Getting a Full Licence – Then and Now

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thedeerhunter270
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Getting a Full Licence – Then and Now

Post by thedeerhunter270 »

Interesting analysis by Essex Ham on the comparison between getting a full licence in 2003 and 2017.

https://www.essexham.co.uk/news/exam-history.html

And the CEPT comparison.

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2017/j ... icence.htm

So it costs £97.50 to get a full licence in 2017, compared to £27.00 in 2003. And many more questions.
Operating in South Northumberland and Weardale.
g7kxm
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Re: Getting a Full Licence – Then and Now

Post by g7kxm »

There was also the cost to enroll at the local college to sit the RAE in addition to the exam fee if my memory is correct.
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thedeerhunter270
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Re: Getting a Full Licence – Then and Now

Post by thedeerhunter270 »

g7kxm wrote:There was also the cost to enroll at the local college to sit the RAE in addition to the exam fee if my memory is correct.
Good point, they should have added that.

I'd applied to my local college to do the RAE back then, the course didn't have enough students, so it wasn't started. Shame for me - so I didn't get a licence until the new system came in.
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Re: Getting a Full Licence – Then and Now

Post by Allan666 »

Brings back memories from when I did my RAE exams in 1981.Going off to night school at the local College about September time, Then taking the exam in the new year. Getting a pass on both sets of papers. Then the the next stage i.e., Spent 12 months learning the CW and passing that. Now I could get on to the HF.Good memories. So many years ago now.
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Re: Getting a Full Licence – Then and Now

Post by Auldgeek »

Allan666 wrote:Brings back memories from when I did my RAE exams in 1981.Going off to night school at the local College about September time, Then taking the exam in the new year. Getting a pass on both sets of papers. Then the the next stage i.e., Spent 12 months learning the CW and passing that. Now I could get on to the HF.Good memories. So many years ago now.
Very similar this side. I went to Glasgow Nautical College in the evenings and then sat the exams in the new year. I remember waiting anxiously for the results and when I passed, another eternal wait (felt like it) for my Callsign.

I kept my Class B call for 3 years, then sat the CW test.
All great fun at the time.
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paulears
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Re: Getting a Full Licence – Then and Now

Post by paulears »

Yep - me too, 1980!

Back then you could NOT even pay anyone to provide the course, you had to so it yourself, and pay the exam entry. My local college here offered to run it, then discovered it was too hard for the teacher, so they ducked out and we did it ourselves. Now you just pay somebody, and who cares that it is expensive, it's NOT a requirement to take the course, many of the clubs who run them take external candidates for just the exam.
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thedeerhunter270
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Re: Getting a Full Licence – Then and Now

Post by thedeerhunter270 »

paulears wrote:and who cares that it is expensive
I just wonder if the total cost of getting a Full Licence is why there are less people getting to the top step these days. Ofcom don't publish the data now, but last time they did, the progression to Full was quite low.
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Re: Getting a Full Licence – Then and Now

Post by Farty »

If you believe the BS, every other G simply walked in off the street and sat their RAE cold with no training, and they all scored 108%.

Even though you had to go through quite an extensive process to pre-book it...
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Re: Getting a Full Licence – Then and Now

Post by paulears »

I sure didn't! The maths in 1980 was a stinker - resonance formulii - and the electronics aspects. You could learn the rules from a book, but I had help with the maths side from somebody much cleverer than me. Oddly, I was always good with maths, but the radio context was really hard too grasp. Back then I suppose that you had to be able to cure RFI yourself, and being able to make filters was sensible, looking back. Us oldies view every new exam as easier/simpler/less complex, but as an ex-teacher I really believe all that has happened is that what is being tested changes to reflect real life. As most people buy radios and don't build, do they really need to be able to build a high or low pass filter, or be able to check the stability of a PLL? Probably not. Now we have computers, it would be crazy to test people on things that any sensible person would use a computer for. I've been doing some supply teaching and in one I was baby sitting a biology GCSE group doing a mock paper. I thought I'd give it a go, being bored rigid. At school, in my time, I did physics and I was pretty decent, but rubbish at biology and was not put in for the exam. I got a B, based on knowledge I've picked up over the years. This seems wrong to me? Should I have been able to get a B with just life experience, in a subject I have never seriously studied?
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Re: Getting a Full Licence – Then and Now

