On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 07:41:34 -0500, "Liberals R. Intolerant"
wrote:

Why am I not an Advanced or Extra? I'm happy where I am and don't feel
like studying to get the Extra. Everything I want to do I can do with
the General.

I know so many people who where kept out of Amateur Radio because they
say no value and had no interest in the code. This change is the
greatest day in Amateur Radio.

wrote:

I agree. This is not 1950. People, including some who are anything but lazy,
don't necessarily have amateur radio as their only thing to do. Way back in
the dim dark past, people only had _money_ for maybe 1 hobby and had TONS of
time becuase they only had money to do 1 or 2 things recreationally. People
didn't routinely fly in jet airplanes (that was the really rich "Jet Set"), and
the interstate higway system wasn't built yet so a traveling vacation was a
real adventure that many less people tried.

I was a kid in the 50s. THERE JUST WASN'T THAT MUCH TO DO!!! So, sitting
around learning the code, reading ham radio magazines and other magazines, and
doing the sort of study-intensive things that used to be ham radio wasn't a big
deal..

But my friend, who is ALWAYS busy with something now, doesn't care to allocate
a big slice of time to learn the code. Not even 5 wpm. There's just so much
stuff to work on around his house, kids to take care of, hunting and fishing to
do, and he climbs mountains for fun. He's stuck at tech class, just because
the code is just not worth it to him.

But he's an EE, so with this latest move, he's likely to be an Extra by the end
of next year. He can learn everything that he needs to know that's outside
what he already knows about electricity and radio in a few weeks. This is
awesome for me, 'cuz he's about 25 miles away with a big ridge in between us,
so VHF / UHF just does not work. Sure, I can get on a repeater and talk to
him, if I want to tie up a repeater, but now... NVIZ antenna on 160 will likely
see us communicating much easier. We've both got land for 160 meter antenna -
I'll have to shorten mine a bit, but not much.

This is great.

Dave Head
K8DH