December 1967 Popular Electronics
Table of Contents
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles
from
Popular Electronics,
published October 1954 - April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.
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In
this saga of YL (young lady) and OM (old man) Ham radio operators, General license holder
Carole H. Allen (W5NOQ/K9AMD) elucidates, with a touch of humor, the woes beset upon
women pertaining to repairing radio equipment. Mrs. Allen's lament is in fact not
the treatment of women participating in the communication aspect of Ham radio, but the
reluctance of men to allow them to engage in the technical aspects of the electronic
equipment. From an operator standpoint, guessing the gender of the Ham on the other end
of the signal can be nearly impossible, particularly with CW (Morse code). Poor transmission
quality can make phone (voice) determination of YL or OM difficult sometimes as well.
Back in the 1960s it was not possible to simply surf to the FCC's Universal License System
(ULS) website to look up a licensee's name to determine male or female.
The American Radio Relay Leagues' (ARRL's) QST magazine had a monthly column titled "YL News and Views" highlighting
activities of female (young and old) Amateur Radio operators. According to the
Wikipedia page, about 15% of today's licensed operators are female.
Check out the Young Ladies Radio League
(YLRL) website for more information.
Why Not a Ham License Just for Ladies?
Or Who Wants to Be an Electronics Technician
Anyhow?
By Carole H. Allen W5NOQ/K9AMD
Illustration by Mort Gerberg
"But, Bill," I wailed, "You told me if I worked real hard and got my General ticket
I'd be set for life! You should hear all the talk on twenty about the new licenses. I'm
going to be a 'second-class' ham if I don't get another license!"
My OM shrugged his shoulders and sighed, probably in chorus with hundreds of other
shrugging, sighing husbands around the country. I'm no dumb brunette, but I'm not exactly
a Madame Curie-type either, and learning what makes a ham rig run took more than just
reading the ARRL Handbook. There were hours of study, evenings of talk sessions, many
visual aids, and countless prayers, before I was ready to go before the examiner. The
License Manual I studied looked shaggier than a public phone directory when I finished,
and my code records wore thinner than my husband's patience.
But now what do I hear? My precious "General Class" will become the lesser-license
as others attain the Advanced and Amateur Extras and move to their exclusive areas of
the bands. This drastic action by the powers-that-be is forcing my hand! Maybe no one
in a high place will admit it, but I contend there is a minority group that will be discriminated
against even more in the future than in the past. Who? The licensed ladies, of course!
Granted, every gal on the air should know every rule and regulation, and I for one
am glad I studied inductance, capacitance, transformers, swinging chokes, and the whole
works. But from now on, there really is no point in my burning the midnight oil to study
for a more difficult examination. One rarely works for skills and knowledge he will not
put to use; and let's face it-how many women would really use the highly technical data
required to pass the new examinations? No, I don't know what the questions will be, but
I can guess.
Frankly, it wouldn't matter if I had a First Class Commercial license, an Amateur
Extra, and had orbited the earth - my OM wouldn't allow me to modify, repair, or do anything
but turn the knobs of his super-sophisticated transceiver. Furthermore, he doesn't particularly
appreciate my opinions when there is a rig breakdown, even if it's just a blown fuse.
Not that he resents my having a license - not in the least. He encourages me to use the
equipment every day and actually goads me into working DX and entering contests. But
when it comes to touching the equipment with anything other than my pinky, well, that's
his department.
And practically every male operator on the bands today would never ask a YL or an
XYL for a technical opinion other than a modulation report, and wouldn't believe her
answer if he did. So, why should I leave the dirty dishes in the sink, have peanut butter
sandwiches for weeks, and develop tension headaches to get an Advanced or Amateur Extra
license? However, I would do all that and more if there were a license for the minority
group of lady operators that we could really use. And there could be such a license.
It's a well-known fact that most ladies promote a more appealing image of ham radio
and of the United States than men do. And aren't these skills needed as desperately today
as the ability to repair radar and work a formula a foot long? Where but on the ham radio
bands can there be casual people-to-people contacts with other countries of the world?
One QSO between a friendly Yankee and a resident of an iron-curtain country can probably
help the U.S. image more than tons of propaganda brochures.
Why can't we ladies officially be given this assignment? We'll tackle it with more
pep than we use behind the scrub mop. We'll study a public relations manual a foot thick
to pass a day-long exam for a license we can really use. We'll take the Novice, the General,
and then the Ambassador Class license, if there could be one.
And we'll train especially well for handling disaster traffic and maintaining communications
to earthquake, flood, tornado, and hurricane-ravaged areas. After all, a lot of women
are free to stay at a rig during the hours when their OM's are working at their jobs.
In conclusion, I'm only asking that lady hams be allowed to do what they can do better
than anyone else . Let us be Ambassadors for Uncle Sam while performing the public services
for which ham radio has earned such a fine reputation.
Posted October 24, 2018
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