Licenses, Loopholes, and the Myth of “Real” Operators

Every country has its own way of sorting radio amateurs into neat little boxes: Foundation, Intermediate, Full; Technician, General, Extra; ON3 and HAREC. Somewhere along the way, someone decided that memorizing formulas equals competence — and thus, a hierarchy was born.

From the outside, the divide looks mostly cosmetic. The “entry-level” crowd spends their evenings actually doing radio — building antennas, tinkering with baluns, chasing DX — while the full-license holders can quote Kirchhoff’s Law by heart yet still wonder why their 9:1 unun smokes at 40 meters. One applies Ohm’s law; the other venerates it.

Memorize, forget, repeat

Most exam systems reward short-term memory. You study the question pool, memorize just enough to pass, and once you’ve unlocked the HF bands, all that impedance-matching theory fades faster than a 5 MHz NVIS path at noon. The goal isn’t understanding — it’s access. Learn, pass, forget, transmit.

Yet, every year, exam committees act as if the world is saved one multiple-choice question at a time. The real irony? Many of the best operators — those who know what ferrite mix to choke with, how to read a Smith chart, or why their SWR meter lies — learned none of it from the syllabus. They learned it by breaking things and fixing them again.

“Entry-level” doesn’t mean entry-skill

Across continents, the same pattern repeats. In the UK, Foundation licensees are experimenting with digital modes and building portable field stations. In the US, Technicians are running APRS and LoRa gateways. In Belgium, ON3s are out in the field setting up inverted-V’s that actually resonate. Meanwhile, the so-called “Full” license crowd is still debating if a vertical needs a counterpoise on Facebook.

Knowledge doesn’t correlate with callsign class; curiosity does. The exam might get you access, but curiosity gets you progress. That’s why the most interesting operators often don’t care what’s printed on their license — they care what comes out of their feedline.

The real skill test

If we truly wanted to assess technical skill, every license upgrade would include a mandatory build challenge: make a working 20 m antenna from scrap wire and a biscuit tin. Get on air with 5 W and make a contact 2 000 km away. Explain, on the spot, what “current” actually means in a balun. Those who can do it wouldn’t need a theory exam; those who can’t wouldn’t pass one anyway.

— And yes, the biscuit tin would still outperform some commercial antennas.

The spectrum doesn’t care

At the end of the day, the radio spectrum doesn’t care about your certificate. It only reacts to physics. Whether you’re a Foundation, Technician, ON3, or Extra, you either understand what’s happening in your coax — or you don’t.

And even if you don’t, there’s still a place for you on the air. Operating well is its own form of skill. Not everyone has to build or model antennas — some excel at reading FT8 or WSPR propagation maps, tracking grey-line openings, or managing pile-ups like seasoned traffic controllers. Those talents aren’t lesser; they’re simply a different branch of the same tree. With good mentors and enough curiosity, even a “plug-and-play” operator becomes part of the learning chain that keeps amateur radio alive.

Everyone starts somewhere — the spectrum rewards curiosity more than seniority.

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