From: on Thurs, Oct 19 2006 4:41 am

wrote:
From: Jimmie D on Tues, Oct 17 2006 7:46 pm
wrote in message
From: Nada Tapu on Sat, Sep 30 2006 2:23 pm

Total agreement here, our obligation of service to to earn our privlegdes
doesnt end with what we have done but with what we have done lately.

Sorry, but I see absolutely NO "obligation to perform
some service [to the nation or community]."

That you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

HAAAAAAA!!!!!

That YOU "see something" doesn't mean it is reality.
It can be just your own delusion projecting on your
cranium.


That is one
of the myths promulgated by the ARRL and its followers.

Where? You have just spouted a falsehood, Len.

...all throughout the ARRL's own self-promotion, Jimmie.


The word "service" used by the FCC all throughout Title
47 C.F.R., all Parts, is a regulatory term referring to
a type and kind of radio activity being regulated.
[see Citizens Band Radio SERVICE or Radio Control Radio
SERVICE as two examples in Part 95] Also, as Cecil Moore
mentioned, the government is doing its citizens a service,
NOT the other way around.

Irrelevant.

"Irrelevant?!?" Talk about Jimmie and VAPORWARE!

Jimmie, the FCC grants licenses to US radio amateurs.
The FCC regulates *ALL* of US civil radio. They do that
by LAW, not from some moralistic jingoism spouted by an
amateur organization.

If you (politely) ask the FCC for a definition of how THEY
use the word 'service' you will get the one that I got, the
one I have to repeat every once in a while in here to keep
some of you straight.

Still unconvinced after reviewing the Communications Act of
1934? The Telecommunications Act of 1996? Okay, you just
consider the FCC and the US government "IRRELEVANT."


What about a moral obligation?

What about it? You are going to PREACH something to the
'heathen' in here? :-)

Suppose I were driving on a winding country road and came upon the
scene of a one-car accident that had occurred only a few minutes before
I arrived.

Question should be "why did you force that car off the road?"

Law enforcement people will ask you that after they survey
your damaged fender and bumper.

And suppose the occupants of the car in the accident needed help, and I
had the means to call for help.

Is your throat and larynx working properly? Feel free to call
out all you want.

Would I not have at least a moral obligation, if not a legal one, to
call for help?

I don't know the state of your supposed goody-two-shoes "morals"
but I would imagine that law enforcement folks WILL want to
know WHY you are driving on winding country roads at night?

Suppose the only available communication was by Amateur Radio - would I
not have at least a moral obligation, if not a legal one, to use
Amateur Radio to call for help?

You will NATURALLY do so using radiotelegraphy. :-)

Your "morality" is all tied up in some obsessive knot having
to do with morse code telegraphy...for AMATEURS.

So, law enforcement folks will still want to know WHY you
forcing other cars off the winding country roads...is it to
play 'rescueman' on your little hobby radio?



Personally, I think all
citizens of the USA should do at least one term of Jury
Service.

Even those who are not mentally or physically competent to do so?

Tsk, tsk, tsk, California state law is strict about WHO
can be on a jury panel. The mentally ill won't be on one.
Neither will previously-convicted felons.

However, the mentally-challenged have managed to keep the
morse code test in place by lobbying the FCC about it. So
far.

Why do you want to be associated with the mentally ill?

USA amateur radio service is a VOLUNTARY activity. It is
an avocation, not an occupation. In other words it is a
HOBBY.

But it's not just a hobby.

Sorry, it IS...despite the imaginary pipe-dreaming of being
some kind of 'hero' rescuing folks in times of disaster or
reading ARRL news squibs and associating that imagination
with some 'vital service to the nation' or other pap.

It's a fine hobby, tens of thousands of citizens
engaged in it.

Hundreds of thousands of US citizens.

Including the MENTALLY ILL. :-)

Certainly the over-imaginative self-deluded souls who
describe themselves as 'heroes' without ever doing ONE
thing to PROVE their 'heroism.' :-)


But, it is still a HOBBY. It is NOT
"essential" for the good of the nation.

Says who?

Says the FCC, says every public safety agency and radio service,
including the maritime world, the aviation world, the railroad
world, the trucking industry, etc. etc. etc.

If amateur radio were "essential for the good of the nation,"
there would be NO need for public safety radio services in
the PLMRS. There would be NO need for any government radio
services. AMATEURS could 'do it all.' Except they can't.

Amusing thing is that US amateur radio was SHUT DOWN for two
World Wars. During times of the greatest NEED for all citizens
to do their part, ham radio was SHUT DOWN. Reconcile that.


Does amateur radio not perform any service to the community, Len?

Yes, it keeps some of the mentally ill busy, occupied with
ham radiotelegraphy so that they won't bother the rest of us
normal citizens...normal citizens who ARE doing services to
their community, their state, their nation.

Now you just keep reading the ARRL newsletters like a good little
member, absorbing all the 'praise' for 'your' efforts in having
a radio hobby. That should fuel your ego for a century or two.

As ever to you, ByteBrothers famous phrase invoked.