You don't have to educate me---I know your meter is more accurate than a Bird.
I also know, that in most cases, it doesn't really matter.
It wasn't my goal to attempt to educate you personally. I can understand you feeling the thread is all about you.
Similarly, both you &
xrunner tend to take any contrary comments as personal affronts!
Outside of my SA, I do not have a meter.
My bad, I was thinking of
xrunner's meter, & had already posted when I realised my mistake.
I then hoped you did have a meter.
That said, if I had an SA, I would also probably not worry about a meter.
With one, I could characterise my junk box directional coupler, as I did before, when my last job was very "thin on" for test gear except for the SA (with tracking gen) & originally, a crap "Meterman" DMM, replaced later by a decent Fluke one, so just about anything else was stuff the other guy & I brought from home.
Oh, wait!
They
did have a Bird!----, plus a MFJ 269 antenna analyser, which was used to check the antennas (they didn't radiate outside the screened room, so maybe should be called "transducers")
They also had some decent test loads, so with the SA & my directional coupler, I could tune up the individual RF amps which were combined to get the required RF output.
The manufacturer didn't bother, so we were stuck trying to do stuff we hadn't been prepared for.
All the information about my coupler was in their (long gone) files, as I didn't think to make a copy for myself.
Many new hams are eager to learn, but there is a minority group who know nothing, & are reluctant to learn.
I have put down such people in my comment, on behalf of people who know what Oscilloscopes do.
Interestingly, I don't know any hams with Birds, old or new.
It seems many old hams also fit that group.
Oh, hell, yes!
There are a goodly number of "silly old farts" around, who mostly started out as "silly young farts", or "silly middle aged farts" & didn't improve over time.
The tests will certainly bias the pool of new members. If the government wants more technical members, they just need to raise the bar. Old ones have already learned everything there is to know. They are experts in their circle of fellow hams.
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Most of my "circle" as far as one exists, is made up of old farts who are either still involved with Electronics in some form or the other, or retired from that field.