from the objective of expanding our Nation's reservoir of trained operators, technicians and electronic experts.  It is based upon Section 97.503:  each examinee must prove that he/she possesses the operational and technical qualifications required to perform properly the duties of an amateur service licensee.  A person must have those qualifications in order to enjoy our hobby fully and serve dependably the purpose for which it exists, i.e., self-training, intercommunication and technical investigations carried out by amateurs, that is, duly authorized persons interested in radio technique solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest. 

   Standard Two comes from the objective of encouraging as many people as possible obtain licenses speedily and effortlessly.  The examinee, therefore, need only be able to give the correct answers to the minimum number of pool questions required to pass.  One argument is that it only matters what you do after you get your license, not on how you go about obtaining it.  Cutting corners should, therefore, be expected and tolerated.

   Q.  Doesn't that latter view make the VEs' efforts practically meaningless? 

   A.  It trivializes our radio service and invites encroachment from those who are unable to justify a radio spectra allocation for their own purposes or who want to benefit from our less-expensive radio apparatus, open architecture systems and easy-to-get licenses.  It probably leads to the unqualified licensees' eventual discouragement when they discover that they are ill-qualified or motivated to provide radio communication know-how when they must be relied upon to provide it.  They might also not gain the respect of our amateur service community.

  Q.  Hams are ignoring a very glaring issue: the disconnection between operator privileges and the question pools.  The only real differences of any substance between Technician, General, and Amateur Extra are more frequency privileges and shorter call signs.  The major disconnection is between the pool content for - and the privileges authorized to - the Technician Class operator.   This is also evident, although to a lesser extent, for the General Class operator pool.  

  W3BE-O-GRAM:  The increments between the privileges our operator classes are small indeed.  That discomforting fact is not a recent development. It has been practically traditional, rather, for our amateur service community’s rule-making petitions and comments to overlook taking into account the effect our called-for changes would have on the VECs’ question pools. 

    Q.  That disconnect comes from incompatible requirements in the rules.  First, it says what to do.  Then it goes on to say how many questions to use in doing it.  Section 97.503 says that an examination must be such as to prove that the examinee possesses the operational and technical qualifications required to perform properly the duties of an amateur service licensee of the three classes of operator license.  Then it says that proving examination must be done within a certain number of questions for each operator class.

   A.  With their composite pool questions, our VECs have identified the knowledge base required to operate amateur stations properly, anywhere the FCC regulates our amateur services, at any time, under any condition of demand for their services.  For many, the question pool is their only learning tool.

   Q.  What can be done to correct this imbalance?

   A.  There appears to be at least three approaches from which to choose to achieve a more cogent balance between operator privileges and requirements: