Evening star., 1928-12-31
RADIO OPERATORS
FACE RIGID TESTS
Renewal of Licenses to Be
More Difficult After
Tomorrow.

Some 1000 radio operators of all
qualify for renewal of their licenses
after January /. For on that date the
international adio-telegraph conven-
ton becomes effective and under its
terms operators of every class of radio
work will have to meet more stringent
requirements to obtain license renewals
w. D. Terrell, chief of the radio di-
vision of the Department of Commerce,
which has jurisdiction over the licensing
of operators, has sent out notice of the
new examinations. The changes are
designed to bring about Standardization
OF the various grades of operators in
all countries Signatory to the conven-
ton, so that a first-class operator in the
United States will have the same quail
f1cations as a firSt-class operator any
where else.
Code Tests More Rigid.
More rigid code tests, faster speeds.
longer periods of practical experience
and better all-round performance are
the requisites that must be met by oper-
atorS when their present licenses ex-
pre-. Only commercial operators are
affected, with the status of the anna
teurs, totaling about 1900, remaining
unchanged.
One present class of operator is wiped
out under the convention. That is the
commercial second-class grade, the test
Tor which was adjudged too easy. No
new-grade equivalent to this class is
established, but operators holding the
present Second-claSs certificates after
January | may operate broadcast, tech
meal and training, experimental. limit
eo commercial and amateur stations.
Special Class Established.
There is established under the con-
vention a special class of broadcast op-
orators examination, whereas the pres
ent regulations prescribe only one class
that does not require a knowledge of
code. Under the new class operators of
broadcaSting stations of more than $50
watts power must have a knowledge of
code so as to be able to read an o S
and shut down the stations transmit
ter, so that it will not create interfer-
ence with reception Of the distress sig
nal. Operators of the radio-telephone
class, however, for stations with power
up to $50 watts will not be subjected to
the code tests, because their stations
are not strong enough, usually, to in
terfere. Radio-telephone operators for
aircraft are likewise exempt from the
code regulation.
But the operators of the higher
grades, qualified under existing licenses
as ship, code station and transoceanic
operators, will, with the exception of
commercial extra firSt-claSS operators,
find themselves confronted with more
rigid tests all down the line. Operators
now licensed as extra first class will be
issued renewals without examination,
provided they have the requisite length
of service of Is months as station op-
orators during the two years previous to
the filing Of the application.
Years Experience Required.
To obtain first-clasS rating under
the new regulation an operator must
have had one years experience, where
as before anybody who could pass the
code test qualified. Heretofore this
class of operator was required to copy
only 80 words of coherent" transmits
sion a minute. But now a 30-word-a-
minute speed on cipher, with letters
to the word, is required.
Operators holding commercial first
class licenses with less than II months
but more than months satisfactory
service will be issued new commercial
Second-class license without examina-
ton, authorizing them to act as opera
JOTi III any SLaIlO1, except dS CIll6I Op0T-
ator on vessels of the first class Those
with less than months service as
first-class operators become second-class
men without examination, but may not
act as chief operators on vessels of the
first or second classes.
Operators whose licenses expire here
after, and who must requalify by test,
may take their test at any of the Is
Offices of radio supervisors in various
sections of the country. In addition,
the feet of radio test cars that tour
the country are authorized to give tests.
Copyright, 1928, by the Consolidated Press)