Preface
The Federal Communications Commission releasednew rules in 2007 that removed CW - Morse Code testing as a requirement fromALL Amateur license examinations in the United States. A Report and Order wasissued after the FCC considered more than 6,000 comments from the public.
Effective February 23, 2007, applicants are tobe examined for three license classes, none of which requires a Morse codetest: Technician the VHF/UHF entry level; General the HF entry level and Extraa technically-oriented senior license.
The Morse code examination - Element 1- waseliminated by FCC Part 97 Rules and Regulation. Under the new FCC rules, thereare now only 3 examination elements:
The passing score for the Technician and GeneralClass written exam is 26 questions answered correctly. The pass rate for theExtra Class exam is 37.
The National Conference of VECs Question PoolCommittee (QPC) determines the specific mix and makeup of written examinationquestions which are used in all examinations.
Active VE teams will automatically receive notice of new question pools andassociated new testing materials by email and USPS mail.
The new licensing requirements abolishing Morsecode testing in the Amateur Service went into effect 30 days after beingpublished in the Federal Register. The FCC December 15, 2006 Report and Orderon the Morse code proceeding, WT Docket 05-235, appeared in the FederalRegister on Wednesday, January 24, and the new Part 97 rules deleting any Morsecode examination requirement for Amateur Radio license applicants effectiveFebruary 23, 2007.
As previously was the case, Technician Classapplicants with an old Technician Class operator license dated before March 21,1987 automatically qualify for a General Class ticket without further testing.But it does not happen automatically. They must bring their old licensedocument (or other evidence) to a VE exam session to "paper upgrade"their current license without examination.
Even a currently unlicensed applicant who held aTechnician Class license before March 21, 1987 can become a General Classlicensee by passing Element 2. Sec. 97.505(a)(4) grants Element 3 credit eventhough the license is expired.
The new rules also mean that all Technicianlicensees, whether or not they've passed a Morse code examination, will gain HFprivileges identical to those of current Novice and Tech Plus (or Technicianwith Element 1 credit) licensees without having to apply for an upgrade. NewSec. 97.301(e) grants Novices, Technicians and Tech Plus operators CWprivileges on 80, 40, 15 meters and CW, RTTY, data and SSB privileges on 10meters.
The exact frequencies are (CW only) 3525-3600kHz, 7025-7125 kHz; 21.025-21.200 MHz; ...(CW, RTTY and Data) 28.0-28.3 MHz...and (CW and SSB) 28.3-28.5 MHz. The power limit is 200 W PEP output forNovice and Technician operators. The R&O does not change the operatingprivileges of Novice, Tech Plus, General, Advanced and Amateur Extra Class licensees.
The new Element Credit regulations (Sec. 97.505)effective February 23, 2007 are:
97.505 Element credit.
(a) The administering VEs must give credit asspecified below to an applicant holding any of the following license grants orlicense documents:
(1) An unexpired (or expired but within thegrace period for renewal) FCC-granted Advanced Class operator license grant:Elements 2 and 3.
(2) An unexpired (or expired but within thegrace period for renewal) FCC-granted General Class operator license grant:Elements 2 and 3.
(3) An unexpired (or expired but within thegrace period for renewal) FCC-granted Technician or Technician Plus Classoperator (including a Technician Class operator license granted before February14, 1991) license grant: Element 2.
(4) An expired FCC-issued Technician Classoperator license document granted before March 21, 1987: Element 3.
(5) A CSCE: Each element the CSCE indicates theexaminee passed within the previous 365 days.
(b) No examination credit, except as hereinprovided, shall be allowed on the basis of holding or having held any otherlicense grant or document.
1.1 The Mechanism of Amateur Testing
For 70 years theUS government prepared and administered amateur exams, but due to budgetaryconstraints and personnel cutbacks, the FCC discontinued these operations.Congress enacted legislation in 1982 which allowed the FCC to accept thevolunteer services of amateur radio operators to prepare and administer AmateurRadio Service examinations.
