RadioBanter - View Single Post

September 26th 04, 03:39 AM

In article ,
(Brian Kelly) writes:

(N2EY) wrote in message
...
In article ,
(Brian Kelly) writes:

(N2EY) wrote in message
.com...

. . . . . .

Those waivers effectively meant that nobody really had to go beyond the 5
wpm
test to get a US ham license. All it took was a doctor's note from *any* MD
or
DO, and you could write the letter and get the doc to sign it. You didn't
need
a diagnosis of any particular problem, nor any sort of permanent condition,
just a rather vague certification that for medical reasons it would be
harder
for you to pass the test than the average bloke.

Do you know of *anyone* who tried and couldn't get a waiver? Or *any* doc
who
was even questioned by FCC? I don't.

I don't even know anybody who got one of those waivers much less how
they pulled it off.

Nobody had to say they got one. I've known a few hams who did. All they needed
to do was write a letter and get *any* practicing MD or DO to sign it. FCC gave
detailed instructions about what info should be in the letter. Basically it
could be almost anything medically related.

But there was a lot of complaining in some
quarters about waivers, so FCC made 'em go away.

Once more the ADA cut both ways.

Nothing to do with ADA at all.

Waivers came about because ol' JY1 asked Papa Bush for a favor and the Prez
passed the buck down to FCC. FCC dreamed up the medical waiver thing, not any
handicapped-hams group. It became the law in 1990. The 2000 restructuring made
it a moot point.

So I expect the
5wpm test to continue to be required for some considerable time
without further ado.

Possibly. It's certainly not a high priority for FCC.

14 months since WRC2003 and nothing's changed....

There's a huge pile of updates of the ham regs which are overdue for
FCC review and revision. I expect that the code test issue will be
wrapped into some sort of major omnibus reworking of Part 97 a la the
Incentive Licensing package of 1968 or so except that this pass ought
to include a bunch more "real estate", 160 thru the millimeter bands
and far more topics "To take ham radio into the 21st century".
Someday. At their convenience. I'm not holding my breath here either.

Maybe. Or maybe just the opposite - tinker with the details but leave the basic
frame alone. Look at our license structure now - it's the linear descendant of
the 1951 restructuring.

That's nice. You're the reason I don't bother reading the FD rules
'cause I know that you'll have 'em memorized, analyzed and carved six
ways from Sunday into yer headbone. Which spares me from all that
drudgery. It's always nice to have a "detail guy" like you on tap.

'zactly. Want a quick history of what the rules used to be, how the dates
and
operating times evolved and when the first FD was?

....#$!@^#!*&#@!. . . NO Dammit! Arrrgh!

Didn't think so.

..$#&$!..RIGHT!

Here's a tidbit:

Back in the early '70s, there was a rules change that prohibited setting up
until the actual FD period. IOW you weren't supposed to do anything involving
setup until 2 PM Saturday EST. You can guess how well that one went over!

You already know the "aggregate mobile" story.

So the future of ham radio relies on those who are really interested
in radio for its own sake and are a lot more than "sort of"
interested.

That would take out probably 70% of the current licensees.

Most of that 70% which are inactive anyway.

In this respect I have my reservations abt 70% of the remaining 30%.

You know what the bands sound like during a contest. Yet even the big contests
like CQWW don't get more than about 50,000 hams on-air at one time, and most of
them are listening at any given moment.

So the number of truly active hams is but a fraction of the license totals.
Otherwise the bands would sound like a contest all the time.

I dumped the bait over the transom, I'm chumming for an on-the-air QSO
with NØIMD via the end-fed wire he claims he has. It's put up or shut
time time again around here. Tally Freaking Ho, this oughta be a real
gooder.

Don't hold yer breath. Watch - there will be all kinds of reasons it
won't happen. Like a certain Extra license that is still in its box.

We'll see. The prior RRAP vaguely similar event was not put together
overnight.

But when it came down to it, "pulling a Cecil" meant actually getting on
the
air and meeting others on the air. *Cecil* was a stand-up guy about the
whole thing. The other Brian isn't. That's the bottom line.

He "came through" exactly as as expected, he's as predictable as the
tides.

Whatever.

And it will be spun so that somehow it's *your* fault...

Yawn.

Didja read my UP/URS-2 story about what probably really happened in T5?

Yes.

Wanna
bet that it's pretty darn close to the truth?

Right off I dunno anything about current military HF comms. However it
strikes me that given Burke's job in that timeframe and place, running
around a USAF shipping/recieving dock with a clipboard chasing down
missing boxes, that he wouldn't have had much in the way of access to
HF comms gear. Not if decent security measures were in place. But like
I said I dunno so I'll pass.

Not that we'll ever get the real story or even a straight answer...

We already got the only "story" which matters.

Exactly. No big deal. I dunno why K4YZ makes such a big deal about it. Nobody
is complaining that they worked him but didn't get a card. So what's the beef?

73 de Jim, N2EY