From: on Thurs 18 Aug 2005 14:45


Dee Flint wrote:
"an_old_friend" wrote in message
Dee Flint wrote:
"John Smith" wrote in message


Well We NoCoders did exactly that and NCI was never all that large

It was large enough and organized enough for its issue. And being a single
issue organization, the membership was in agreement about its issue.

Heck, agreement was/is a condition of membership!

Oh, my, watch out everyone, Jimmie is tossing them old
red herrings around again! :-)

It's interesting that NCI was and is so secretive about its numbers.

Why? You sound worried.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, Jimmie, you were all a-twitter about that
back in the days of "No SSB International" and "Know
Code International"! :-)

I'm a member of NCI. Carl Stevenson is a mamber of NCI.
Bill Sohl is a member of NCI.

Last I heard, it amounted to less than 7000 members worldwide.

You MIGHT try the entire International Amateur Radio Union
as far as no-code-test advocacy. Remember them? IARU?
ALL the REST of the amateur radio organizations in the
world?

Tsk, tsk, tsk, the IARU came out in favor of DROPPING the
morse code test about two years BEFORE WRC-03. Really!
It was on their website and everything!

Ya know what, yanno, S25 got REWRITTEN at WRC-03 and
S25.5 had the compulsory everybody-gotta test for morse
for privileges below 30 MHz licenses.

By the way, the membership of the ARRL is or rather was
149,583 as of 30 June 2005. Ya wanna know how easy it
was to find that out, yanno? NOT easy. The ONLY place
it was in was the "Publisher's Sworn Statement" under
the Advertising page of the QST page of the Services
page. The ARRL can't be up-front about it. Even so,
those "Publisher's Sworn Statement" numbers come out
only twice a year.

Based on www.hamdata.com statistics of a month ago
(18 July 2005), about as close to 30 June as anything,
the total INDIVIDUAL U.S. amateur radio licenses then
were 721,953 (731,543 with the 9,590 "club" licenses
added on). That means that only 20.72% of all U.S.
licensees are League members...roughly one out of five.

--

I think that crediting NCI for the code test reduction/elimination is
a bit like crediting the rooster for the dawn. Look at the history:

Yawn, Jimmie crack corn and I don't care... :-)

Tsk, tsk, tsk...forgetting that the rest of the world
"didn't do anything" are you? :-)


1990: FCC creates medical waivers at White House
request, to do a favor for a foreign head of state.

Tsk, tsk, tsk...UNVERIFIED urban myth, Jimmie. You
FORGOT one very important little detail: The NPRM
on creation of the no-code-test Technician class was
released.

1991: FCC creates a nocodetest ham license in USA by simply
eliminating code test from Technician.

"Simply?" :-) It was called a REPORT and ORDER.

That no-code-test Technician class accounted for
about 200 K *new* amateur licensees in its 14 year
span...many, many more than any OTHER *new* class
licensees.

1996: NCI formed

By Bruce Perens, a 20 WPM code-tested Extra.

Tsk, you really ought to credit "No SSB International"
and "Know Code International" for something, shouldn't
you? :-)

2000: FCC reduces code testing to 5 wpm for all classes requiring
a code test despite majority of comments supporting 2 or 3
code test speeds. States that treaty requirement is only
reason 5 wpm was kept. Also reduces written testing.

Oh, my, "the majority wanted lots of code testing"
urban myth surfaces again! Maybe you ought to look
at LeRoy (Larry) Klose III exhibits back in 1999
again? I have them. Need a copy because you can't
find them on the ECFS?

2001: The IARU comes out against compulsory amateur
radio code testing, wanting to rewrite S25 to make it
optional for any administration.

2002: The IWG 6 group handling amateur radio matters
for the WRC discusses the S25 revision and Carl
Stevenson, then-chief of NCI was present at those
discussions (plural, you can find the minutes on the
FCC website under International Bureau documents).

2003: WRC-2003 eliminates treaty requirement for code test.

Tsk, tsk, TSK! You FORGOT the IARU input to WRC-03,
Jimmie. Best you read the FCC International Bureau
REPORT on WRC-03 again (if you ever did). The report
was written by the leader of the U.S. Administration
team that was there.

ALSO in that year marked the first of the 18 Petitions
for various "restructurings" of U.S. amateur regulations,
the majority of those Petitions favoring No Code Test
either entirely or in part.

2004: The rest of the 18 Petitions show up with the
VEC wanting NO CODE TEST whatsoever.

2005: FCC proposes complete elimination of code testing, as proposed
by several petitions.

...and you see "NO" influence of NCI at all, do you?
Tsk, tsk, tsk.

The trend to nocodetest, and to less testing overall, was clear long
before NCI appeared on the scene.

Yawn, yanno. What next? Dropping code testing was
controlled by the Trilateral Commission or the
Illuminati?!? :-)

con gam