In article , "Carl R. Stevenson"
writes:

"N2EY" wrote in message
om...
"Carl R. Stevenson" wrote in message
...
Dick,

EVERY time there has been change of any real sort in ham radio, there
have been cranky olde fartz like you preaching "end of the world" doom
and gloom ... and every time it has not come to pass ...

There have also been predictions and promises of a "brave new world"
that the new changes would bring. Which also did not come to pass.

I would submit that the change from spark to CW was a big, progressive
change.

Not in Jimmie's day of around 1923 or 1924. He lived it all. In fantasy.

Likewise the change from AM to SSB.

...which would not have happened if AT&T hadn't used it on wireline
"carrier" equipment...or a number of commercial communications
carriers hadn't used it on HF in the 1930s...or USAF's SAC had
contracted Collins and RCA for military single-channel SSB
transceivers.

From plain RTTY to things like AMTOR, PACTOR, PSK31, etc.

If one extra can't understand a 1947 landmark paper on communications
theory, why do you expect a bunch of amateurs will understand the
relationship between noise, bandwidth, and error rate? :-)

Did these changes come about overnight? No. Did OTs bitch
and whine? Yes.

"B&W." Like sour old root beer. :-) :-) :-)

Sorry to slight A&W which makes very good root beer...


None of these were forced on hams by regulatory change. Hams adopted
them voluntarily. For example, spark wasn't outlawed for hams until
1927, even though it was essentially abandoned by hams by 1923 or 24.

Nobody is proposing a regulatory change that will prohibit or in any way
restrict the USE of Morse ... all that's being asked for is to eliminate the
test requirement that even the FCC and the IARU admit are not in the
best interest of the future of ham radio.

All them holier-than-thou old-timers are too good to be true...as long
as you agree with their old, outmoded ways of radio. :-)

Nobody is being forced to do anything ... in fact, the proposed/anticipated
change will STOP forcing folks to do something that many don't want to
do ...

IARU saw the light. ARRL refused to look, so far. That kind of
spells out how it will go in the USA on test element 1.

ARRL won't let go of the code test until the last morse recording is
removed from their director's cold, dead fingers.

So, the "None of these were forced on hams by regulatory change." argument
doesn't hold water Jim.

You were speaking at a holier-than-thou old-timer in ham radio, Carl.

:-)

AM is still popular on HF - in fact, more popular than 20-30 years
ago. What caused hams to abandon AM in large numbers was the simple
fact that an SSB transceiver was less expensive than an AM
receiver-transmitter combo of equal effective power. That transition
also drastically reduced the amount of homebrewing done by hams.

What drastically reduced the amount of homebrewing done by hams
is a combination of the following:

1) technology got more "complicated" for the uninitiated
2) parts got harder to buy at reasonable prices in small quantities
3) the performance and quality of "store-bought" gear
improved and at the same time the cost in (adjusted) $
dropped dramatically.

Heck, you can buy a decent 2m transciever for $150 today
... something with performance, quality, reliability, and ergonomics
that the average ham couldn't duplicate for 3x that price when
buying parts in small quantities.

Does that mean I think homebrewing should roll over and die?
CERTAINLY NOT ...

Nope. QST and QEX will still feature landmark weekender
project articles for regenerative receivers and two-transistor
transmitters built in tuna tin cans. Real earthshaking
technical advancements! :-)

the introduction of the no-code Tech license;

Which has not resulted in greatly increased longterm growth nor a
techno revolution.

If it weren't for the thousands of hams who have entered via the
no-code tech license, the ham population would be something
like 1/2 what it was in 1990 ...

Actually, more like 2/3. That argument was done in here about
four years ago. Rev. Jimmie wouldn't accept it then, still won't.

I think his world was stuck in the 1930s when he had finally
abandoned spark for tubes.

When you start out with an old, greying demographic (and I'm
no "spring chicken"), if there are no newcomers, the population
can only drop dramatically.
[snipped here for lack of time and tiredness ... it's been a LONG day]

Poor greying babies! :-)

Boo hoo. Grey hair! Tsk, tsk. :-)

LHA