robbage wrote:The prac exam requirement was a surprise when I upgraded though. I was waiting for the new callsign when Ham College got an email saying I needed to do it.
It was quite the surprise to us as well! It's all to do with the way the new licence requirements are published. It says a prac is required for the first grade of licence after the date the system changed. While they translated the old licence levels to the new ones, because the prac was something new, it applied equally across the board, whether you're just starting out, or have been licenced for 30+ years. Bizarre but there you go.
What I don't agree with though, is the need to sit (and pay for) a separate practical exam if you're not starting at Foundation level. Ham College have asked the WIA to look into how a practical exam can be incorporated into
any theory exam, rather than it being only incorporated into the Foundation exam as it is currently.
To date, there's been no answer from the WIA, but it's going to take a little while - they need to demonstrate to the ACMA that it can be done and is fair (as per the ACMA's cost recovery rules)...