On Thu, 02 Nov 2006 14:13:46 GMT, "Harold E. Johnson" wrote:

Give the ham ticket another go. It's a great hobby despite the best efforts
of that little publishing company in Connecticut, the QCWA and a few
disgruntled idiots that have to have some reason to think themselves better
than others even if it's only through an obsolete mechanical skill likely
teachable to a reasonably smart chimpanzee.

If you truly believe all that, then you should also believe that ham (Indeed,
any) radio is an obsolete communications medium, since the world is now
hard-wired.

And if the chimp can learn Morse, why can't aspiring hams? Morse is easy at
lower speeds. Anyone who can't master it at up to 15wpm surely isn't bright
enought to to be trusted with his paws on the controls of a transmitter.

The primary justification for allocation of amateur radio spectrum has always
been emergency services. And in dire emergencies, operators might have to cobble
together makeshift equipment. In that case, it's much simpler -- and possibly
the only solution -- to build a cw transmitter than it is to come up with
modulation. Hence cw has always been the ultimate disaster scenario fall-back,
and should always remain a licensing requirement.

Otherwise, who needs hams, and why should they get any of the public radio
spectrum?

-- Larry