RadioBanter - View Single Post

September 18th 05, 01:06 AM

wrote:
From: Alun L. Palmer on Sep 17, 8:07 am

" wrote in

From: Michael Coslo on Sep 16, 9:44 am

an_old_friend wrote:

Dan/W4NTI wrote:

"an_old_friend" wrote in message

Dan/W4NTI wrote:

wrote in message

From: Dan/W4NTI on Sep 13, 1:25 pm

I'll admit that Len can be irritating at times, but this accusation that he
hates radio hams is nonsensical. I've never seen any evidence of that.

Alun, all those character-assassination statements of "hating hams"
are just that, character-assassination attempts.

Morsemanship - as a "requirement" for amateur radio licensing
has evolved to a high fantasy art, typified by the pseudo-
arithmetic of: HamRadio = MorseCode.

Put another way: "ARS" = Archaic Radiotelegraphy Society.

You've put it several ways, all of them untrue. I myself operate any
number of modes available to me. We all know that there is no "Archaic
Radiotelegraphy Society" and we also know that CW is the second most
popular HF mode.

Those radio amateurs who fancy themselves good at radiotelegraphy
are incensed at such comparisons. They wish the ARS to be in
Their Image. [it's as simple as that] Hence the character
assassination attempts when they are challenged.

It would make much more sense for that to be the case--if it was true.
What wouldn't make sense is for amateur radio to be molded in the image
of some geezer on the west coast, who isn't even a participant in
amateur radio. As to character assassination, you've been more guilty of
that than just about anyone here. It is what you do.

I also agree with his post that dropping the Morse test is THE big issue,
more important than any restructuring, etc. I have taught ham radio
classes, and IME the biggest factor in whether people succeed in the theory
tests is whether they are genuinely interested in radio. If they just want
to chat and aren't into radio as a medium, there's always CB. OTOH, it's
absolutely possible to be totally radio obsessed and yet not give a fig for
Sam Morse and his silly old bleeping noises. This is why it's a big issue.

Some radio amateurs who are NOT in the radio-electronics industry
keep insisting that "amateur radio was their first stepping-stone
into a radio-electronics working career." That's quite untrue.

Guys not in the radio-electronics industry insist that they got into
radio or electronics work because of amateur radio. That doesn't make
sense and I've not seen anyone claim anything like you've stated.

All of electronics (radio is a subset within that) is
fascinating in and of itself to those who chose to work within
it. For the vast majority of workers IN the electronics-radio
industry, they did NOT "begin" as licensed radio amateurs.

So?

Hams
who are IN the industry try to say contrary but they are just
speaking of themselves, failing to look around at all the others
around them who did not "get ham licenses first."

Hams who are in the industry to to say that majority of their co-workers
got into their work because of amateur radio? I don't believe you.

Some of the incensed have already replied with "case histories"
from their own work, naming callsigns, hollering "see?! see?!"
That's a very restrictive "example" since they've not gone
beyond a very small bound of their own experience.

I don't think anyone has used his personal experience to attempt to say
that being a ham is the only way into industry or government
radio/electronics. It certainly can be *a* way. Does it honk you off
because an amateur radio ticket opens the door for some? The CIA has
placed ads in QST and has had a booth at the Dayton Hamvention. When I
was hired by State, the Department was actively recruiting former
military ops and radio amateurs. Why would that surprise or upset you?

The IEEE
world membership exceeds a quarter million and non-IEEE workers
are in the millions worldwide. Articles in the trade press
(over a dozen free-subscription monthlies) do not mention morse
code as having any significance. If morse code is mentioned at
all it is in a historical context or as a bit of wry humor.

Wow, I guess you told us. That just about sums up all there is to know
about that, huh?

What too many United States radio amateurs are stuck with is a
kind of conditioned thinking (i.e., "brainwashing") by a singular
publishing house cum membership organization that over-emphasizes
morse code and morsemanship as positive attributes for a hobby.

....positive attributes for a *hobby* in which morse code still plays a
large part. What would be wrong with that? Are you able to write "The
American Radio Relay League" or "ARRL"? Is it your not-very-well-hidden
dislike for amateur radio which compels you to write things like
"'brainwashing' by a singular publishing house cum membership
organization that over-emphasizes morse code..."?

The League has lobbied for, and gotten, high-rate morsemanship
as a prerequisite for "advanced" (status/rank/privilege) class
licensing...and just never gave up on that until after WRC-03.
The League's core membership and BoD are still of that
generation and are stuck in their ways. They can't change.

Your statement is disingenuous at best.

As Cecil Moore used to write in here, "If all you've got is a
hammer, everything looks like a nail." :-)

You screwed that up big time. :-)

If CW had been on the ITU agenda back in '93, which it was supposed to be,
s25 would have been amended back then, and we could have seen an explosion
in our numbers before the Internet really caught on. As it is, ham radio is
as old as yesterday's newspaper. In short, it's probably too late to get a
major boost in numbers, even if we gave the licences away, which abolishing
the code test certainly doesn't do (and no, I'm not proposing we make the
theory easier).

Astute observation. I agree with most of that.

I will disagree only with the "what if" of 1993 and any
possibility of S25 being changed in any radical way. The IARU
had not yet been turned around on their collective code test
opinion, their member organizations still fixated on standards
and practices of their leaders' youth and formative years.
However, the no-code-test movement had already been started a
decade before that, albeit small, ineffectual in the beginning
but growing in intensity as time went on.

Judging by all the past reports of WARCs and WRCs, the IARU was
more influential with the ITU than what the ARRL pretended to be.
The IARU was also embroiled in a number of problems such as the
40m amateur v. SWBC allocations that was SUPPOSED to have been
addressed at WARC-79. It was put off...and put off...until
finally, after 24 years it achieved a solution at WRC-03...which
won't be fully implemented until a few years from now.

That was certainly a case of amateur radio fighting the deep pockets of
mostly governmental shortwave outlets. In the end, it has been
accomplished and is being implemented. Does that bother you?

The sky will fall on
the old amateur morsemen, the "world as they know it" will be
a total disaster zone with bitter, angry recriminations
abounding. They will ignore all the years, the decades of
themselves parading proudly as Champions of Radio and
sneering, snarling at no-coders.

It is strange that those who don't view things as you, are always
sneering or snarling or parading proudly (or even overly-proudly).
That's quite a world you've pasted together for yourself, Leonard.

She was a CW operator's daughter and she didit 'cuz her Da-da did it.

Don't take any wooden modems.

Dave K8MN