You may say in response, a wacko won't bother with a license. That may be true, but the fine for a completely unlicensed pirate operator is way way higher and in the past, has included some jail time.
...and who is going to find and prosecute these people? As they were fond of saying in Poland 20+ years ago: "2+2=4". Translation: if there's more of them than there are people who would stop them, they win.
Let's not forget that the FCC is on the very bottom of the federal budget, and don't have the manpower or money necessary to make all of us go in and re-test in front of them. I can think of 9,000 things I'd rather have my taxes pay for this year.
All of which overlooks the most important reason: they don't give a pair of fetid dingo's kidneys about us, and one can hardly blame them.
But, make the basic ham test something a tad short of a give away from your friendly smiling VE and we have this blurring between 75 m., 27 MHz and the "freeband" wherever that is. Do a few menu mods to your Yaesu and it is all one big continuum.
Changes in technology have absolutely
zero to do with the VE system, sorry. You're lumping "apple" pet-peeves in with "orange" ones.
I know plenty of people who took their exams in front of the FCC who are either idiots, egotists, pedophiles, murderers, or just plain subtracting from the collective IQ of the hobby by continuing to participate in it.
Hiram Percy Maxim
never took an exam in front of the FCC. What a bum
he must have been.
