Jim,

Thanks - got it!.

The comment that you are referring to, however, wasn't mine - you may
wish to take this issue up directly with its author.

73, Leo

On 21 Jan 2004 02:09:43 GMT, (N2EY) wrote:

In article , Leo
writes:

On 20 Jan 2004 23:24:16 GMT, (Len Over 21) wrote:

In article , Leo

writes:

That's one way of looking at it, Jim. To me, it looks like a purely
political move - that is, trying to please the greatest number of
members...and voters...and customers...

400,000 upgraded licences = 400,000 happier ARRL members.
Drop code = some number of happy new HF - using members.
Keep code for Extra licence = a 'tip of the hat' to the 'Extra' class
members, to give them something to be happy about (although keeping
code testing as a requirement for a licence class that provides only
additional phone bandwidth as a perk is pretty odd, I'd say...but it
does make the Extra level licence harder to get - that's what
everybody wants, right?).

The problem is that the 15 old men of the BoD have just
disenfranchised themselves from over 200K Technician class
licensees who will now carry the wonderful class name of
"Novice."

Leo,

Lest anyone be confused, the above statement is not correct. It
is in error, mistaken, false, misleading and just plain wrong.

The ARRL proposal wants existing Technicians to get a
free upgrade to General, not a downgrade to Novice.

Direct quote from ARRL:

"The middle group of licensees--Technician, Tech Plus (Technician
with Element 1 credit) and General--would be merged into a new
General license that also would not require a Morse examination.
Current Technician and Tech Plus license holders automatically would
gain current General class privileges without additional testing."

Truth triumphs over error once again.


73 de Jim, N2EY