The Amateur Radio Act of 1912 was established partly during the investigation into the sinking of the Titanic.  It required all sea going vessels to monitor distress frequencies and mandated that all radio stations in the United States be licensed by the federal government.  The Amateur Radio act of 1927 allowed the regulation of the radio waves by the creation Federal Radio Commission which in later years was abolished and replaced with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  By 1932 about 30,000 amateur radio stations had been licensed.

 

Amateur radio (also called ham radio) is the use of designated radio frequency spectra (bands of frequencies) for the purpose of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication.  You will notice that nowhere does it say for self-aggrandizement, or contesting. As with radio in general, the birth of amateur radio was strongly associated with various amateur experimenters and hobbyists.  Research by amateur radio operators has founded new industries, built economies, empowered nations, and saved lives in times of emergency.  Ham radio can also be used in the classroom to teach English, map skills, geography, math, science and computer skills. 

 

Prospective amateur radio operators are examined on their understanding of the key concepts of electronics, radio equipment, antennas, radio propagation, RF safety, sending an receiving Morse Code at varying speeds from five to 20 words per minute (depending on class), and the radio regulations of the government granting the license.  In the past, the United States required this testing to included drawing circuit diagrams, identifying individual circuit components, identifying which is a Colpitts or a Hartley Oscillator, circuit analysis, and practical use of electronics formulas.  Several years ago, with the backing of the ARRL and radio manufacturers, the FCC dropped the requirements for Morse code on all license classes.  In the last several years these examinations are sets of questions, known as a question pool, typically posed in a multiple-choice format. 

 

Many researchers have proved that these 'multiple guess' format government tests can be passed most of the time with absolutely no knowledge of the subject.  Many have passed the 'written' test for an amateur license, the general telephone license, and even a private pilots license with no knowledge of the subject whatsoever.

 

There are only a few versions of the amateur radio license examination and all are derived from a single 'question pool'.  Authors of 'how to' books for getting your amateur license currently are sending dozens of 'applicants' to testing sessions to submit a list of as many of the questions as they can remember to the authors.  These questions are then printed, with correct answers, and published.  These 'question pools' are changed every few years requiring new 'applicants' to do as before to establish what the 'new' question pool consists of.  Actually some of these 'applicants' actually are able to pass the 'multiple guess' test.

 

In most countries, an amateur radio license grants permission to the license holder to own, modify, and operate equipment that is not certified by a governmental regulatory agency. This encourages amateur radio operators to experiment with home-constructed or modified equipment. The use of such equipment must still satisfy national and international standards on spurious emissions.  However, because of tje reduction of licensing requirements, most amateurs are 'knob twisters' or 'operators' with little on no knowledge of electronics.  These reductions were lobbied for by radio manufacturers and the ARRL.

 

The ARRL has lost site of the original purpose of amateur radio.  Instead they are going after whatever will bring in more members: contesting and DX contests a 'award' for WAS (worked all states), WAC (worked all countries), and the ever-present contest to earn 'points' to get you name in the ARRL publication. 

 

Over the years Amateur Radio licensees have been responsible for much technological advancement in radio communications including some of the new digital modes of communications.  However, today, most Amateurs can't understand even the basic principals of electronics.  With the relaxation of license requirements, a new generation of Amateur Radio operator has immerged.  They have moved from Citizen's Band Radio to the Amateur Radio  and have brought all the bad attitudes, bad habits, and childishness with them.  The majority only turns on their radios to do contesting, DX, or maliciously interferes with other Amateurs.

 

It's time to stop supporting the ARRL!  They have shown that they are more concerned with making money than guarding the premise which led to the establishment of Amateur Radio.  They are more concerned with turning ALL amateur radio bands into a total contest environment catering to the CBer's. 

 

Contesters and DXer’s, by nature, are narcissists and egotists and do not exchange messages, they exchange only signal reports, which are always 59 no matter how many times they have to ask for it.  They can’t experiment because they are 'knob twisters' that have no knowledge of electronics to do experimentation.  They don’t do self-training, since the only thing that matters is the contest or that rare DX station.  They don’t participate in emergency communications because they would rather scream “CQ contest” and interfere with emergency communications.  In fact, the contester and DXer make no worthwhile contribution to Amateur radio in the least.

 

I’ve been working with the Boy Scouts for years and it’s almost impossible to get them interested in Amateur Radio, because every time you turn on the radio, there’s a contest or a pile-up with hundreds trying to make contact at the same time.  Their typical response is, “Why would I want to study and take a test to listen to that?  I can hear that any day on CB.”

 

W1AW is the club station Amateur call for the ARRL.  Any member is allowed to use the call when operating the ‘Club’ station.  During the entire year, I repeat, THE ENTIRE YEAR of 2014, the ARRL, in order to celebrate it’s 100th anniversary, authorized club members to use the W1AW call everywhere, any state, any time of the day or night, and on any band to ‘contest’ to get points.  I’ve heard some of the worst operating procedures used by the users of W1AW in my 50 years of Amateur Radio.

 

W1AW operators would just start calling ‘CQ Contest’ right on top a QSO in progress.  When asked the move, they sometimes would, but they would move 1 kHz up or down, whichever would cause the most interference with the QSO they interrupted.  They seemed to always ‘contest’ wherever there was an established net or frequency that was primarily used for rag chewing or they would, again, establish the ‘contest’ 1 kHz above or below, to cause the most interference.  This isn’t proven, but it certainly appears to be encouraged by the ARRL.  I’ve heard W1AW operators they could care less whether they were interfering with anyone because they were ‘contesting.’  W1AW ‘contesting’ on 17 meters, working split frequency, taking up most of the band so nobody else could use it.

 

In fact, the ARRL’s support and proliferation of contests has had an adverse effect on Amateur Radio.  The ARRL says that without all this use, we would lose the Amateur bands.  I say we have already lost them.  If this is what Amateur Radio is to become, I say let the FCC auction off the Amateur bands.  I can live without Amateur Radio, the ARRL can’t.