I have an alternative reason to Andy’s. In the UK the 5MHz allocation is a large number of sub-bands shared on a secondary basic with the Primary User (MoD). It’s all too easy to go out of these narrow sub-bands - I hear UK amateurs doing this from time to time (e.g. QSOs with WRC-15 CW ops below the nearest UK sub-band).
The total bandwidth allocated is generous compared to WRC-15. Perhaps the MoD were concerned about non-full license operators using their part of the spectrum.
Partly, I suspect, that’s a hang-over from the NoV days when it was a band for experiments which might have involved modifying rigs. It may also have something to do with the primary user’s concerns. There are also a few extra licence conditions applying to its use. Whatever.
I don’t quite understand or see the logic or 'point in the ‘incentive’ system to gain a 'higher level of privileges. Aside from your (MM7MWL) reasoning, what, if anything does the RSGB get out of it - or indeed ofcom? It does not make us better radio amateur radio operators. Like you I’m unlikely to ever get an Intermediate licence and extremely unlikely to get an Advanced one at 72.
If you make a comparison with driving for example, and you wish to ‘upgrade’, to say HGV, or PSV, they require you to improving your driving skills & knowledge in driving those two categories…
But once you have your Foundation licence and beyond your operating skills aren’t looked at all. Most of what the syllabus composes is increasing knowledge of radio electronics theory.
Lorry drivers and bus drivers are not required to learn the theory of mechanics beyond basic inspections not too different from the standard car test/knowledge. If the machine goes wrong or develops a fault you take it to a garage. You are not required to become a mechanic are you?
Yes the theory of radio electronics might be useful, and I’m amazed at the knowledge and skill in radio electronics many hams posess, but it is not an essential skill when operating a radio. We can all send our radio kit off to a repairer if needed…
I can use all the modes going. even though I haven’t a clue about any of them. Bizarre.
Dave.
.
You make yourself a better radio operator.
And the main change as you progress up the licence ladder is you get is the ability to run more RF power.
And the more RF power the more likely you are to have problems of interference with others in your vicinity.
So part of the purpose of increasing your knowledge of radio electronics theory is to give you the understanding and mental tools on how to rectify interference problems that are more likely to occur when you use more power.
I believe the licence no longer says “self-training in wireless telegraphy” which is a shame. It would be worth adding back in so people knew it was down to themselves alone to learn about radio matters they know nothing of.
If you can hack it on the air with 10 watts and your FL, there isn’t all that much you should need to learn to improve your operating skills!
Unless things have changed a FL cannot use homebrew or kit built equipment. Of course what you say is correct for people with no ambition to be more than an appliance operator, but even an appliance operator might at some point develop ambitions to knock together a kit, build some design featured in Radcom or QST, or re-create one of the historical hollow-state rigs, and the knowledge gained in studying for a higher level license could at that point become quite important.
It is all a matter of potentials. You could limit yourself to being an appliance operator and treat ham radio as a sort of glorified CB, but the higher level licenses gives you the potential to be more and go further. Once you have earned the higher level license you may think you will forget the “unnecessary knowledge” that you have learned, but it stays behind as a potential and can be revived as and when you need it. A relevant anecdote, a few years ago I picked up the advanced study book on an RSGB book stand at a rally, and looked through it. I passed my RAE in 1962 (when there was only one grade of license) but looking through that manual over fifty years later It was all familiar and I felt that I could still pass that exam today, even though much of it had not been used by me for decades.
That is defeatism. I’m sure you are better than that! I can tell you from experience that 72 is not the end of the road for learning ability, as I’m 82 and still eager to learn!
A foundation licence holder can use equipment built from a kit.
Brian
Please don’t call me “appliance Operator” The year after you made your HF set, I was using a 1000w transmitter at sea. We had 3 offices that had enough kit in it to make the starship enterprise look like a toy. We had multiple transmitters/Receivers capable of HF, MF, VHF & UHF using SSB, CW.& RATT all interlinked so we could set up systems to communicate with helicopters, operation rooms to operation rooms and even set up automated links to enable us to receive information via HF and automatically link it to a UHF transmitter & relay to other ships so we could not be DF’d and vis a vis… A couple of years after that I was a ship/shore operator in Gibraltar using a 7kw transmitter with switchable directional aerials. Most of the equipment I used made the stuff I see for sale in Radcom look like childrens toys. And we weren’t exchanging RST and WX!
By the way. I don’t use or like ham SSB - sounds too much like glorified CB. But in fairness they did know and use the NATO phoenetic alphabet. Perhaps you’d like to tell me the difference between CB & Ham ? 
I wonder why so many hams get called lids and there are so many discussions about poor operating practices? The foundation and intermediate licence should concentrate more on operating procedures. There are even discussions on here about poor operating practices. And dear oh me. Why any amateur is aloud to use morse at less than 20wpm 100% accuracy is beyond me. 
My lack of enthusiasm for gaining a full advanced licence is simply one of inclination and time. I’m really not very interested in electronics. Finding a decent course would probably help but there’s not likely to be one any where I could attend.
(Sorry if I’ve got a little sarcastic. I’ve had a bad day and will probably apologies tomorrow. Please forgive me).
Dave
My apologies for sloppy English! For “you” read “one”, it wasn’t directed at you personally!
