From: Leo on Tues, Feb 27 2007 5:29 pm

On 26 Feb 2007 17:44:22 -0800, wrote:
From: Leo on Mon, Feb 26 2007 3:38 pm
wrote:
From: Leo on Sun, Feb 25 2007 10:57 am

...continued

After this correction, it should level off -
then it's dead guys and decreases for the forseeable future, unless
the younger members of society get r-e-a-l-l-y bored with the
Internet, cellphones, text messaging and IM!

I agree with the "dead guys and decreases." I don't
quite agree with the others. Yes, the Internet and
cell phone has become the new phenomenon of NOW. Folks
of now ARE affluent enough to afford cell phones and
unlimited-service 'Net accounts. NOW is NOT the
wind-coils-on-round-oatmeal-containers style of pre-
WW2 times or futzing with "crystal sets" and pi-net
two-tube MOPAs in the "most economical manner."
NOW is NOT the 1960s or the 1950s with attendant
monetary values.

Good point.

Sigh...I just wish some of the article writers and,
especially, the EDITORS, would GET WITH IT. :-(

A two-transistor transmitter is cute in a tuna can
but, good grief, what is to be gained by it besides
a momentary novelty.

The USA pushed a "radio panic button" with 11m CB back
in 1958.

Thanks for saying 11m!

Hmmm...let's face it, that little sliver of a band was
underutilized at the time. shrug

I doubt that anyone in North America could have
predicted the onslaught of offshore CB sets a
decade later. No evidence of it...outside some
"knowitall" claims much, much later. :-(


Amateur radio CAN help that DESIRE to communicate. But,
it will just shoot itself down if it stays mired in
what was "gee-whiz technology" four decades ago...or the
competition to collect as much wallpaper as possible
(which isn't real communication, just an odd contest).
Amateur radio just can't get anywhere if all the
cheering sections just spend all their time giving each
other high-fives on "how good we are" or "we are the
pioneers of radio" (very, very past tense). Self-
praise is something done here in moom pitchas (see
Sunday's Oscar Awards). The difference is that the
motion picture industry THRIVES on publicity; amateur
radio publicity outside of itself is almost nil.

On that point we agree completely.

OK.

I thought it interesting to mention the first sign of
the 23 Feb changeover appeared on this morning's tally
of class totals at www.hamdata.com:

No-code-test Technician class totals DROPPED by 165
between 26th and 27th, now down to 311,801. The
General class here GAINED a sudden 248 (!) to reach
142,299. Extra class also gained by 74 to make it
111,574. Considering all the others but Clubs (gained
4), LOST numbers, that certainly seems to point to
Techs upgrading and some newbies (maybe) coming in
to the middle and high class licenses.

For the first time in a lonnnng while, the individual
licensee grand total spiked upward by 94 from the 26th
to hit 711,526 on the 27th. Not a biggie and may turn
out to be a statistical anomaly. On the other hand,
it could be the first batch of exams making it through
the VEC-FCC processing. We'll have to keep watching.

We will also be treated to Micollis Tesla saying "he
predicted it all along" or words to that effect. :-)

73s, LA