John Kasupski wrote:
On 16 Oct 2005 15:43:37 -0700, wrote:
License testing for manual morse code cognition skill simply
became obsolete. A REAL problem is that those who passed
the manual tests refuse to let it BE obsolete...it is an
ingrained psyche touchstone, a mile-marker of how far they
came once. They refuse to look at the future and OTHERS
who may come later. It is a very personal thing to them.
For whatever reasons those who have opposed the elimination of code
testing over the years have done so, I personally feel the observation
that this was/is the root of the problem is spot on.
I can recall back in about 1975 or so, there was a proposal for a
no-code "Communicator Class" license. It was shot down, largely due to
opposition by ARRL. It was along about the same time that computers
first became reasonably affordable for home use. A generation of
technically inclined young people suddenly had an alternative to ham
radio and its code testing. A Timex-Sinclair 1000 could be had for
around $50, an Atari or Commodore 8-bit computer could be had for a
fraction of what ham rigs cost (since Heathkit and many other kit
manufacturers vanished around this time period as well).
Let's see...spend weeks learning an arcane code from the 1800s and
then spend hundreds of bucks building a station, or skip the testing
and spend $200 or so on a computer. Thousands voted with their feet,
and the best of a generation or two or three said to hell with radio
and went into computers instead.
You look at it as an either or situation. Computers are not Amateur
radio, and amateur radio is not computers.
Now of course, there is intermixing of the hobbies, but for anyone to
think that every, or even many computer hobbiests are lost to ham radio
because of some competitive factor are really barking up the wrong tree.
Now, 25 years later, hams lament the declining number of licensees as
posted by N2EY every other week.
So.... the drop off is mostly Technicians who took no code test. They
are gone, and it is the code tests fault?
It occurs to few that the guys who
might have become hams 25-30 years ago if it weren't for the code test
are now holding down good paying jobs in the computer industry and
probably wouldn't be interested in a ham ticket now if you handed them
one gratis.
One might suspect maybe they aren't all that interested in radio.
As for young people today, they grow up with cell phones,
and game machines that have more processor power than the computers on
the space shuttles,
So I guess they won't want to be astronauts either!!
and the computers in today's homes are capable of
real-time communication between almost any two points in the world
without regard to propagation or licensing procedures or any other
such inconveniences.
1. My telephone has been doing that ever since I knew what a telephone was.
2. If you think that Ham radio is just about talking to people around
the world, that shows a part of the problem.
So, why should they have any interest in ham radio?
Perhaps they are interested in Radio. If not, they might want to get a
different hobby....
We're nothing more
to them than a collection of fossils playing with a curiosity we call
CW which is good for a laugh but little else.
We have a lot of young hams in our area.
Interesting, then, that the state of the art in ham radio has now come
full circle with the advent of Voice-Over-IP systems like EchoLink and
IRLP. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
All of the Internet based "Ham Radio" transmission methods would work
much much better if the radio were out of the picture.
Do you really think that Echolink and IRLP is "state of the art"?
But if you want to believe that Ham Radio is dying, and it is
inescapable because of the actions of Hams from 25 or more years ago,
then there isn't much to do about it except enjoy what is left, or turn
in your ticket as a symbolic protest of our ancestors stupidity...
- Mike KB3EIA -