"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
6...

I know many hams who are surrounded with like minded people, other Hams
who share similar interests. They have an outlook in which they think
everyone is like them, or at least everyone should be. Those who do not
share their outlook are inferior, or at best misinformed.


What's interesting to me, is the "vintage" of those "elitists". With a few
exceptions they are usually not "old timers" or "newbies" but rather those
licensed in the 70's through about 1988 or so. These are the ones who posture
about "purity of the ham race" and look down their nose at any ham who "isn't
like them". They are, by and large, products of the incentive licensing system
with it's fragmentation of the hobby into exclusive ghettos, reeking of "status"
and "rank" and "I can beep faster than you can beep".

When I got into this hobby, you got no special call sign, no special status, no
special band segments, the callbook didn't show your class, and nobody could
poke around the QRZ.COM website to check your "status". All of us, ALL OF
US, exuberantly played in the ether as equals, and nobody gave a rip if you
were a Conditional, General, Advanced, or Extra. You were a ham - PERIOD! I
think that's what makes us old-timers more accepting of those who "don't act
just like us".

73, de Hans, K0HB