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January 24th 04, 12:26 AM

In article ,
(Brian Kelly) writes:

"Dan/W4NTI" w4nti@get rid of this mindspring.com wrote in message
hlink.net...
"N2EY" wrote in message

How did "incentive licensing" trash ham radio? btw, it was FCC's idea,
and they made it clear they weren't going to leave the system alone.

It trashed ham radio by creating a CLASS system in our ranks, forcing
seperation by license class, making one feel superior and others thus
inferior. This was NOT THERE before Incentive Licensing.

That's incorrect Dan. I was an early '50s kid Novice. The OFs of those
days more than just occasionally bent over backwards to make sure that
I knew that I was at the bottom of the totem pole. In retrospect no
doubt some of it involved the usual compulsive cocky male
pubescent/male adult conflict which had nothing to do with ham radio.
But it was also obvious that those OFs were also ticked off about the
recent emergence of the 5 wpm code test which allowed us weenies to
get on the air without having to go thru the same pushups they had to
go thru to get on the air. There were neighborhood radio clubs which
didn't allow full voting memberships to Novices and Techs.

And in the mid-60s there were still some who did similar things. Indeed, there
were Advanceds who looked down on Generals, Generals who looked down on
Conditionals, Conditionals who looked down on Techs, and Techs who looked down
on Novices. Etc.

And it wasn't just kids vs. adults, either.

Then as now, they were few - but noisy.

Maybe it was different where you were, Dan.

It's all just cycles Dan and the 1968 maneuver was not the first cycle
by any means and welcome to the current cycle. There will be others.

Circle Game.

73 de Jim, N2EY