In article , "Dee D. Flint"
writes:

The issue can't go the same as spark and AM as these two activities went
different directions. Spark is simply not allowed due to the fact that it
chews up so much spectrum.

There's also the fact that hams simply stopped using spark in the early 1920s.
"CW" (meaning "tube") rigs were so much more effective that by the time spark
was outlawed for hams (1927), there were few if any hams still using it.

Kind of like asking if anybody is using a 286-based computer to surf the 'net
today.

Oddly enough, spark was not completely banned from all other radio services
until 1966.

If you think our society today is undergoing rapid techological change, look at
the development of radio (both amateur and nonamateur) from 1919 to 1929.

On the other hand AM is still allowed and has
developed into a niche subhobby of ham radio.

Yep. In fact, it seems to me that AM has undergone a revival in the past 15-20
years.

When I first got started in ham radio in the late 1960s, there were few hams
using AM on HF compared to SSB. AM rigs that had been prized a decade or so
earlier could be had for a song, and the number of hams on AM was dropping
fast. When repeaters became popular in the 1970s, amateur VHF/UHF AM followed
fast.

But somewhere in the late 1980s-early 1990s the trend turned. Old AM rigs were
fixed up and put back on the air. Newer hams, who had never been on AM before,
began to show up on 3885 and other spots. Of course it's just IMHO, but it
seems to me there is more AM activity on amateur HF today than 30-35 years ago
- and it's growing.

While the code test may go
away, I doubt if code will be forbidden. And due to its usefulness, it's
unlikely to descend to the small niche that AM has.

I hope you're right, Dee.

73 de Jim, N2EY