John Smith wrote:

Haynie said:

1) "It's not that Amateur Radio is dumbed down," he said. "People like
me have failed to keep up, and if you look in your heart, you're going
to say the same thing."

That happens to a lot of 'em. Odd, that, I think keeping up is a lot of
the fun!

2) "...if you want people to come out of that examination room in here
to be able to design circuits--you're in the wrong hobby."

I wonder if that ever was the case in the old days. Somehow I doubt it.


3) "I said, if we come down on the side of code, we're going to make
the no-code people mad, and if we come down on the side of the no-code,
we're going to make the code people mad..."

So ya should give it a good thinkin' through, and do what you thing is
right.


4) "...he predicted that the Commission will never reinstate higher code
speed requirements as some have requested."

5) "The FCC is not going to go back to 13 and 20 words per minute, and
you can take that to the bank," he predicted. "It's not going to
happen." The Commission went with the single 5 WPM requirement because
it was "sick and tired" of dealing with medical waivers, he said.

Although he has become a pretty smart "politician" and "diplomat"--it is
obvious code is given very little if any importance. Now you can argue
his words anyway you like--but you can't find one word of his which
places ANY importance on it... He HAS said old amateurs have lost sense
of reality,

Actually, that staement isn't a quote, it is filler from the writer. He
may have said some things about older hams, but it is a long way from
telling them they have lost sense of reality.



that is right there in no. 1) ... argue that anyway you
like--into looking like a fool...

Just sounded close to a quote. That's the problem. While I agree with
what Haynie has said, I think you are injecting your own opinion into
what he said.

I've been a ham for 6 years now. I came up through the new system. An
awful lot of the oddballs on the air appear to have been licensed for
quite a while, and I assume they are tested to more than 5wpm. Yeah,
someone will probably point out the old waiver system. But I doubt that
every kook and jammer got a waiver.

The new guys and gals are not any worse than the old ones.

- Mike KB3EIA -