Al Klein wrote:

What's wrong with ham radio being turned into CB? For one thing, we
already had a couple of citizen's bands - we didn't need a dozen more.

CB is dead. Turning it into CB is a meaningless statement. Your
knowledge of CB is going back way too far when it was chaos. Again, you
do not know what you are talking about as you are making references that
are very old and very outdated - just like CW and code testing.


For them? It's not. If they can't pass the test they don't get the
privilege. That's just the way life is. If you're not 75 inches
tall, we don't let you be 6'3". These days some people want to be
what they aren't, regardless of reality. Giving ham licenses to
anyone who wants one doesn't make hams of people who know nothing, it
makes the ham license worthless.

Why not give a license to anyone who wants one? It's just not that big
of deal anymore. We are not dealing with lethal voltages like we did
with all the tube crap used years ago.



How does memorizing answers to "technical questions" make you a better ham?

I said it doesn't. I said that learning makes you more knowledgeable.

That's true, learning does make you more knowledgeable. People can learn
on their own, learn what interests them, learn what they need to know.
Not what you or I THINK they need to know.



Everyone says that CW is old hat and modern modes

At least we agree on something and nice to see you admit that everyone
is now saying this.

That thing passing over your head was the point.

No, I got the point o.k. You admit CW is old hat.



Yup, it is a simple circuit. It's also readily available in books, the
Internet, etc., so how does memorizing the circuit to pass a test, make
you a better ham?

Understanding how it works makes you more knowledgeable. Evidently
you're one of those who needs things repeated a few times.

What if I don't care to know how it works? Most women and many men have
no idea how a car engine, transmission and car computer works, but they
still get a license to drive. By your standards I guess people need to
know how their television, AM and FM radio, etc. works before they are
allowed to purchase such an item....hmmmm?


You never listened to QSOs on 20? Or questions asked at ham club
meetings? Or in radio fora?

Yup, I have listened to and have many QSOs on all ham bands. And most of
the crap you profess to be discussed is simply not generally discussed.



Learning requires understanding. Memorizing isn't understanding. It
was proved over 100 years ago that rote memorization isn't even a
mediocre way of teaching.

Yes and no, depends what it trying to be learned. Memorization can be
learning. People learn what they WANT and NEED to learn. No one ever
truly learns by having something forced on them. "A man convinced
against his will is still of the same opinion."




So let them get on radio immediately with no testing. The method has
been available since the 60s.

IT'S CALLED CB! You want HF? Get on 11 meters. You want UHF? Get
on 465. It's all there.

Same old tired CB argument again....yawn.....Yes, you can get on CB,
Family Radio, GMRS and guess what, you can operate a radio and
communicate without a test and the world does not come to an end.

And leave ham radio to hams.

If you get a ham license, no matter how simple the test or no test, you
are a ham and you can use the appropriate bands for your license class.
Let's get more people into the service and hobby, let them explore and
learn what they want - not what you want them to learn.



Or, as has happened over the past few decades, they won't. But now
that you said they will ... magic ... they will, eh?

Oh but yes they do. Some more than others. Your statement is baseless
and simply an opinion. So is mine. A gratuitous statement can be
refuted by an equally gratuitous statement.



So those who seek answers become hams - those who don't become CBers.
What's with the "everyone is equal even if the only way to achieve it
is to dumb the entire world down" crap?

No, those with a ham license are hams. Those without a ham license are
not hams. It's just that simple. Yup, dumb it down and bring them all in.


In the real world.


O.K. then, it's Mississippi.


Demanding answers without putting in any effort seems to have
substituted for learning.

I guess. This is the opinion of many old fart gate keeper hams, "I had
to pass a test to get a ham license and it was hard. So everyone else
needs to have to do what I did or it's dumbing down the license."

Yes it might be dumbing down the license. But because you had to do it,
doesn't mean it's right for the world today. Things are changing. Times
are changing. If you cannot deal with change, then just give up on life
because change is inevitable.


About like everything you've said here.

See my rule of logic about gratuitous statements as noted above.



Yes, if you're in the bottom 10%, it must surely look that way. You
get to be in the top 10% merely because that's the way you want things
to be, and heaven help the rest of us if we don't give you your way.

Yes, wouldn't a classless society be nice? Everyone treated equally?
Probably will never happen as it did not work for Russia and the Eastern
Bloc, but do we really need to have haves and have nots when it comes to
a hobby and a public service? I don't think so.