It's Not a Code, no code problem, it's a generational problem!



In the past week, the articles that seemed to get the most play on ham sites
were the Southern Border Volunteers and the lack of brotherhood in ham
radio.



I was amazed at the responses that were both negative and critical of
supporting a group that wanted to protect our borders. I suspect some
passengers were probably tsk tsking the only guy in four airplanes with the
guts to do something to stop the rag heads on 9/11. How else can you explain
rag heads armed ONLY with box cutters were able to control three airplanes?
Many of the younger generation find it easier to criticize than take action.



Ham radio went to hell when Dick Bash got involved with his published "cheat
sheets".



This piece is from the prospective of a ham with over 50 years spewing RF
throughout the world. At 68 years of age, I look back at my start in ham
radio, appearing before a steely eyed FCC examiner in Norfolk Virginia. I
missed the distance for a Conditional license by about 11 miles. I had to
walk between school and home in the snow, uphill both ways.



Do I think that everyone should have to do what I did to become a ham?
Nope, I can live with the memorized exams, the no code, etc. Like the
parable of the workers in the vineyard, I accept the rules have changed. At
no place in the parable does it tell the late arriving workers to ridicule
those that worked all day.



Just as sure as these words are on your screen, you too will someday be an
old fart just like me. As you enter the dotage of your life, health concerns
and the condition of your aged friends, becomes more of a concern. We, like
you, used to talk about more contemporary subjects. Unlike a number of you,
we allowed the older folks to have their conversations without ridicule. It
is called respect, and is a two way street. Realize that when I was a newby,
I suffered the same as you at the hands of the old farts. They believed that
for you to enter their group, you should first show respect and learn to
snatch the pebble from their hand.



None of you started in your working life as the CEO of the company, yet many
of today's generation feel that a newly minted license conveys total
knowledge. What you have is a license to learn, take advantage of it and the
brotherhood will naturally follow.



If we all took the time to show each other respect, and be less quick to
judge, not only would ham radio be better, but our lives as well.



wrote in message
oups.com...
Newsflash: ALL radio operators, code or no-code, are "appliance
operators" as you colloquially state. A radio is a means to
communicate. Knowing code just adds another way to use that radio.

Quite true, Opus! Thank you for pointing that out.

Let us hope that Blowcode sticks to his ARRL "Archie" comic
books while he mimes the "Wizard of Oz's" scarecrow wishing
he had a brain. :-(