The FCC then created two levels of examadministration, the Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC) and the VolunteerExaminer (VE). The VEC acts as an administrative liaison (or coordinator)between the FCC and the VEs who administer the tests. The FCC directs theentire Amateur Radio testing program through a few VECs. The W5YI-VEC andARRL-VEC account for about 90% of all examination sessions.
A bank of test questions controlled by theamateur community forms the question pools used for all amateur license exams.Only VEC-accredited amateurs having a higher class license than an applicantmay administer written or telegraphy examinations. Any qualified General, Advancedor Extra Class radio amateur may participate as a VE as long as their licensehas not been suspended or revoked. (see 97.509) All VEs must be approved (or"accredited") by a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator. (see 97.521) Hamtesting is now administered by teams of three or more VEs from the privatesector rather than government employees. The FCC no longer administers amateur(or commercial) radio examinations of any type.
The exam results are forwarded by the VE team(along with the appropriate application forms, license photocopies andattachments) to the VEC who screens the applications for completeness andauthenticity. To speed things up, W5YI-VEC teams may be authorized toelectronically submit the application data of new (first time licensed) applicantsto the W5YI-VEC Office. (More on this later.) After review of the electronicdocumentation, the VEC then electronically submits the application data to theFCC Universal Licensing System and a license is granted.
W5YI-VEC coordinates US amateur exams in almostevery state, some US possessions and in a few other countries where therequired VE team can be formed. We were the first national-in-scope VEC,although the FCC now permits any VEC to conduct testing anywhere. The AmericanRadio Relay League (ARRL) was the second national-in-scope VEC to be accepted,and several smaller organizations were accepted as VECs as well.
1.2 The Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC)
VECs have beengiven certain duties and responsibilities and have been granted certainauthority by the FCC to:
NOTE: VECs are no longer required to forward VEor VEC expense certification documents to the FCC at year end since thisrequirement was discontinued by the FCC in 1996.
Although VECs must recruit and accreditVolunteer Examiners, they are under no obligation to accredit any particularamateur into their examining program. (see 97.525) VEs, once accredited, may beseparated from the program for any reason or for no reason at all. A W5YI-VEcandidate must advise a VEC if he or she was denied acceptance into, or wasseparated from, any other VEC testing program. Failure to notify a VEC of thesecircumstances is grounds for immediate dismissal from the program. The W5YI-VECmay elect to arbitrarily separate an VE from W5YI-VE testing program based onthe dismissal or suspension of that VE by another VEC, any complaint receivedor knowledge of a complaint regarding any appearance of impropriety by theadministering examiners.
1.3 The Volunteer Examiner (VE)
Under the several VEC organizations are thethousands of amateurs who make up the Volunteer Examiners of the VE/VEC System.These are amateurs accredited by the VECs to administer Amateur Radioexaminations.
VEs must meet certain minimum criteriaestablished by the FCC (see 97.509) and any additional criteria established bytheir VEC. Accreditation by one VEC does not automatically guaranteeaccreditation by other VECs (since each VEC program is a separate entity withits own rules for accrediting). Some VEC programs (including the W5YI-VEC)allow VEs from other VECs to be used under certain conditions. (See Section 2.2in the next chapter for complete details.)
Minimum FCC requirements for VEs in the VE/VEC Systemas specified in Part 97.509 are:
Volunteer examiners are under no obligation totest anyone should they desire not to for any reason. VEs are not consideredemployees or agents of the government or the VEC. They have no licensing orenforcement authority. They merely volunteer their services as a privatecitizen.
VEs agree to hold their VEC harmless in alldisputes that might arise and agree to abide by VEC decisions which are finalwithout appeal.
Guidance concerning the activities of volunteerexaminers can be found in Part 97, Subpart F. Every Volunteer Examiner mustbe thoroughly familiar with these Rules. [ 此帖被BA1AJ在2013-05-17 17:52重新编辑 ]
