RadioBanter - View Single Post - CW-forever Guys are gonna go balistic!

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Absolutely so. This thing is a watered-down repeat of the 1960s
"restructuring".

The more things change....

The old General phone band was 3800-4000. The circle is complete.

I was there the first night we were allowed to operate below 3800,
worked an EA. Lotta ticked off VEs, Helluva mess. Lotta fun.

Indeed!

Note the lack of Generals expressing any opinions on the
subject. If they're not in here complaining about losing cw/rtty space
why should us OF Extras care about the subject one way or the other?

It sets a bad precedent.

In what respect?

That they will reduce privileges of existing licenses.

You're almost 40 years late. The precedent was carved in stone as a
result of the Incentive Licensing R&Os of the late 1960s and they just
did it again.

The point is that since 1969 they haven't.

I'm not familiar with the 'wayback history of it but
maybe there were similar occurrences before 1950.

Not one that I know of since the inception of the ABC system.

I wonder what FCC really thinks of us hams.

PIAs. Their problem.

Naw, it's ours, because we can't vote them out.

Which, in the final analysis, is probably in our best interests.

Consider how qualified the head of FEMA was to handle Katrina...

The "relationship" between ham radio and the FCC is no different
overall than the way the FAA gets pounded by the recreational aviation
crowd and the Department of the Interior gets Excedrin headaches from
the hiking, camping, hunting and fishing bunch. The ongoing regulatory
brawls between the skimobile/ATV users vs. the preservationists make
our little code test dispute look laughable in comparison. When it's
all said and done the regulatory agencies have been instructed by law
and funded by Congress to deal with the sometimes goofy issues we the
public stick them with - since it's *us* who are paying them to do it.

Sure - but the results may be very different. I doubt FCC is too
worried about the amateur community as "the public". They're too busy
dealing with wardrobe malfunctions and Howard Stern wannabes.

That sort of stuff is handled by the upper-level politically sensitive
types at the FCC, our fates are crafted by the OET jorneymen. The BPL
flap excepted.

Maybe. If ya think BPL isn't political, ya haven't been paying
attention.

The Morse Code test issue is even more of a mess. Treaty changes, FCC
gets *18* proposals! Huh? Some are poles apart while others are
virtually identical. They gotta deal with 18 RMs and comments on all of
them.

No sympathy. See above about who gets paid to do what.

There's no modern-day equivalent of K7UGA to put a bit of a scare into
'em, though.

Sen. Goldwater, Art Collins, Gen. LeMay, hams in high places within the
FCC . . Golden days . . heh.

Yup.

By now they've long since
gotten wise to Anderson's childish antics and his "comments" just get
rubber-stamped "READ" and tossed into the outbox without further ado.

They gotta accept 'em and read 'em. They don't have to act on them.

Who audits this process to make sure they all get "equal reads" and
consideration? Where's the published policies on the topic? Answer:
There ain't neither. You can fill in the rest.

They do read all of the comments. What they conclude is another matter.

You're the local manager of the FCC group which totes up the comments
on ham radio NPRMs, you also have a budget and a calander to manage and
you know you gotta plow through the piles of comments in as efficient a
maner as you can. Ordinary common sense and business smarts indicate
that you'll pass out some informal set of criteria or another about
who's comments to spend serious time on and who's to just give a quick
scan and toss into the "agree"or "disagree" stacks with all sorts of
variations in between.

Bingo. Particularly if there's nothing new in the 200+ pages of
comments and reply comments from one person!

Considering the fact that Anderson's only inputs
to the process have been a stream of workload for them from a non-ham
bush-leaguer it wouldn't surprise me if they also had a stack for his
drivel marked "cranks". Ten second scan, done, flick, into the stack it
goes.

They gotta read 'em. Doesn't mean they gotta agree with 'em or act on
'em.

He's not having any impact at all at the FCC and he knows it, he's
trolling for folk like you who get their knickers in a twist over his
nonsense.

I doubt he knows it.

Then he's even more off the wall than I've given him credit for.

Not my problem. Not yours, either.

As for knickers, it's not mine that are in a twist.

Then howcum you brought him up?

Just to show what FCC has to put up with and why they *might* be a
little ticked...

Or were you trolling ME?!

Not trolling anybody. Besides, have you submitted hundreds of pages?

FCC could have just dropped Element 1 in August 2003. Memorandum Report
and Order, coupla paragraphs and done. All they'd have to do is say
that the issue was thoroughly discussed before the 2000 restructuring,
and the treaty was the only reason they kept Element 1.

But they didn't, and now it's almost 3-1/2 years later.

(a) They're toying with us for jollies.
(b) They know it doesn't matter one way or another.
(c) They're internally deadlocked on the subject just like we are.
(d) It'll show up in Omnibus II.

I'd say (a) and (b), plus a bit of

(e) They are ticked off at the 18 petitions, lack of consensus and
mountains of commentary.

We're the global odd jobs, we're notorious all over the planet for
preferring food fights to regulatory peace and quiet. We is what we is,
the old "herding cats" syndrome in play.

Yup.

But that makes no difference when it comes to getting what we want out
of FCC. I think we'd do a lot better to get a consensus *before*
deluging them with proposals and comments, that's all.

Idealism and standard motherhood get you nowhere.

I'm not saying it'll ever happen, just that it explains why it takes so
long to get anything from FCC and why the result is so unlike what is
proposed.

But that's a lot of work. You think an outfit like NCI is going to do
all the legwork and compromising to get consensus? Don't hold yer
breath.

Not in our lifetimes.

73 de Jim, N2EY