What is, and has been, needed is fresh blood in the hobby. How many
THOUSAND more hams would there be right NOW if the dumbasses (you know
who you are) that have fought dropping the pathetically obsolete
requirement for Morse hadn't been so short-sighted?

Morse is a wonderful thing. Seriously. I know it to be true. But driving
it down the throats of people that have no interest in it = insane. Like
requiring a 747 pilot to be fully competent with the operation of
Sopwith Camel. Very cool stuff, but how is it related to what they
intend to do?

More hams would have had the effect of drawing more attention to HF.
What ham hasn't introduced family, friends and even strangers to HF
listening in one way or another?

More hams = more "evangelists" for the hobby.

/bitching done for now
//misses the BBC broadcasts to North America
///afraid that all HF as we know it will soon be a thing of the past


Times change

Roadie wrote:

On Jan 29, 12:35 pm, wrote:

That reflects what most of us know - there is less and less to hear on
the HF bands and there are fewer and fewer people tuning in. The
shortage of messages even remotely related to shortwave on
rec.radio.shortwave is yet another indicator of how shortwave radio
has changed.