On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 07:04:27 -0800, John Smith
wrote:

Liberals R. Intolerant wrote:
You can tell the hams who have not listened to CB in quite a while. It's
about dead compared to what it was in the 70s. Hardly any truckers using

Living in the central valley in calif and near a few major freeways,
channel 17 is quite busy all day, and their is much activity even late
into the night.

It would be nice if amateur radio experienced the boon which cb did
experience in the 70's. However, I fear the importance of radio beside
the internet will prevent this from happening.

Regards,
JS

Hopefully the no coders will use cellfones.

We're all no-coders now. No CW exam, no-code. So get your cell phone out
there helmsman. Can you hear me now?

On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 15:13:46 +0000, helmsman wrote:


Hopefully the no coders will use cellfones.

Great insight and sooooo true!

John Smith wrote:

And I am a 13WPM General.

Actually, the only change I really see is that now CW will be seen for
what it actually is, a talent some excel at. In todays world it has
little importance in radio and/or electronics and communication. And,
in past decades has served no real purpose, other than limiting the
numbers of members in the group. This protectionism has severed those
who wished to make amateur radio a limited group of them and their
friends, however, amateur radio has suffered greatly and lost much in
new minds with new ideas who would serve to keep the hobby up-to-date
and relevant in this millennium ...

Sometime in the future, I suspect, some who have drifted into the world
of psychotic behavior will see how silly they have been, and will become
ashamed over their past behavior.

Regards,
JS

On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 07:41:34 -0500, "Liberals R. Intolerant"
wrote:

Why am I not an Advanced or Extra? I'm happy where I am and don't feel
like studying to get the Extra. Everything I want to do I can do with
the General.

I know so many people who where kept out of Amateur Radio because they
say no value and had no interest in the code. This change is the
greatest day in Amateur Radio.

wrote:

I agree. This is not 1950. People, including some who are anything but lazy,
don't necessarily have amateur radio as their only thing to do. Way back in
the dim dark past, people only had _money_ for maybe 1 hobby and had TONS of
time becuase they only had money to do 1 or 2 things recreationally. People
didn't routinely fly in jet airplanes (that was the really rich "Jet Set"), and
the interstate higway system wasn't built yet so a traveling vacation was a
real adventure that many less people tried.

I was a kid in the 50s. THERE JUST WASN'T THAT MUCH TO DO!!! So, sitting
around learning the code, reading ham radio magazines and other magazines, and
doing the sort of study-intensive things that used to be ham radio wasn't a big
deal..

But my friend, who is ALWAYS busy with something now, doesn't care to allocate
a big slice of time to learn the code. Not even 5 wpm. There's just so much
stuff to work on around his house, kids to take care of, hunting and fishing to
do, and he climbs mountains for fun. He's stuck at tech class, just because
the code is just not worth it to him.

But he's an EE, so with this latest move, he's likely to be an Extra by the end
of next year. He can learn everything that he needs to know that's outside
what he already knows about electricity and radio in a few weeks. This is
awesome for me, 'cuz he's about 25 miles away with a big ridge in between us,
so VHF / UHF just does not work. Sure, I can get on a repeater and talk to
him, if I want to tie up a repeater, but now... NVIZ antenna on 160 will likely
see us communicating much easier. We've both got land for 160 meter antenna -
I'll have to shorten mine a bit, but not much.

This is great.

Dave Head
K8DH

On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 04:16:24 -0500, X-rated Vermonter
wrote:

On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 05:39:01 +0000, wrote:


Saddest day in ham radio. Unfortunately, there's been a succession of
them, starting with Incentive Licensing, Codeless Techs, General and
Extra Lites, and now this.

K4QG, a 20 WPM, FCC examined Extra for over 28 years

Ham Radio just has not been the same since they eliminated spark.

Well of course it hasn't. What nonsense.

Eliminating spark, however, was a technical necessity as the state of
the radio art advanced. It did not in any way compromise the process
of licensing amateurs, nor did it practically affect the priveleges of
licensees. All of the things I mentioned did, however, have a negative
impact on the service.

K1XV. I went before Jules Finkelman as a 15 year old and survived.

K4QG

X-rated Vermonter wrote:
K1XV. I went before Jules Finkelman as a 15 year old and survived.

Jules? I never knew he had a first name. I took the General, Advanced
and Extra (as well as the "First Fone") at Washington Street under his
watchful eye in the 1969-1971 period.

Art Harris N2AH

wrote:
K1XV. I went before Jules Finkelman as a 15 year old and survived.

Jules? I never knew he had a first name.

Actually, it was Charles Finkleman.

Art N2AH