In article , "Carl R. Stevenson"
writes:

"Dick Carroll" wrote in message
...

"Carl R. Stevenson" wrote:

eliminating Morse testing will help,

Depends on an accurate definition of "help". I seriously doubt any help
will accrue
from allowing all the freebanding illiterati to migrate down to HF.

That's a bogus argument

Not really. It's not universal, either.

... since the "freebanders" operate without any
regard for the law, why would the allow a Morse test requirement to
dissuade them ...

I think you meant "why would they allow" - I'll go on that assumption

they have no licenses to operate any way (and don't
care to get them) ...

Here's how it works - in theory, anyway:

Most freebanders started out as cb users who then got tired of the limitations
of 5 watts and 40 channels. But, having had "a taste of HF", they wanted more -
more power, more spectrum, etc. Some became hams. Others looked into the
requirements for a ham license, saw the code test, and said 'no thanks".
Instead, they began running higher power and on frequencies adjacent to the
legal 40 channels.

With the code test gone, it will be a lot easier for folks like that to get ham
licenses. Most of them already know enough theory and regs to pass the
Technician written. They already have antennas and equipment that will work on
10 meters.

Carl, you have told us repeatedly that you know engineers who would have become
hams except for the code test. I think the word was "disincentive". And even
after the code test was gone for VHF/UHF, they did not become hams because they
wanted HF access.

If that was true for those engineers, why wouldn't it be true for lots of other
people?

This reminds me of the "We'll be over-run by the 'mongrel hordes' from
the CB bands FUD ... that hasn't happened either.

A lot of today's hams were or are cb users. Most are well behaved, but a few
are not.

Get real.

One of the most-repeated arguments I have heard from the nocodetest folks is
that the code test acts as a "barrier" to a ham license for many people who are
interested in radio not interested in code. If that is true, why wouldn't it be
true for cb users, freebanders and lots of other people?

--

Now maybe, just maybe, the removal of the code test will result in lots of new
law-abiding, progressive hams, interested in helping the ARS progress into the
21st century with new modes, new technologies and a new vision of the future.
We'll know pretty soon.

73 de Jim, N2EY

73 de Jim, N2EY