know code wrote:
The Magnum wrote:


Judging by many peoples comments in the newsgroups and a few Amateurs I have
spoken to face to face many feel the hobby would have all but died compared
to what it used to be if the insistence of Morse was upheld especially to
that degree.

But that is simply not true and the statistics on the IARU website prove
it. The total number of Amateurs in the UK was increasing year in, year
out, and that was *before* either the Novice (now Intermediate) or
Foundation licenses were introduced.

they prove nothing fo the kind how many of those licensee were active
you don't know

However, the number of RSGB members was *reducing* year in, year out,
over the same period so the only reason RSGB Ltd backed these
unnecessary licence schemes so vigorously was to try to get more
members. They did not have the interests of Amateur Radio at heart, all
they were concerned with was keeping their commercial book publishing
company alive!

same could be said of the ARRL but in both cases the organzation were
neither leading nor following nor getting out of the way, that is
likely the reason for the drift in the ARS over the last few years

but it is fact the insitance of Ham that Morse was somehow vital has
made us look like buffoons to rest of the folks out there that
perception is dangerous not so much from a numbers standpoint but from
the stand as being seen as worthy of the bw we hold