On Sat, 06 Mar 2004 19:15:02 +0000, Ken Scharf stood up and said:

As for the rest of your comments, I suppose you have made up your mind
and have burned your license, framed the ashes, and sold your radio gear
to the CB'er next door.

I think you missed the point of his post. It is an editorial on the
state of the hobby and I think it drives home the current attitudes many
(no all, of course) hams have towards the proposed changes the ARRL are
supporting. It's really human nature; many people are resistant to
change for variety of reasons and sometimes it takes a long, hard look
in the mirror to see how silly this resistance is. The point being, if
one insists on "living in the past", then their is no future. This
applies to everything, not just amateur radio.

And I don't think the original poster has burned his license. He's
probably doing more than you or I to save the hobby by shoving the
egocentrism that many hams exhibit right back in their face. And for
the record, I don't think the ARRL went far enough in their
recommendations. I believe their should only be two licenses: a
beginners with VHF/UHF access and limited HF access, and a "general"
license with full privileges and no CW required. Before you (or anybody
else) flame me for this, note that I do know CW. The only reason I
learned it was to get HF privileges. I maybe had 3 or 4 QSOs using CW
but it's not for me. I find other digital modes like PSK31 to be more
fun. But that's just me.