"Len Over 21" wrote:

Outside of sounding like low-grade bull****, (snip)


I might have thought that when I first read his response, but decided to
be a little more controlled in my written response (knowing full well that
others would come to that conclusion on their own).


All Dwight said was that "your words reek of bigotry, elitism, and
discrimination against other Americans."


Now, I didn't specifically say Larry's words reeked of anything. What I
said is the words I hear from many advocating the continuation of the code
testing requirement often reek of bigotry, elitism, and discrimination
against other Americans. Of course, some of Larry's past comments certainly
might fit into that category, but he has since somewhat toned down his
rhetoric.


If YOU want to TRULY support personal initiative without
"government support" (and all its 'evil' socialist-like things) then
you should be able to eliminate the federal code test!

Except you do NOT. You keep demanding that the government
continue the federal code test in order to keep a few code users
around...


I've discussed that contradiction with Larry before. He does seem to
exclude code testing from his conservative views opposing excessive
government regulation. If Morse Code has real value, it should be able to
survive in as close to a free market environment as possible. I think it has
that value and can survive just fine without a regulation mandating testing.


The FCC regulates and licenses ALL civil radio in the USA...
yet none of the staff nor commission of the FCC are required to
pass any morse code test in order to regulate US amateur radio.


Of course, that should be obvious. But Larry's position benefits him
more - if accepted, it would undermine all those with different views on
this subject. Clearly, only those with views similar to his would accept
such a premise.


You seem dumb and dumberer to the fact that every other radio
service (except a small part of maritime radio) in the USA has either
DROPPED morse code (snip)


Actually, as you may know, even the International Maritime Organization
(IMO) voted in 1998 to eliminate Morse Code. The Coast Guard itself dropped
code in 1995. As a result of these two events, the Coast Guard now urges
commercial vessels not to use code since CG personnel, and an increasing
number of radio operators in the maritime service, may no longer have the
skills necessary to communicate using that system. The UN-chartered IMO is
responsible for defining and regulating international maritime
telecommunications. It's positions are adopted by the ITU.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/