In article , Dave Heil
writes:

robert casey wrote:

N2EY wrote:

It STILL does not answer your suggestion about "several Extras" in
RRAP
suggesting that anything less than an Extra Class is "a problem".

That's right.

Need that extra license be a 20WPM? Or is 5WPM good
enough? .... Oh damm, mine is an "Extra lite"

Doesn't matter to that bunch. 5 wpm Extra has been available since 1990,
anyway.

The story relates the telling of some club some time ago wherein
some other group of people may have acted stupidly.

That depends on the definition of "stupid".

You have yet to quote Brian (W3RV), Hans, Jim, the other Jim, or
myself,
among others, as having said anything close to "what's his problem" over
not
being an Extra class licensee.

Let's clear this up.

The club referred to above is a special-interest amateur radio
organization, not a general-purpose club. Their focus is HF contesting
and DXing, setting up stations to do those things better, and not
much else. They don't do domestic contests or QSO parties; they focus
on the big stuff. Their members are highly competitive, and
progressive. (Example: They were among the very first to have
computers in their hamshacks).

In pursuit of the club goals, an Extra class license is pretty much a
necessity, because the DX is often in those subbands. That's just the
way it is.

So the fact that somebody without an Extra would even apply for
membership and expect to be taken as a serious DXer/contester by that
bunch indicates a problem someplace.

Maybe such a person wants to see if the Extra license's
benefits would be worthwhile to him.

How would attending meetings tell him that?

ANd if that club
would be for him if and when he did get his extra.

That's a valid reason to go to meetings.

Or just a glutton for punishment....

??

One doesn't attend the meetings of some of these clubs to see if that
club would be for him.

Why not? I did.

Someone will let him know if the club is for him
and notify him only after it has been decided to invite him to join or
not.

At least in the club that the story describes, there's a world of difference
between attending meetings and joining up. Going to meetings is one way to find
out if the club is for you or not. Everyone was very nice to me when I went
there, even thought I was an almost complete stranger. They didn't know my
callsign or license class, either.

There's a certain Cincinnati area DX club which required DXCC and an
invitation to join. The Southwest Ohio DX Association, on the other
hand, doesn't restrict membership. Any guy with a 10m rig and a dipole
can sign up.

Yup. We have clubs like that around here, too.

73 de Jim, N2EY