On Mon, 10 Jul 2006 22:03:09 -0500, "CW"
wrote:

with all due respect to you as a fellow ham I strongly disagree with your
position. I got my ticket the so called "right" way. I've held an advanced
(WA4***) class since I had to drive to the nearest office for for the
written and cw.
Remember when the dam questions weren't even allowed to be published?
Remember those stupid ass ARRL study manuals?Al,how was that better?

Better? I don't know. Who said it was?

But how many hams today could even understand a schematic, let alone
build a W2EWL rig? But how many SSB (or DSB) transmitters were
homebrew? Hams don't even build repeater controllers any longer -
everything is appliance. What's ham radio supposed to be (from the
government viewpoint) if not a training ground? For people who know
how to operate. Not for CBers on ham bands.

People are afraid of losing things if we have too few hams? Where
will the FCC's justification go (the "ham radio provides us with a
pool of experienced operators" thing) if ham radio is just CB on
different frequencies?