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On 21 Sep 2003 08:25:52 GMT, ospam (Larry Roll K3LT)
wrote:

Now, then, how does the advocation of code testing in any way correlate
to bigotry, elitism, and/or discrimination against other Americans?

By steadfastly refusing to admit that code testing is a
government-subsidized life support system for an anachronism, and
insisting that code testing be retained, PCTAs are supporting
artificial barriers to entry into the hobby. I suspect that for many
PCTAs, and maybe even for most PCTAs, the motive for this lies not in
promoting the use of the mode, but in retaining a piece of the RF
spectrum for their own use at the exclusion of others who their no
longer exists a practical reason for keeping them out on the basis of
code proficiency.

Whether you or any of the other PCTAs care to realize it or not,
Larry, this attitude is THE reason why so many people in other facets
of hobby radio, while respecting the abilities of hams with respect to
our knowledge about radio, tend to consider us a bunch of stuffed
shirts personally. Outside the ARS, the code test is perceived (quite
correctly) as archaic and pointless except as a hazing ritual that
exists solely as a means of keeping others from joining our exclusive
little club - which is elitism by definition - and then when you get
people like WA8ULX using derogatory terms like "CBplussers" to
describe fellow hams who don't share the same interests in radio as he
does, that, Larry, is bigotry...and ULX is far from being the only ham
in here who is guilty of it.

The
code tests, both past and present, have proved to be achievable by people
from all walks of life, including those with communicative disabilities up to
and including total deafness. Try as I may, I can't find anything patently
"discriminatory" there. So, take a shot of setting me straight -- how is
code testing "discrimination?"

I've already shown bigotry and elitism. I'm not going to bother
getting into discriminatory - two out of three is bad enough. I'll
give you a hint, though...a Technician who passes the written test is
not qualified to operate on HF phone, but a Tech who passes a code
test *is* qualified to operate on HF phone? That makes about as much
sense as some of the junk coming into this NG from the crossposters
over in the rec.radio.cb newsgroup. Whether or not the Tech is
qualified to operate on HF phone - or PSK31 or SSTV or any other mode
besides CW - has nothing to do with whether he or she can copy Morse.
You really mean to tell me that you guys who bill yourselves as
superior to most other hams don't understand how stupid that looks to
those outside your steadily shrinking clique of PCTAs? And you can't
see the harm it does to the image of amateur radio? C'mon, guys, get
your heads out of the sand, will ya? It's 2003, not 1936.

I've discussed that contradiction with Larry before. He does seem to
exclude code testing from his conservative views opposing excessive
government regulation.

Correct, because I don't consider it to be "excessive" government
regulation.

If it is unnecessary, it is excessive.

I believe the government has a valid need to regulate certain
things, especially valuable and finite resources such as the RF
spectrum.

Last time I checked, FCC still does regulate the RF spectrum.

Therefore, I believe that when license is to be given for the
PRIVILEGE of free use of RF spectrum, which is worth potentially
billions of dollars should it be converted to commerce in the commercial
utility communications and broadcasting industries, certain government
regulation makes good sense.

Which we have - in the case of the ARS, it's in Part 97. Other radio
services are regulated by other parts of FCC regulations. Dropping
code testing will not render the ARS unregulated - it will merely
remove an archaic regulation that not only no longer serves any
purpose vital to the well-being of the ARS, but actually is no longer
in keeping with the basis and purpose of the ARS - a fact which FCC
conceded in its R&O on the last round of restructuring. One would
think that if an agency of the federal beaurocracy can be made to
aquiesce to this fact, a few thousand regular citizens ought to be
able to understand it to, yet the PCTAs continue to cling to an
obvious (to everyone else) anachronism as if it were the only
worthwhile pursuit in all of amateur radio. That puts PCTAs in a
distinct minority, because the rest of the world understands that it
is anything but a worthwhile pursuit as far as it relates to the state
of communications technology in the 22nd century world.

If Morse Code has real value, it should be able to
survive in as close to a free market environment as possible.

Well, that's a wonderful concept, Dwight, but history has shown that
it doesn't work when put to the actual test.

That alone should tell you something...like maybe that the rest of the
world isn't operating under the same illusions as most PCTAs seem to
be suffering from.

The No-code Technician
experiment only served to bring us a couple hundred grand of new
hams who self-limited their amateur radio experience to the 2-meter
repeaters.

I disagree - the 2-meter band is merely the most popular among those
bands on which their licenses grant them operating privileges. That,
along with the widespread availability of equipment for operating
there, makes it a matter of course that most of them are going to show
up there first.

Naturally, they all want the freedom to use HF phone, but
that still (for now) requires that they learn the Morse code and pass
a test, albeit at a mere 5 WPM. The fact that they are not doing so in
any great numbers indicates that the Morse code does not have any
particular drawing power based on it's own "merits," as the NCTA
would infer.

Again, that ought to tell you something. It does tell me something. It
tells me that either radio hobbyists in general are smarter than PCTAs
seem to think they are, or that perhaps the PCTAs aren't as smart as
they think they are.

To put it another way, just because a minority of hams who happen to
be PCTAs have deluded themselves into thinking that an archaic testing
requirement of an anachronistic operating mode is of continued benefit
to the ARS or to the science of radio, does not necessarily mean that
the rest of us are going to fall victim to the same fallacy. The fact
that so many people aren't buying into this supposition indicates to
me that perhaps NCTAs - and hams who are interested in ham radio but
not in CW operation - aren't dumbing down the hobby, as the PVTAs
would infer. Perhaps the dumbing down is coming from the other side of
the CW fence.

