[hpsdr] - Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL

[r_burton]

Your point ...that a lot of hams buy into SDR simply because it appears 
the the latest-and-greatest fad on the block... is well taken and I 
agree with you fully.  Your final comment,....”asking the examinee to 
calculate parallel inductance in a circuit”... is somehow misplaced, 
in view of the current advanced state of electronic technology...I am 
afraid I must take issue with.

You are absolutely right, since everything in our lives, ham radio 
included, is going or has gone digital, a ham should know something 
about digital electronics.  The FCC however, is responsible for 
enforcing the qualifications and setting the rules governing who is 
permitted to put a radio signal on the air in a crowded spectrum.  In 
order to do this one absolutely must understand the fundamentals of 
resonant circuits, i.e., inductance, capacitance, resistance..etc.

Honestly, I simply don't know of a way to pack all of this into a 50 
question test.  For many, many years, knowing CW was the screening 
device for getting people with “the right incentives” into ham radio 
– now we try to do it all with a written test.   There are already 
plenty of questions about AND and OR gates on the test, this however is 
far from adequate in a world of SDR.

Incidentally, even though we have been a licensed ham since 1959, we 
went on to earn our living in software engineering and 
telecommunications - we do know what a DDS and an FFT are.  We even know 
a little of the internals of SDR!

Bob,  W1RRI