Our Amateur License System is Obsolete

Foundations of Amateur Radio

Recently I made a point of coming up with three different names for License Classes in Australia. I proposed Low Power, Medium Power and High Power and then went on to suggest that this could also be a mechanism to update the framework that is Amateur Licensing in Australia. As it turns out, I'm told that this idea is mostly already active in the United Kingdom.

My idea started as a response to an increasing clamour for more privileges for Foundation Licenses. These calls include demands for digital modes and more power. I understand this demand, though I don't particularly share it.

I think that licenses evolve and the world in which they operate changes and that digital modes are an example of that.

I have a much bigger problem with the way that licensees are using their level of license to look down on those who have "only" achieved their Foundation or Standard call. I have personally been told that I should get rid of my silly license and upgrade and it's unusual to meet a new Amateur who doesn't straight off the bat ask me why I haven't upgraded yet.

I've seen the same behaviour toward Standard licensees and I think it's a fundamentally wrong attitude and approach to have.

In my opinion this is a hobby for participants to do what they want to do within the constraints that they have. For some that means getting a higher level of responsibility, for others it means spending time doing deep learning and investigating the boundaries of their achievement.

The notion that there are different levels of license is completely arbitrary and the idea that some are better than others is ludicrous in my opinion. Just because I have a Foundation License, doesn't mean that I am ignorant and just because others have an Advanced License, doesn't make them all-knowing or expert.

If that wasn't enough, the boundaries between license classes are completely subjective, drawn from historic demarcations between VHF and HF, between Build and Buy and between Morse-Code and Not. These lines are getting so silly that they have become meaningless, to the point of absurdity.

If I as a Foundation License holder can go to a shop and buy a Software Defined Radio, then update the software on that radio by using my skills as a programmer, I have fundamentally changed the way the radio operates, even-though I didn't once touch a soldering iron, or open the case. Our regulations have nothing to say on the subject, nor is there any sane way to police such an activity and nor should there be - this is an experimental hobby after-all.

If I buy a radio in kit form and get it shipped to me, put it all together and turn it on, did I build something, or buy a commercially available radio? Where's the line between building and buying commercially available and what at the end of the day does it really matter?

What is so special about the 20m band that prevents me as a mere Foundation Licensee to access that band and what is so amazing about digital modes that make it that I'm not allowed to use it, even though all digital modes are really just analogue audio and there is no certification, training or assessment related to digital modes for any class of license?

My point is that the current licensing system is in my opinion obsolete, it's broken and the persistent baying from the sidelines by Amateurs who think that I'm demanding more privileges is getting tiresome. It's ludicrous to think that we should remain back in the 1970's, when Novice Licenses were introduced, perhaps while we're at it, should we go back to a spark-gap transmitter too?

The idea that your enjoyment in the hobby is affected by my privileges is absurd to the level of being offensive and if you're threatened by my participation in the hobby, it seems to me that I must be making valid points.

I don't want more privileges. I'm happy with what I have. What I want to do is make this hobby better, make it relevant, make it useful, make it accessible and make it stronger.

That's why I proposed to make three license classes, Low Power, Medium Power and High Power, to make some common-sense where none currently appears to exist.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB