"Richard L. Tannehill" wrote

| We agree that it is the
| only logical choice if the FCC is hellbent on having only 3
| classes of license, immediately.

The FCC has not publicly expressed any "hellbent" intention. That
notion is a construction of ARRL, which the NCI directors have unwisely
chosen to support.

The immediate result will be free upgrade coupons for almost 2/3-rds of
all current licensees.

The not-so-immediate result (read "unintended but entirely predictable
consequence") will be the permanent loss of credibility in the
qualification process for General and Extra ("If those 300,000 guys got
General licenses based on passing the fall-off-a-log-easy entry-level
Technician exam, then why do I have to take a harder test like all the
'real' Generals previously had to take? Oh, my dear, the unfairness of
it all!") And please don't insult us by trotting out the anecdotal
selective-memory jeremiad from W1RFI about how the Tech exam is every
bit as hard as the General exam.

73,
de Hans, K0HB ô¿ô
--
SOC # 291 http://www.qsl.net/soc/
FISTS # 7419 http://www.fists.org
NCI # 4304 http://www.nocode.org/