On Jan 25, 8:41 am, John Smith I wrote:
wrote: ...

My read on the Cranky Spanky is twofold: The guy is a control freak
trying to get a "rep" as all-seeing, all-knowing guru; he is trying to
button-push certain others so that they get "wound up" and say real
nasty things that would allow him to go crying to Google for help to
have the nasties banned forever and ever. :-)

...Len:

Like I say, I kinda like it when you disagree with me, gives me a chance
to see a different perspective on things. And, logical analysis is
never discouraged here ...

"Never discouraged?!?" You've GOT to be kidding!

In watching these floundering gods of morse blabber old League
sayings back and forth, the ONLY "logical analysis" ALLOWED
is that of the god-given truths from the bible of the Church of
St. Hiram. All else is heretical, blasphemy. Ptui.

While he is indeed a control freak and would like to bring all others
into agreement with him (wouldn't you just have hated to have been one
of his children!) I think his text relates strongly to his
disappointment and his unwillingness to bring himself into alignment
with reality.

I will agree with that. Yassuh.

Like I have said in past times, a relatively few strong willed
individuals have been in control and at the helm of amateur radios'
destiny. Now the ship has run ground from having such ill fitting
captains. It could have been much more (amateur radio), and composed of
enough individuals to have been able to survive. This never happened,
others constantly warned them along the way. And, they were especially
warned of the danger of keeping amateur radio a "good ole' boys club"
and using morse as a limiting factor in allowing new licensees.

Absolutely. Had Philips "invented" their wearable LED display
shirts years ago, they would have been bought up for all the
olde-tyme morsemen to walk around with them, announcing
they were Gods of Radio. [see latest issue of IEEE Spectrum
for "winners and losers" in electrical-electronic technology with
Philips (of the Netherlands) having a very rare for them loser
product]

So, mankind went on and invented the internet. Now the internet
overflows the world and has become TREMENDOUSLY IMPORTANT, an example is
this newsgroup right here. And, the internets' appetite is
ever-increasing hungry for bandwidth--something amateur radio just has
laying around.

Ahem...ham radio ain't no "starting point" for any Internet. The
Internet was a logical progression of humans' need to
communicate, much much aided by solid-state technology
and Information Theory and general computer thechnology.

Look at cellular telephony which got a head start on the
Internet. Four years ago the US Census Bureau made a
public statement that one in three Americans had a cell
phone subscription. Little two-way radios tied into the
telephone system. One in three. That's like 100 million
cellphones in the USA alone. Consumer electronics stores
are having a profitable ball selling the things. The electronics
industry trade magazines have been featuring cellphone base
station technology and components. At the same time,
amateur radio "men" could only preserve their testosterone
if they tested for morse code?!?!?

The rest is my psychic prediction--the internet will consume amateur
radios' bandwidth--end of story.

Well, I look at it a bit differently. Unless US amateur radio
GROWS UP to face the new millennium, amateur radio of
the "hold back the dawn" leadership will simply consume
itself. It was already started.

Maybe...just maybe...FCC 06-178 can throw some water on
the dying embers of what was once US amateur radio. It could
rise like the Phoenix from the ashes. Maybe. At least it is
COLD water that might wake a few of these olde-tymers up.
Most will not, though, mumbling through toothless gums
about the Greater Glory of Morsemanship and how it once
saveed the Titanic in 1912.

The rest of mankind's quest for intercommunications goes on.
The Internet is just one facet. Self-amplifying fiber-optic cable
now spans the world's oceans with Gigabit data rates, the
equatorial communication satellites orbit spaces were all
filled years ago, DATA rules the exchange of written words,
and non-radio-civilians can roam supermarket aisles talking
back home about special product prices and asking if they
should get those instead of what they had on the list. GPS
for civilians can almost pinpoint which aisle they are in, a
system that the USN pioneered beginning three decades ago.
TV viewers are beginning to catch up with beautiful video and
wonderful sound through HDTV.

While all that is happening all around, the olde-tymers are
busy ordering all that the only "good" radio man is one that
is expert with morse code and will "always" get an amateur
radio license to "prove his worth and dedication!"

Amateur radio chiefs are still vainly holding back the dawn of
new ages (plural) for all they are worth. It's like some weird
Amish quasi-religious movement limiting all technology fixed
in the standards and practices of the 1930s, forever
worshipping the PAST.

[now watch all the Amatur Standartenfuhrers hitch up their
armbands, march in with their jackboots, and try to pull off
a Krystallnacht on those not loving the olde tymes... :-) ]

LA