And now that there is a very bold dotted line drawn
around even this meager requirement, the incentive has all but
fully evaporated.

That incentive evaporated sometime around 1970. That's when the state
of communications technology truly made CW obsolete for most purposes.
It remains a viable communications mode, but it is far from being the
most efficient, it is far from being the easiest to learn and use, and
it is long past time to do away with the code testing requirement.
It's doing nothing but keeping people out of the ARS for no good
reason other than that the PCTAs get to hold onto their "turf" on the
bands for a little while longer. Anyone who thinks differently,
mention the refarming of the Novice bands to any PCTA. Then get ready
to start peeling PCTAs off the ceiling.

I think it has
that value and can survive just fine without a regulation mandating testing.

And I don't -- and have seen conclusive proof that it won't.

Which leaves two reasons for continuing to have a code test, and both
of them are rooted in elitism and bigotry.

Funny...part of the Basis & Purpose mentions fostering international
goodwill - yet we have so many people in the ARS who can't even be
bothered to foster goodwill on our side of the ponds. They'd prefer to
cling like koala bears to their own little slices of the RF spectrum
and the rest of us be damned. Sickening.

First of all, FCC Commissioners are political appointees, not necessarily
technical experts. They can, and do, depend on the advice of professional
technical experts, who actually formulate and subsequently make
recommendations on regulatory matters. The Commissioners mainly
ensure that these regulations meet the needs of their respective
political constituencies, often with numerous conflicting interests battering
them from every angle.

None of which has anything to do with the usefulness of code testing,
so (as they say down at the barber shop), "Next!"

Second, it is not my desire to "undermine" anyone. I don't view the
Morse code testing requirements, past or present, to be in any way
unachievable or otherwise discriminatory.

Ostrich...head...sand.

In fact, I view them as being
directly in support of the concept of learning and maintaining the use of
a highly useful communications skill, therefore, the requirement has,
IMHO, intrinsic merit.

"Highly" useful? At this stage of the game, probably half the licensed
hams in the world have no interest in using CW to communicate and
wouldn't know how to if they did.

This does not "benefit me more" than anyone
else in the ARS.

Sure it does. You've got yours, so nuts to everybody else. You'll
fight to retain that archaic, anachronistic testing requirement even
if it means there will eventually be thirty licensed hams left in the
country, all crowded onto a 2 kilohertz slice of spectrum somewhere
down around 150 kc and the only mode permitted is CW.

Moreover, I am definitely not squelching anyone with
different views. This newsgroup is adequate evidence of that.

I think it's more like, this NG is evidence of the fact that you
*can't* squelch anyone with a differing viewpoint, even if you wish
you could. You can't do it here, and you can't do it during FCC
comment periods. That's the only reason we aren't still wasting
people's time with 13wpm and 20wpm code tests. Eventually, the 5wpm
test willhead down the same road. It will be interesting to see how
many PCTAs will stick around ande continue to be VEs and elmers and
active hams and work for the good of the ARS, and how many will take
their ball and go home.

You seem dumb and dumberer to the fact that every other radio
service (except a small part of maritime radio) in the USA has either
DROPPED morse code (snip)

Actually, as you may know, even the International Maritime Organization
(IMO) voted in 1998 to eliminate Morse Code. The Coast Guard itself dropped
code in 1995. As a result of these two events, the Coast Guard now urges
commercial vessels not to use code since CG personnel, and an increasing
number of radio operators in the maritime service, may no longer have the
skills necessary to communicate using that system. The UN-chartered IMO is
responsible for defining and regulating international maritime
telecommunications. It's positions are adopted by the ITU.

All of this is really swell, Dwight, and trust me, if my dinghy were to spring
a leak in the middle of a busy shipping lane, the last thing I would do is
break out my J-38 and ask the next passing Liberian tanker to swing by
my position and fish me out of the drink. However, I would have my
marine HF and VHF radios powered up, and I'd have the mic in hand,
screaming like bloody havoc! However, this discussion is about the
AMATEUR Radio Service. Can you PUHLEEEZE, just for once, get that
concept thru your Kevlar skull? Your lack of situational awareness, while
accusing me of the same, is getting to be quite frustrating.

Larry, he *was* discussing the ARS. He pointed out - quite correctly I
might add - that the ARS is the only place in the RF spectrum where an
archaic operating mode is widely believed by a significant number of
the operators therein to reign supreme despite overwhelming evidence
to the contrary. Ham radio organizations widely lament the lack of
growth in the hobby, ham radio clubs have a fraction of their former
membership counts, ham radio magazines print articles and reader
letters lamenting the lack of activity even on the 2m repeaters, and
yet we have people who continue to support a testing requirement that
is probably more responsible for that than any other single factor.

The rest of the world is in the 22nd century. The ARS is still mired
in the 19th century. You once asked something to the effect of, where
are all the hams who were going to give us high-speed data networks
over radio once the no-code licenses came out?

The answer is, we didn't get the no-code licenses unti it was 15 years
too late, by which time those potential hams were already working for
companies like Microsoft and couldn't have cared less any more about
ham radio. That's the way it is - and if the PCTAs have their way,
that's the way it'll stay. Unfortunately, something tells me that's
just fine with the PCTAs, who all too often seem to me as if they have
their own selfish interests in mind rather than the best interests of
the ARS.

73 DE John, KC2HMZ
Tonawanda, New York

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