On Sep 17, 8:33�pm, AJ Lake wrote:
wrote:
the FCC considered Morse Code skill to be
part of what it meant to be a qualified radio amateur...

Even if there was no treaty, the ham employees in the FCC didn't want
no-code.

Nor did the non-ham employees, until the mid 1970s.

And there *was* a treaty that FCC wouldn't ignore.

The ARRL didn't want no-code.

If you mean the membership didn't want it, you're right.
And the average (already) code tested
ham didn't want no-code. It's not surprising therefore that as a political
body the FCC just agreed with it's constituents.

Because the constituents made themselves heard.

Yet as early as 1975 the FCC was trying to create a nocodetest ham
license. The opposition was clear and they backed down. FCC tried
again in 1983 and the opposition made them back down. But in 1991 FCC
did it anyway.

I remember the moaning back then. Basically it came down to the idea
that many hams felt they'd earned the right to full privileges forever....

I think the moaning was over the basic unfairness of *removing* privileges
already earned.

That's what I said - many hams felt they'd earned the privileges
*forever*, no matter how much things changed.

IMHO one of the driving forces was Sputnik and its cousins.

Up until October 1957, the USA had been confident that we were way
ahead of the Soviets in technology. We had jet planes, they were still
using props. We had transistors, computers, color TV, they were way
behind. Etc.

Then Sputnik went up, and the USSR got a first in the history books.
It was soon followed by a bunch of other firsts - first animal in
space, first pictures of the far side of the moon, first
interplanetary probe, and then the first human in space. It was a
shock that had repercussions in a lot of ways, one of which was more
emphasis on math and science in schools. Another was raising the
expectations of ham operators.

Of course it took time to change the rules.

Over the years there has been many unpopular (to some)
license changes but virtually all (maybe all?) involved giving new
applicants easier privileges, not taking away already earned privileges.

Since 1969 that's been the case, because nobody wants to be blamed for
"incentive licensing version 2".

btw, I earned my Advanced in the summer of 1968 and had full
privileges for a few weeks until the rules changed in November 1968.

And you didn't moan at all??

Nope. I just went and got an Extra the first time it was legal for me
to try for it. Summer 1970.

Give me a break...

I won't lie to you and say I complained when I didn't. I was a new ham
in 1968 and I knew the rules were going to change, so I just upgraded.
It was a challenge, not something to complain about. Haven't regretted
it since.

I think what bothered a lot of hams back then was that they'd let
themselves get really rusty on both code and theory, and the thought
of having to pass more tests was really daunting. On top of that, the
Advanced and Extra tests couldn't normally be done "by mail" like the
Novice, Tech and Conditional, so they'd have to face The Man From FCC
rather than another ham for the exams.

All ancient history now. The VE system has been in place for a quarter
of a century, Generals now have at least as much 'phone space as they
had in 1968, and we're effectively down to three license classes
(almost).

73 de Jim, N2EY