[450] Fwd: ARLB016 FCC Denies Petition to Increase Size of Amateur Radio Question Pools

[djmay at comcast.net]

Food for thought... 




----- Forwarded Message ----- 
From: "ARRL Web site" <memberlist at www.arrl.org> 
To: djmay at comcast.net 
Cc: Subscribed ARRL Members:; 
Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 9:32:33 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
Subject: ARLB016 FCC Denies Petition to Increase Size of Amateur Radio Question Pools 

SB QST @ ARL $ARLB016 
ARLB016 FCC Denies Petition to Increase Size of Amateur Radio 
Question Pools 

ZCZC AG16 
QST de W1AW   
ARRL Bulletin 16  ARLB016 
>From ARRL Headquarters   
Newington CT  March 20, 2009 
To all radio amateurs 

SB QST ARL ARLB016 
ARLB016 FCC Denies Petition to Increase Size of Amateur Radio 
Question Pools 

In April 2008, Michael Mancuso, KI4NGN, of Raleigh, North Carolina, 
filed a petition with the FCC, seeking to increase the size of the 
question pools that make up the Amateur Radio licensing exams. 
Mancuso sought to increase the question pool from 10 times the 
number of questions on an exam to 50 times more questions. On March 
19, 2009, the Commission notified Mancuso that it was denying his 
petition. 

In his 2008 petition, Mancuso claimed that the current question pool 
is too easy to memorize and "that there has been a significant 
increase in the number of Amateur Radio operators receiving their 
licenses over at least the last decade or more who do not appear to 
possess the knowledge indicated by the class of license that they 
have received. Most discussion about this topic, both on the air and 
on Internet forums, generally refers to these widespread 
observations as the 'dumbing down' of Amateur Radio. It has been 
widely assumed that the cause of this observed situation is based 
upon the subject material addressed by the license examinations, 
that the material requirements specified for the examinations does 
[sic] not meet some minimum level of knowledge expected by some or 
many in the Amateur Radio community." 

The FCC pointed out to Mancuso that each applicant for a new or 
upgraded Amateur Radio operator license "is required to pass a 
written examination in order to prove that he or she possesses the 
operational and technical qualifications required to perform 
properly the duties of an amateur service operator licensee, i.e., 
that he or she is qualified to be an amateur service licensee." 

The Commission summed up Mancuso's petition, saying, "You argue that 
the current question pool size is no longer adequate, because online 
practice examinations enable examinees to memorize a question pool 
without fully comprehending the subject matter being tested. 
Consequently, you propose to increase the size of the question 
pools, in order to hinder memorization." 

The Commission concluded that Mancuso did not present grounds for 
the Commission to amend its rules: "As noted above, the purpose of 
the examinations is not to demonstrate an applicant's comprehension 
of certain material, but rather to determine whether he or she can 
properly operate an amateur station. Moreover, your contention that 
there has been 'a significant increase in the number of Amateur 
Radio operators...who do not appear to possess the knowledge 
indicated by their class of license' is not supported by any data or 
facts." 

The FCC pointed out to Mancuso that the Commission's Rules only 
dictate the minimum number of questions for each question pool for 
the three Amateur Radio license classes. This, the Commission told 
Mancuso, "does not prevent the National Conference of Volunteer 
Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC) from increasing the number of 
questions in a question pool should it decide that this is 
appropriate. We conclude, therefore, that the petition presents no 
evidence of an existing problem or other reason for a rule change." 
NNNN 
/EX 


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.vhfwiki.com/pipermail/450/attachments/20090320/ebddbca4/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
450 mailing list
450 at lists.vhfwiki.com
http://lists.vhfwiki.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/450