"robert casey" wrote in message
ink.net...


Perhaps what bothers some people the most about the code test
is that it isn't something most people already know. And it
isn't something that can be learned by reading a book, watching
a video, etc. It's a skill, not "book learning".

That makes it a real PITA to people who are good at book
learnin' and not so hot at motor skills.

Conversely the written is a real PITA to people who are good at physical
skills but not at book learning. We've got a few around here who breezed
through the 5, 13, and 20 wpm code test but had to take each of the writtens
multiple times and they had studied hard each time. They were not allowed
to get out of the written or plead diminished capacity or anything else.
They had to do it.


In learning the code, a Ph.D in EE has to start at the same place
as a grade-schooler. And the grade schooler may learn faster and
do better! Perhaps it is this characteristic of the test - its
ability to act as a Great Equalizer - that causes some to resent
it so much.


That makes ham radio that much harder to "sell" to the
PhDs and such people. Code is something that can be
outperformed by various signaling and signal processing
methods (JPL doesn't use Morse code to communicate with
their deep space probes).

Well those PHDs had to learn the simplest of basics in their chosen fields
when they started their journeys. There is "obsolete" information in every
field that is often required learning as part of a basic understanding of
the field.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE