In article ,
(Tony Pelliccio) writes:

(N2EY) wrote in message
. com...
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/01/19/1/?nc=1

Summary:

3 classes of license: Novice, General, Extra

Can we water it down any more?

There are some folks (not me!) who only want one class of license.

5 wpm code test retained for Extra only

Why not just elminate the code requirement entirely. To me 5WPM code
is so awfully slow that it's painful.

5 wpm is a minimum speed. Someone can always ask for a faster test as an
accomodation.

Existing Advanceds get free upgrade to Extra, Techs
and Tech Pluses get free upgrade to General

This free ride stuff has got to stop.

When was the last one?

I agree that the proposed free upgrades are not a good idea.

I'm a 20WPM Extra damn it - now
I can bitch and moan like the old farts. My friend KH6HZ is probably
getting a good laugh out of this.

yep.

Novice test to be 25 questions on "basics", General to be
derived from Tech and General, Extra pretty much as-is.

I suppose I can't complain much on this.

That's about the same test I took 37 years ago for my Novice...

Most of us are pretty much
appliance operators -

Not me!

when is the last time you played around with
SMT inside your radio?

No SMT in any of my ham gear. It's not necessary. And I have quite a bit of
homebrew ham gear.

73 de Jim, N2EY