N2EY wrote:

In article , Mike Coslo
writes:


N2EY wrote:


These are the number of unexpired FCC ARS
licenses held by individuals on the dates listed:

snip

Total Tech/TechPlus - 320,925 (decrease of 13,329)

Total all classes - 675,693 (increase of 901)

Good to see that the total numbers increased *despite* the "Great Falloff"


We have only 901 more hams today than we had when the whole restructuring
business came into being more than 4 years ago. (Some "professionals" can't
seem to even get a Technician license out of the box, despite the reduction in
written testing as well as code).

Total growth of 901 in that much time isn't healthy. Reducing the code test to
just 5 wpm did not result in sustained growth, and neither did reducing the
written tests.

I just gotta say it.....well DUH!

Things are not made popular by making them easy. Things are not made
popular by giving them away. A reasonably intelligent person can learn
the tests, the old "hard tests" tests or new "easy tests".

It doesn't matter. If a person has to spend a few more weeks learning
something, so be it.

It won't chase them away.

It doesn't matter if there is a Morse code test or not. Not one little bit.

Too many people seem to have thought that elimination of the Morse code
test would bring an influx of new eager hams. It will not.

If you think that elimination of the Morse test will help, You are
wrong. If you think that retention of the Morse test will help, you are
wrong.

Karl, for all his bluster, has no more clue about what will attract new
people to the field than most PCTA's. He and the other CW haters simply
hate CW, and rationalize their hatred into "Ham radio will die unless we
get rid of the test.

Anything that needs rationalized is probably wrong to begin with. And
they are wrong to begin with.

You probably agree so far. You won't soon.

The difficulty or lack of "difficult tests" or the Morse code test
likewise has *no* effect whatsoever on the quality of the Ham community.

Ahh, what *does* grow Ham radio?

Hams grow Ham radio.

And an awful lot aren't doing it.

Bitching, whining, and moaning about the good old days and how much
better hams were then is only going to chase new people away. If I were
the sensitive sort, I would have quit Ham radio ten times over. I've had
to listen to Olde Tymers complaining about how only jerks and CB'ers are
joining the ranks, and how anyone can become an Extra nowadays. I've
listened to them claiming that all new Hams are stupid, and other
insults thrown at the new guys. At one time, I would gently remind them
that "I resemble that remark", but that gets old after the umpteenth time.

Answer me this, is that an inviting atmosphere? How many people enter
hobbies to be ridiculed?

Hams *must* provide a welcoming atmosphere, not inject their own
personal preferences into the mix, and take these new people and show
them they are valued on the air. Then word of mouth will spread among
the technologically inclined, and we won't have to be discussing how to
grow Ham radio.

The Morse code test could disappear tomorrow, and as long as Hams
encouraged a welcoming atmosphere that encouraged quality, we would get
quality. The test could be retained, and as long as newcomers could have
a reasonable expectation that they would have a good experience, then
the hobby would grow.

We must heal ourselves!

- Nickle Extra, Mike KB3EIA -