Post by k40 »

I think I only paid £20 something exam fee in 98 I didn't go on a course and borrowed some books and another ham showed me how to calculate the bits that needed calculating.
After 3 months took exam.
Nowadays it seems like an rscb moneymaking scheme.
Keep changing the exam a bit so a new books are needed £££££££££
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Re: Getting a Full Licence – Then and Now

Post by theEarwigger »

Pure nonsense!
I'm an instructor for a club. The 22 practicals is actually only 3:
1. Morse "appreciation" can be passed with 5 minutes concentration
2. Tuning a dipole, just sliding two telescopic rods, watching an SWR meter
3. Project. A £10 kit from Maplin with 1 hour construction time

The syllabus hasn't changed since 2007, the 2017 revision is a badly needed update to very outdated material.
I was a teenager in the mid-1980s and found the mock exam in the RAE book easy, it was the morse that put me off.

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Re: Getting a Full Licence – Then and Now

Post by EssexHam »

theEarwigger wrote:Pure nonsense!
I'm an instructor for a club. The 22 practicals is actually only 3:
1. Morse "appreciation" can be passed with 5 minutes concentration
2. Tuning a dipole, just sliding two telescopic rods, watching an SWR meter
3. Project. A £10 kit from Maplin with 1 hour construction time
As the author of the article in question, perhaps I can add some clarity. The full list of practicals can be found in the Foundation & Intermediate syllabus documents. Some of the more obvious ones missing from Rob's list are:
  • Station setup
  • Using / tuning an HF radio
  • Using / tuning a VHF/UHF radio
  • HF & VHF/UHF QSOs (simplex and QSY)
  • Soldering RF connectors
  • Wiring a mains plug
  • Calibrating a VFO
  • Constructing and measuring various components & circuits
There are 12 separate items on the Foundation Practical Assessment form, and a further 10 at Intermediate. Admittedly, some are combined into a single session by trainers, but all 22 have to be signed off by a Registered Assessor prior to sitting Intermediate.

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theEarwigger
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Re: Getting a Full Licence – Then and Now

Post by theEarwigger »

For the record we took this up in a more appropriate forum!

Nobody will ever be happy with the system but those who run it. As a practising engineer, the changes at the lower 2 levels seem "jobs-worth" to me. As the consultation period is months past it's now enforced and we wait to see if the numbers doing the exams drop.

It remains to be seen if the technical material at full licence level remans badly outdated, and just gets swapped around to suit the other 2 levels.

-Rob
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Re: Getting a Full Licence – Then and Now

Post by EssexHam »

theEarwigger wrote:Nobody will ever be happy with the system but those who run it.
The current system (and practicals) have been running since 2004. I'd respectfully suggest that if you believe the current practical requirements to be "pure nonsense!", then it's a little late to be complaining about them now!

Whether you (or I) personally like the current practicals or not, is not the issue. All of the specified practicals are mandatory and have been for years. Even if a club or trainer thinks they are "pure nonsense!", they still have to be done in accordance with RSGB requirements.
theEarwigger wrote:As the consultation period is months past it's now enforced and we wait to see if the numbers doing the exams drop.
I assume you've now switched to discussion of the RSGB Syllabus Review - Work on this is ongoing. There's an update on this on page 8 of the next Radcom, due out in a day or so.

Pete
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Re: Getting a Full Licence – Then and Now

Post by Unit 148 Mobile »

Studied for the RAE at the De Beauvoir institute Hackney, East London under Fred Barnes G3AGP RIP.

He was and engineer at Northwick Park hospital and was always mobile to and from work on 160m. I was pirating on the band with a false call. He knew that and was very laid back about it. Invited me to his RAE classes and a year or so later (circa 1974) sat the exam for my G8. Did not get my head around cw for a while but have one of the very last G4 calls.

I do remember one question in my exam paper, design a Variable Frequency Oscillator and explain how it works.

Now residing in 5B4 land.

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