On reflection I see that I didn't really give my view on the proposed new licencing idea but rather on the hobby. Do we really need more licencing options? I wonder who among us took to the air as a pirate before becoming licensed and how many were hounded out of the hobby for following their enthusiasm against how many were welcomed and encouraged to learn and take the exam. We are amateurs, so why must we have such a high and mighty opinion of ourselves. Have we lost sight of where the term "ham" originated? Have we forgotten that we are all still learning and that this is a hobby??
It is not the licence that is the issue but how easy it is or not, to get into the hobby. The hobby is more than a licence. So I would not support fiddling with licensing any further unless it was to make it less cumbersome and confusing than it is now with fewer tiers and barriers. Why have we allowed the route to entry to become more clunky and frustrating when we should be simplyfying? When you are a waining club you court new members you don't make it more difficult to join and you really don't take the view that everyone has to be just like you as that way is the way to a dead club.?
CB and PMR are all well and good but it means buying kit you may never use once you obtain a licence and using funds that could have gone towards your first multimode. It's not all just about the digital world either but about the people. I joined a club at one time and stopped attending after two meetings as it was so boring. I was already way ahead technically and that was years ago. The old boys didn't like a young woman coming in who had just built her own kit ZX81 and who had built her first radio transmitter shortly after passing the exam. The club members were mainly old men. Has the hobby changed much in that time? I've love to think so but it still has a stuffy image and when you say you are a ham these days people ask what's that? What does the RSGB really do for the hobby? Why hasn't someone thought of making a rig that someone without a licence can use on a band for which a licence isn't needed that could listen to the ham bands and be enabled for TX on the ham bands on presentation of a new licence? This would lower the entry cost to the hobby. If you want to be a ham you don't necessarily want to buy a CB or PMR and then have to fork out again. There are rigs that can work 10/11/12 but they are not generally type approved for CB and often turn out to be low in terms of quaility expectations for a ham.?
The beatmax video analogy works well @pete_north
