"Jeff Liebermann" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 11 Feb 2014 20:12:14 -0000, "gareth"
wrote:

With the onset of automatic ATUs, is the the final technical
skill that disambiguates the radio amateur from the CBer
being lost?

I'll assume that's a serious question, not another CB versus ham flame
bait. What problem are you trying to solve?


It is not a question of baiting, but of a serious concern, that amateur
radio / ham radio
is a technical pursuit and is slowly frittering away such that many radio
amateurs are
indistinguishable from CBers.

From an interest in my teenage years, it was that technical momentum that
led me to
a career in electronics and subsequently software engineering. Amateur radio
has technical privileges that may be legislated out of existence should the
various
misgovernments of the world perceive that there is no need for us to able to
create our own gear when so much is available off-the-shelf, and it is
off-the-shelf
operating that is the mark of the CBer.