In article , Mike Coslo
writes:

Let's see - as of January 15, 2004:

Novice - 32,718
Technician - 259,949
Technician Plus - 62,714
General - 141,443
Advanced - 81,961
Extra - 104,946
Total - 683,731

Total Technicians and Pluses: 322,663

322,663/683,731 = about 47.2% of existing hams getting a free upgrade to
General
81,961/683,731 = about 11.9% of existing hams getting a free upgrade to
Extra

Total of about 59.1% getting a free upgrade - wow!

Too bad no one saw that coming, eh?

I'm sure it's a big part of the plan.

The message ARRL sends with this proposal is "our General (and Extra)
qualifications" are more strenuous than need be. Such a free-pass would
establish that all these hundreds of thousands of licensees have been
qualified for General (or Extra) all along. At that moment it is
established, ipso facto, that the current Technician examination is
sufficient for the 'new General' and that the last Advanced examination
is sufficient for the 'new Extra'.

I agree 100%. And that's not the only message. Such giveaways also say that
the tests are so difficult that existing hams cannot be reasonably expected
to pass them on their own - but new hams have to!

"Do as I say, not as I do"

Up until now I have never raised the cry of "dumbing down", but such a
mass give-away would set a new lower bar for all future qualification
levels in the Amateur Radio service, and your position allegedly in
support of strenuous technical qualification standards rings hollow
indeed.

Remember what I was talking about some weeks back, Hans - and Carl asked
me to be quiet in case someone got the idea?

Way to GO, Jim! *You* gave people that idea, and now you made a real
mess for us! ;^) Wait, that really isn't funny, is it?

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED??!!!

Actually, it wasn't my idea. I'm simply the messenger. Others though it up long
before me.

There's no good reason I can see to give existing Techs, Tech Pluses and
Advanceds a bye on the writtens for the next license class.

No there isn't. But the reasons don't have to be good ones do they?

Exactly.

73 de Jim, N2EY