[BC] radio engineering not a profession

[RichardBJohnson at comcast.net]

The term "radio engineer" is as old as radio itself.
It had its roots in the power generation industry where
an engineer needed to be on-duty as long as the power-
plant was in operation. These engineers were often
called "stationary engineers" and there were certain
classes including electrical, steam, mechanical, and
distribution.

Once radio became a business in addition to an amateur
activity, the same kind of "engineering" was expected in that
industry. There needed to be somebody on-duty to maintain
and even build the equipment. Note the Latin root in engineer
is the same as ingenious. The early radio engineers became
the teachers and mentors of the electronics industry. Radio
engineers existed long before there were any radio or other
electronics courses in colleges and, in fact, several well-
respected colleges such as WPI, claimed national fame
for being one of the the first to teach radio engineering,
which eventually became the "electronics" of the current
electrical engineering courses. Note that an engineering
degree does not make one an engineer.

As late as the sixties, we had radio engineers in the broadcast
industry. Many persons, myself included, built radio transmitters
and had them certified (Type Accepted) by the FCC.

My credentials as a "radio engineer" were accepted by
a governmental agency (the FCC) long before I obtained
my first college degree and in fact, any company can hire
anybody to do engineering and can even call them an
engineer as long as they don't attempt to sell engineering
services to a state governmental agency where the word
"engineer" is protected and, in most states, means
"Registered Professional Engineer."

When I was preparing WERI's application for a new FM
station in the sixties, I encountered a problem, which
shouldn't have been a problem in that I couldn't survey
my proposed transmitter site because I wasn't a registered
professional engineer.

Therefore, using the "pull" of Nat Urso, the owner, a lawyer,
special council to the states attorney general, etc., I was
able to become a registered professional engineer in
the state of Rhode Island with minimum hassle. However,
much to my surprise, I found that states don't have reciprocity
so if you are are RPE in one state, you can't even do
RPE work in another state, much less become licensed
without taking the "plane-table" and other obsolete exams
all over again.

The RPE is just another protectionism mechanism. However,
as the radio and TV industry matured, so was the FCC license
and SBE. Industrial leaders knew that that you could replace
a radio transmitter at yearly intervals for less than the cost
of a full time "engineer's" salary. Furthermore, the engineers
were no longer doing engineering, only occasional repair
work. Note, I have one of the original SBE certificates, complete
with the original misspellings of "wherein=," so I've observed
this industry a long time.

The current status of licensing "engineers" has remained
in flux for many years. IEEE has been pushing portable
licenses of several kinds. Since I'm in several IEEE
engineering societies, I keep getting the applications
to take various licensing tests, the last to become a
"software engineer." Since I've written two complete
operating systems, know a half dozen languages, and
am involved in my day-to-day activities as a software
engineer, I think I'll decline the opportunity to take
another test. In fact, I'd probably flunk because I don't
think a compiler can create better code than me and
the current crop of software engineering graduates
have been taught to let the compiler to the hard work
and the software engineer just deal with "objects."

--
Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson
Read about my book
http://www.LymanSchool.org


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Xmitters at aol.com
> 
> Richard:
> 
> Licensing (I am assuming you're talking about the FCC First Class) has
> nothing to do with "Engineering."  My First Phone says "Operator's 
> License" and
> elimination of _IT_ has nothing to do with engineering as a 
> profession; Operator
> Licensing merely placed the responsibility where it belongs; in the hands of
> the station licensee.
> 
> When and where was Radio Engineering declared a non-profession?  I have a
> very good reason for asking this, given that I have an EIT license 
> from the state
> of Illinois.
> I have contacted the Department of Professional Regulation about taking the
> PE exam.
[Snipped...]