John Smith wrote:
N2EY:

One point you got right, ham radio HAS TO compete with a
superior form of communication--the internet!

For some uses the internet is better than ham radio. For other
uses ham radio is better. The competition is for time only.

And, the only way it can is drop the code...

Do you mean hams should stop using Morse Code, or that there
should not be a Morse Code *test*?

In either case, how will that help ham radio compete for
time?

wrote in message
ups.com...
Charles Brabham wrote:
"Dee Flint" wrote in message
...

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
N2EY:

I have asked the young men why they have no interest in getting a
ham
license, it is because of the limitations placed on the no code
license--and the fact they are not interested in learning code to
chat
with someone DX--a task which can be accomplished much easier and
reliably over the net with instant messaging, IRC chat, etc...
that is
REAL. THAT is dropping the numbers of hams and putting bands in
danger
of being lost... that is holding our numbers at such low levels
the FCC
begins to find us more a bother than anything else...


This does NOT make sense when our numbers are near their all time
high.

Yes - both in total numbers of US hams, and the ratio of hams to the
total US population.

In recent years the totals have begun to go down, and the percentage
of
the
population as well. Reducing the license test requirements in 2000 has
not brought growth, yet some folks insist that more and more
reductions
in test requirements are the only solution.

It's just another one of those guys who thinks that Ham Radio is only
relevant in as much as it resembles the Internet. - In other words,
the guy
has no clue about the hobby but wants to run it down because it is
not the
Internet.

BINGO!

Yet it is exactly the fact that amateur radio *is not* the internet
that is
the draw!

I use this attitude as a handy intelligence test for amateurs... If
they
cannot differentiate between Amateur Radio and the Internet, or if
they
cannot see why there should and would be differences between the
two - then
I know that they are brain-damaged ( or even worse ) - associated
with TAPR
or the ARRL's HSMM group.

In any case the attitude indicates a clueless state in relation to
the
amateur radio hobby.

Makes sense to me!

73 de Jim, N2EY

Charles Brabham, N5PVL

Director: USPacket http://www.uspacket.org
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