RadioBanter - View Single Post

October 20th 05, 11:53 AM

wrote:
From: Leo on Oct 15, 9:36 am

On 14 Oct 2005 15:02:32 -0700, wrote:
Leo wrote:
On 14 Oct 2005 12:39:50 -0700, wrote:
From: on Oct 14, 9:20 am
Bill Sohl wrote:
wrote in message
wrote:

If the growth doesn't happen, it means the code test wasn't really a
problem in the first place.

Ahem...this is a "preconditioning" artificiality
of "reasons."
[akin to the "do you still beat your wife?" question]

Show us how that works, Len.

One of the reasons repeatedly given for the elimination of
the code test is that it is supposedly a "barrier" to "otherwise
qualified people" who would bring "fresh, new blood" and *growth* to
amateur radio.

Were all those people wrong?

"Growth in numbers" is not a raison d'etre
for the elimination
or retention of the code test.

Tell that to NCI...

The lack of love and worship
of morsemanship should be enough.

IOW, since *you* don't have a high regard for Morse Code
skills, there should be no test...

Another view would be that it was a problem that is being
fixed way too late to repair the damage.

Maybe. But I don't think so.

Amateur Radio was a very popular hobby back
when you and I were kids

I don't know when Leo was a kid, but I know that when I
got my ham license in 1967 at the age of 13, there were only about
a quarter-million US hams - less than 40% of today's total. The US
population back then was a lot more than 40% of what it is today.

-
today, there are too many other far-more-glamorous things
competing with it.

Such as?

There was all sorts of competition when I was a kid, too.

One of the first signs of that outside amateur radio was
the USA's creation of Class C and D CB in 1958. NO test of
any kind, just a Restricted Radiotelephone license form
needed for anyone to use the 22 channels (23rd shared with
radio control). Excellent in large urban areas before the
offshore products appeared about four years later and the
trucking industry started buying them.

But what happened after that? You stopped the story at the most
important part, Len.

27 MHz cb was pretty well behaved at first. But by the mid 1960s
that service had big problems with rules violations. When the oil
embargoes of the early 1970s hit, cb became a major tool for truckers
and others to avoid law enforcement of the 55 mph speed limit, weigh
stations, etc.

The use of radio to intentionally violate local, state or federal law
is clearly a violation of the Communications Act.

Other violations (unlicensed operation, "shooting skip", failure to
identify, use of power far above that authorized for the service)
became more the rule than the exception on 27 MHz cb. Indeed, some
began to use frequencies near but outside the authorized cb channels,
including the 10 meter amateur band.

Was cb still "excellent" in the 1970s, Len?

IMHO, one of the main reasons for that behavior was the lack of any
sort of license test for a cb permit.

Since 1958 we've all seen the appearance of communications
satellites making live international TV a reality, watched
the first men on the moon in live TV, seen the first of the
cellular telephones, cordless telephones become a part of our
social structure, CDs replacing vinyl disks for music, DVDs
that replaced VHS, "Pong" growing from a cocktail bar game
to rather sophisticated computer games (in their own
specialized enclosures), digital voice on handheld
transceivers
for FRS (in the USA) unlicensed use, Bluetooth appliances for
cell phones, the Internet (only 14 years old) spreading
throughout most of the world and mail-order over the 'net
becoming a standard thing that built Amazon.com into a money-
maker of huge proportions. Besides the already-available
"text messaging" and imaging over cell phones, look for even
more startling developments in that now-ubiquitous pocket
sized appliance.

My wife got a new cell phone before we left on a 5000 mile
trip to Wisconsin and back. All along I-15, I-80, I-5 that
cell phone worked just fine inside the car, wife getting
her e-mail forwarded from AOL, then making several calls for
new reservations (we changed routes coming back) at motels,
getting voice mail from the cat sitter service, calling to
her sister and niece in WA state from Iowa. Emergency
comms through 911 service is now possible along highways,
even in the more remote parts of Wyoming, Utah, or Nevada.

That's nice, Len. But how well did the cell phone work away from the
major interstates?

I would think that the vast majority of the folks who are interested
in the things that Amateur Radio offers are already a part of the
hobby. Adding HF access might broaden the scope of those who did not
gain access to HF via morse testing (for whatever reasons) - but to
think for a moment that there are legions of wannabe hams who are
waiting exitedly for morse testing to be abolished so that they can
rush in and get on the air would be foolish.

They aren't there.

I think that is a valid observation.
Had the "revolution" begun
earlier here, such as prior to the no-code-test Technician
class (USA) license of 1991, there might have been more
growth.

Or maybe not. The growth of US amateur radio in the 1980s (without a
no-code-test license or medical waivers) was about the same if not
greater than the growth in the 1990s.

How do you explain that?

In terms of CODED amateur radio licenses, those license
numbers
would have SHRUNK by now without that no-code-test Tech
class.

How do you know? Would none of those people have gotten a license?

For over two years there has been a continual reduction in
the number USA amateur radio licenses.
The majority of NEW
licensees
come in via the no-code-test Tech class but they can't
overcome
the EXPIRATIONS of already-granted licenses.

The reduction in the number of Technician and Technician Plus licenses
exceeds the total loss.

It may not be too late to reverse but it will be a formidable
task to increase the ham license numbers, impossible using
old cliche'-ridden paradigms.

So what are your new paradigms, Len? Besides "dump the code test"?

Should amateur radio become like cb? No test at all? We've seen how
well that worked...

You've predicted a growth of 20% in a few years if the code test goes
away. Will you admit you were wrong if the code test goes away and
there isn't that much growth?

I doubt it.....