Carl R. Stevenson wrote:
"an_old_friend" wrote in message
oups.com...

robert casey wrote:

I still like my suggestion......bottom 25 of ALL HF bands....CW ONLY.
No
digital, etc. That way those that want can.


We could and should do this as a gentlemen's' agreement. No
need for FCC micromanagement here.

well in the eyes of those that see CW under attack they do see still
see a need for a coded reservation, and they fear that they will lose
everything out side of it

It seems true that many, if not most, CW fans fear that other modes will
"over-run" them if the ARRL's "plan" for regulation by bandwidth goes
forward in its present form. I have always stated truthfully here that I
would never support any proposal to ban or restrict the use of CW in any
way, shape, or form and that position still stands. I *also* firmly believe
that CW and other modes should NOT be "squeezed out of existence" or
"over-run by Winlink/PactorIII robots" as many fear will happen if the
"plan" adopted by the ARRL BoD in July were to become FCC regulation.

Works for me!

As a candidate for the ARRL Atlantic Division director's position, I have
gone on record publicly (on the QRP-L reflector and on qrz.com and now here
on r.r.a.p) that, had I been on the ARRL BoD in July, I would NOT have voted
for "the plan" because I believe that the fact that virtually NOBODY seems
to like it indicates to me that it's broken and needs to be fixed if it's to
go forward at all.

Or at least rewritten so that it's clear what is being proposed in the
first place.

Bandplans and band usage are complicated issues where the ARRL or anyone
else is highly unlikely to be able to please everyone - the objective needs
to be to work with the different interest groups towards compromises that
allow us to get to something that at least a significant majority can accept
and say "I can live with that." If I become a member of the ARRL BoD I
would work with all of the interested parties in an effort to forge that
sort of result.

With all due respect, that's what everybody says. The trouble is with
the specifics. You've given us some good specifics, like support of a
'reasonable' subband for Morse Code only, and a similar 'reasonable'
subband for 'robots'.
The devil is in "what's reasonable"?

In addition to significantly improving the general level of technical
knowledge and skill of hams,

That was a prime reason for "incentive licensing" 40 years ago!

growing our numbers (both licensees and ARRL
members), protecting our spectrum, and getting more people trained for and
involved in emergency communications, one of the MOST pressing problems we
face is to reverse the trend of "compartmentalizing" ourselves into
"factions" whose whole world revolves around one mode or one activity,
because the resulting "turf wars," suspicion/mistrust/paranoia, in-fighting,
and attacks on each other divide us in ways that both are bad for the ARS as
it's seen externally and bad for the ARS internally as we get along with (or
don't) each other.

We should ALL be "hams" (period) and work together cooperatively and
constructively going forward into the future on the truly important issues
facing ham radio and the ARRL.

The trouble is that ham radio covers such a wide range of activities
that
there's trouble finding common ground in some cases.

For example, you have folks who want to use equipment and modes that
are
decades old, and folks who think anything less than their concept of
SOTA is "obsolete". Folks who want more room for SSB (and even "hi-fi
SSB") and folks who want more room for digital. Folks who don't even
have a computer in the shack and folks who never actually listen to a
signal (they watch it on the waterfall display).

Appliance ops and homebrew-from-scratch folks. DXers, contesters,
ragchewers, emcomm folks. Those who are stuck with compromise and
stealth antennas and those with tons of aluminum aloft.

How do you get all those folks to see that there is value in what each
of them brings to the table?

ALL hams should treat each other with
respect and courtesy, regardless of license class or operating preferences.
Experienced hams need to welcome new hams with the spirit of patience and
helpfulness that "Elmering" embodies, rather than treating them as some
inferior form of life.

As mentioned before - that goes both ways.

73 de Jim, N2EY