Many subjects are verboten in the amateur radio world. So many in fact, it’s surprising we have anything to talk about at all. One particular topic that has become taboo is the issue of the testing required to obtain an amateur radio license. On this matter there are certainly strong, divergent views.

One extreme posits that making licensing easier has lead to the “dumbing down” of the amateur service. Some of these would have you believe that the days of traveling to an FCC office and the requirement to draw electronic circuits on paper made ours a hobby for technical elites and see that as a good thing. This despite the fact that most who believe this haven’t taken a ham radio test in decades and likely couldn’t pass even the newer “dumbed down” tests.

On the other extreme are those who see license testing as a nuisance that doesn’t produce better hams and only impedes the growth of the amateur service. Many on this side of the argument would like to see testing eliminated altogether as they believe on the job training produces the best results. It’s as though they believe there are millions of would-be hams with their noses pressed up against the window prevented from crossing over because of testing.

With such strident opinions from both sides, a sort of détente has been achieved by simply ignoring the issue and not discussing it. It seems crazy that we can’t rationally discuss an issue that impacts our hobby, but such is this situation. A blog post or article suggesting license testing has become too easy would be instantly shouted down with accusations that the author was an old curmudgeon and not in step with the 21st century version of ham radio.

Really? We can’t even discuss it? VA3KOT would like to opine:

 ⁍  Does Making It Easier to Get Licensed Really Grow Our Hobby?

We certainly have spent enough time in this newer era of licensing to get a feel for how it’s impacting our service. Are we growing? Does anyone believe that we can forever grow the hobby by continuing to reduce the rigor of our testing? More importantly, does anyone believe we would generate sustained growth by removing all testing?

I was struck most by this point made by the writer:

“Even if we succeed in boosting the number of new licenses issued by lowering the requirements, will the new recruits stay in the hobby if they are don’t have radio in their DNA?”

It seems to me that lots of people enter the world of amateur radio, but few remain for a lifetime. We need to figure that out. That won’t happen without open discussions about the best ways to accomplish that without it breaking down into yet another holy war. We must do better.