"Larry Roll K3LT" wrote in message
...
In article , "Carl R. Stevenson"
writes:

However, the requirements for licensure should be reasonable
and rational, and while the written tests meet that criteria, the
requirement for Morse proficiency no longer does.

Carl - wk3c

Carl:

Jim, N2EY, just said, in so many words,

With all due respect to Jim, just because he said it doesn't make
it true. (no matter how many words he used :-)

that since today's amateur
radio equipment can no longer be designed, built, or serviced by
any but the tiny handful of hams who possess professional-grade
technical knowledge, skill, and facilities,

That's absurd ... just as those who want to (and don't have a
legitimate physical limitation that prevents it) *could* learn
Morse at some arbitrary speed, anyone who wants to (except,
someone who's truly mentally deficient) can learn the skills
necessary to design, build, and service equipment comparable
in performance to (or better than) off the shelf commercial equipment.

Even "custom ASICs" can be affordably created in the ham's
home workshop with free or inexpensive software tools that
run on any reasonable PC, using FPGAs and other programable
logic devices ... and they can do significant signal processing at
rates higher than can be done in software on a PC (though using
the PC to do some signal processing is useful and practical in
some applications).

Some of the fancy LCD displays require special manufacturing
techniques and equipment and would be prohibitively expensive for
"one off" and small quantities, but they can be replaced by a "soft"
display on a computer screen if those sorts of bells and whistles
are desired ... check out "Ham Radio Deluxe" ... one hell of a
slick control program, that's free by the way, from Simon Brown,
HB9DRV, and Peter Halpin, PE1MHO, (NCI Director Emeritus,
holder of the 1st 6m QRP (=5W) DXCC, and other awards and
omgosh ... a no-coder)
at: http://www.kns.ch/sysgem/hb9drv/HamRadioDeluxe.htm

Building and servicing are simply a matter of technique. SMT
parts can be soldered by hand with a small, low wattage iron
(even 200 pin QFPs ... I've done it many times) or with a simple
hot air reflow soldering system (you can buy one, or could build
one ... I've reflowed modest sized PCBs with a heat gun and
some care.

The techniques are different than the old "thru-hole" methods,
but they are really no more difficult and are certainly within
reach of anyone who cares to learn.

(and, amateur radio is *supposed* to encourage the learning
of useful technical skills, advancing the art, etc.)

that most of the technical
knowledge in the present written tests can also be eliminated as
a licensing requirement. I totally agree.

So, you would prefer that the amateur ranks be centered on
appliance operators (as long as they can beep fast)??? That's
the death warrant for amateur radio if it ever becomes totally
that way.

Reducing the technical skill of amateurs to your level and
keeping "Morse as king" may make you FEEL superior,
Larry, but it's really the TRUE "dumbing down" of the
amateur radio service ...

Other than as a recreational activity in the ARS (which is fine),
the world has passed Morse by.

What's needed in the "pool of trained operators" is no longer
a cadre of Morseists, but folks who have the technical
knowledge and skill to build, field, and maintain systems that
can meet the communications needs of EMS agencies ... and
that's at a level of technology far beyond OOK Morse.

In what way is it
"reasonable and rational" for someone to know Ohm's Law or
even the most basic digital theory, if they'll never have to use it
in their actual practice as a radio amateur?

Ohm's Law is a tool that can be used for many things ... biasing
circuits, figuring out what size wire gauge is necessary to carry
a given current with what voltage drop, and on and on ... and it's
a simple equation, whose permutations can be learned in about
10 minutes ... equally useful are the formulae for inductive and
capacitive reactance, resonance, etc., etc.

These are all basic things that every amateur should know and
understand. (Do they all? No. Should they? Yes!!!)

I say it isn't, and
nothing could prove this better than eliminating the code testing
requirements for the same reason.

That's absurd ...

After all, code testing has
the effect of exposing prospective radio amateurs to what is
always going to be a practical and useful communications tool
which allows radio amateurs to practice basic radio
communication with only entry-level skill and technology.

Certain chemicals are "useful" in agriculture ... should everyone
who wants to eat a salad be required to be sprayed with them
("exposed to them") against his/her will before being allowed to
do so? (Yes, it's an extreme and contrived example, but the
principle is EXACTLY the same.)

If we eliminate the code testing requirement, we therefore
demonstrate that basic communications skills are no longer
necessary to be a licensed amateur radio operator.

Larry ... most folks don't WANT to communicate via Morse.
Nothing prevents you from doing so, but to assert that everyone
must prove they can before they can do anything on HF is
pointless and counter to the interests of the future of ham radio.
(The governments of the world and even the IARU have come
to realize this ... that YOU "don't get it" is irrelevant.)

I, for one,
would like to think that the present syllabus of the written tests
still represents "basic communications skills." So, which will
it be? Code testing, written testing, both, or neither?

The sensible option ... no code testing. Adequate written testing.
That answer is obvious.

Carl - wk3c