On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 11:59:17 GMT, "Dwight Stewart"
wrote:

Actually, once code testing is gone, the pro-testing crowd is not going to
have much to say. I'm sure they're going to continue complaining about the
new operators, but even that is going to have increasing irrelevance as
their numbers continue to go down and new operator numbers continue to go
up. Sadly, the pro-coders don't even seem to realize that all this is their
own doing - their own behavior is responsible for their declining numbers
(and perhaps, to some extent, even the removal of code testing).

You can call it sad if you want, Dwight. I call it poetic justice for
those who chose to value their own selfish interests rather than what
is in the best interests of the ARS.

After
talking to some of the pro-coders in this newsgroup, very few new operators
are exactly inspired to continue talking to them (on the CW frequencies or
elsewhere). By driving new operators away, they have insured their own
decreasing numbers. And those decreasing numbers have seriously undermined
support for code testing.

I'm not sure that the majority of CW users in the ARS shares the
zealousness that some of the PCTAs in here do. Unfortunately for
amateur radio, though, just as the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so
too do the most vocal among us tend to be the ones who are noticed by
the rest of the hobby radio community - and equally unfortunate for
the ARS is the fact that...well...shall we say, certain disgusting
substances...splatter when thrown at a specific target, causing what
the military refers to as "collateral damage."

The code test will soon vanish, and then hopefully we can get around
to the business of repairing the collateral damage that's been done to
the ARS in the process.

73 DE John, KC2HMZ
Tonawanda, New York