RadioBanter - View Single Post - Is the code requirement really keeping good people out of ham radio?

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wrote:
From: Jimmie D on Tues, Oct 17 2006 7:46 pm
wrote in message
From: Nada Tapu on Sat, Sep 30 2006 2:23 pm
On Fri, 29 Sep 2006 20:56:08 -0400, wrote:

Total agreement here, our obligation of service to to earn our privlegdes
doesnt end with what we have done but with what we have done lately.

Sorry, but I see absolutely NO "obligation to perform
some service [to the nation or community]."

Not for any particular individual, anyway.

That is one
of the myths promulgated by the ARRL and its followers.

That's a falsehood, Len. ARRL talks about the service provided by
amateur radio, but does not say there is an obligation to do so.

The word "service" used by the FCC all throughout Title
47 C.F.R., all Parts, is a regulatory term referring to
a type and kind of radio activity being regulated.
[see Citizens Band Radio SERVICE or Radio Control Radio
SERVICE as two examples in Part 95] Also, as Cecil Moore
mentioned, the government is doing its citizens a service,
NOT the other way around.

Irrelevant.

If an individual WANTS to VOLUNTARILY perform some service,
then excellent.

And they do!

There is NO "obligation" to do so unless
there is some law requiring it.

Agreed!

However, one of the justifications for the continued existence of the
Amateur Radio Service is the public service performed by radio amateurs
using amateur radio.

Personally, I think all
citizens of the USA should do at least one term of Jury
Service. In California there is a state law that eligible
citizens shall serve, for a time and times as stated by
law. [I've done five terms of Jury Service here] Anyone
who WANTS to voluntarily sit in on a court is allowed to
(with some special conditions not permitting certain
trials). Those spectators are NOT obligated to do so.

Irrelevant.

USA amateur radio service is a VOLUNTARY activity. It is
an avocation, not an occupation. In other words it is a
HOBBY.

It's not just a hobby, though.

It's a fine hobby, tens of thousands of citizens
engaged in it.

Hundreds of thousands of US citizens.

But, it is still a HOBBY.

It's not just a hobby, though.

It is NOT
"essential" for the good of the nation.

How do you know for sure?

It is high time
that everyone quit dreaming about imaginary glory of
"serving the community" through amateur radio...time to
look at what it IS in the real world.

What does that mean?

Amateur Radio does indeed perform public service - voluntarily. That's
a fact, not an opinion.