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rickman · December 2nd 14, 01:57 AM posted to uk.radio.amateur,rec.radio.amateur.homebrew

On 12/1/2014 8:11 PM, Brian Reay wrote:
Lostgallifreyan wrote:
Brian Reay wrote in news:746858540439165686.804151no.sp-
:

The point is Frank, those calling for the retesting of newcomers all to
often seem to be far from competent themselves. Moreover, they expect
others to show progress yet don't seem to have even maintained the
knowledge the supposedly had at the time of their exam.

BT are going to kill Giganews, and due to recent events I decided I'd not be
chasing Usenet after I lose easy access, but this point is too interesting
for me not to post, even if I don't see any replies. (BT puls the plug in
under 48 hours from now).

From what I can see in Usenet, part of the problem may be due to aging. To
solve that needs a lot of expertise in psychology and other feilds I'm not
qualified to attempt detail about, but I di have a bit of insight picked up
from observations, my own experience, and especially science and medical
programs on the BBC radio 4 network. Got to start somewhere...

As people get older, they may forget many details, but they may retain good
habits of using equipment despite that. This may or may not relate to recent
research that suggests that age related memory loss, and especially that
related to Alzheimers, may affect short term memory, but old memories may be
harder to acess, but still very strong when they are reached. One problem
with repetition is that laying down many new memories can reduce the clarity
of originals that are close to the same patterns. This is less true for
subconscious actions than for consciously mediated ones.

The problem with all that is that arranging tests, deciding the criteria, the
setup, the frequency, and any modification that takes age or condition of
memory into account, is tough, and almost certainly will not happen because
of the great expense in defining the tests, let alone doing them.

A crude but effective analogy is old people driving on roads. I'm not aware
of many old people being forced to retake driving tests. Eye tests, perhaps,
but usually that means tests specific to physical and mental function
regardless of purpose, and mainly specific to the person, not the purpose,
and carried out by doctors, not technical examiners. Other than that, it is
unlikely that this will change much unless old people start crashign cars or
driving up motorwats the wrogn way more than is generally true. These things
do happen, I hear reports of them, but I never hear calls for blanket changes
in testing of older people. The reverse is true, the govt is forcing them all
to work for years more than originally expected before they can even retire
and collect a pension! The ONLY deeply contentions debate on any related
issue right now (so far as I know) is about the safety of people when aging
firemen are expected to haul them out of burning buildings and down ladders!

So unless the airwaves are dramatically invaded by errant and aging radio
hams, nothing will happen. Not unless radio hams will pay for the change,
anyway.

The real answer to this is to accept that we are all fallible. Instead of all
the bickering and carping I have seen in most posts for the past month,
things would be better if radio hams helped each other through it with less
assertion and assumption. All that nonsense seems to do is make people
entrenched, unwilling to accept any fallibility, and that's the easiest path
to the worst case scenario. Hams were granted licenses on the grounds that
they could police themselves once licensed. If that looks like failing, then
maybe that liberty really might get curtailed.

Most radio amateurs get along fine. There is a vocal minority on here who
insist
upon venting their vindictive spleens against newcomers but, despite what
they
claim, they are far from representative.

They fabricate stories about newcomers etc. while ignoring verified cases
of
Full licensees breaking the rules. Call for progression when they've not
progressed.
Claim abuse when they are the ones doing the abusing.

The wider amateur community is far more positive in its attitudes, which is
why some of
them are no longer welcome at certain clubs.

Why are they like this? Simple, they are failures in the real world, bitter
and twisted.

Why can't we all just get along?

--

Rick

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