I think the difference between me and a CBer using SSB is that I understand all three methods of generating an SSB signal, though I have to admit I have never used the so-called “third method”! I am by inclination a phone operator, I like the sound of the human voice: I started in 1964 with a home-brew AM rig on 70cm, everything in that station was homebrew, even the 6/6 slot fed yagi, though I quickly replaced my double conversion ham band receiver for a lowly Eddystone 840A as the drive in the homebrew receiver took about fifty turns of the tuning knob to cover the 2 MHz of the geographical band plan in use at that time, a reply to a CQ was often over before I had tuned to it. To enlarge on this, in 1964 when the B license began, giving privileges on 70cm and above, there was no commercial transmitter available in the ham stores of the time, homebrew was the only way to get on the air. Later Tom Withers produced a 6 watt QQV02-6 tripler amplifier for 70cm but by then I was running about 100 watts.
Perhaps, though I believe that the FL students are taken through the correct procedures. The sad truth is that we are up against human nature, There are always people that will get sloppy, take short cuts, get carried away or just don’t give a damn. A pile-up is a high adrenaline environment, people get excited, add in the effects of QSB and the likelihood that there will be chasers that other chasers can’t hear due to skip, and there is a lot of potential for things to not go according with the book!
Anyway, QRT now, the dog is demanding a walk!
Times change… and so do people.
I did my amateur radio licence about 45 years ago… back then I cycled 2 times a week in the evening 8 km in wind and weather to a vocational school where the course was held. After a year of learning, we were ready for the exam. For most people today, it would not be worth the effort.
In the beginning, I had not taken a Morse code exam for many years and only frequencies above 144 Mhz were available to me… and that only with reduced power.
The reward was that I was privileged as an amateur radio operator - compared to a CB radio operator. I had higher rights! The holder of a special right was more valuable than the holder of a general right!
But you also had a special responsibility!
Times have changed and now the requirements are being lowered in all areas. (In our town, the number of high school students is 60%). Unfortunately, many people today want to get everything for free…
The requirements for participation in amateur radio have also been lowered. I am partly glad about that… otherwise it might have died out long ago.
But with the lowering of the requirements and the accompanying lowering of the value, perhaps there is also a change of character. Yes - in many areas of life, the general attitude has become brutalised in recent decades… and amateur radio is not an island of the blissful. Unfortunately, it is the general zeitgeist.
I have only been in SOTA for 4 1/2 years and I have observed two developments during this time: On the one hand, there are unfortunately always phases in which there is an increased elbow mentality among the chasers… this has already been a topic here several times.
But there is also an increasingly friendly, empathetic and respectful interaction that goes beyond neutral friendliness.
It is up to us what we make of / with our passion… and the only thing that helps is to address the misconduct again and again and - even more important - to set a good example!
I do believe that this is how we manage to keep the misconduct down or to catch it again and again.
73 Armin
I feel the same way.
Don’t let unfriendly people spoil your fun, just ignore them
Be careful not to be unkind yourself.
73 Chris
HI Dave @M6GYU
An interesting thread that got a bit out of hand at times with high temperatures!
Let me be the first to congratulate you on getting your CW Mountain Goat with 1003 points - only one of 13 stations in the UK to achieve this level and the only Foundation Licensee possibly, to ever achieve it!
73 Phil G4OBK
Thanks Phil. I appreciate that.
I guess I wasn’t in a very good mood when I posted 2 days ago. I did finish the post with this though:-
So I apologise now for my sarcastic post.
Not the first Phil. We congratulated David in the thread M6GYU MG back in December!
Oh dear Nick - I must have misssed that. I don’t read everything on the SOTA Reflector.
73 and keep up the good work from G/TW-004!
Phil
Hi Rod - you don’t necessarily have to have a big mast. If the summit is not heavily forested, I often use a Komunica HF-PRO-2-PLUS-T vertical on a lightweight tripod with the antenna foot about 80cm above the ground. Eight radials about 4.5m long, and three guys completes the setup. With this antenna, I have easily had good contacts throughout Europe, on 40m, 20m and 10m, with 10 watts from a G90. Here’s the setup in June 2022 on DL/BE-013 looking east:
A great little antenna!
And an attractive looking summit!
And it’s made a bit easier to reach with a cabin-lift up to the station visible in the distance just to the right of the antenna. Then it’s just 2 1/2 km and 200m ascent to the summit. Lovely views all round!
Oh - and I live at the end of the valley in the picture, to the left just out of view, about 12km away… 
This is purely for my own curiosity, but I’ve often wondered how the role of honour works for specific modes. Does it have to be a succesful activation using only one mode, or say I made 4 contacts in cw, and then a further 4 in SSB, would both show up on the relevant roll of honour?
Not that it matters a jot! I’ve just always wondered!
73, Matthew
No. Selecting mode=cw will include any activation were you logged 1 or more QSOs on CW. It doesn’t mean that the you qualified the summits on CW. You can change the conditions for year=2022, band=40m, mode=data etc. that will include any activation in 2022 were you had at least one 40m CW QSO.
The show me activations “where I qualified on CW” is a much more expensive database query that the one shown. It’s currently only offered to Barry GM4TOE for verifying award claims.
I see, many thanks for the explanation, Andy. That makes perfect sense. My curiosity has duly been satisfied!
