In article , "Carl R. Stevenson"
writes:

What money Larry? The ARS is non-commercial.

Carl:

Yup. That's correct. The ARS is non-commercial, and therefore is an
unproductive drain on the FCC's administrative resources.

The FCC and Congress see the ARS as a valuable national resource.

Carl:

That doesn't mean that they don't see the advantage to them in reducing
ARS licensing standards, as has already been proven.

NCI doesn't even have
mandatory dues and has lived on voluntary donations its whole life.

That's just swell, Carl, but I don't recall this being about NCI and it's
funding sources.

I was just trying to address what appeared to be a "someone's going
to make money off of this" scenario ... your text came across that way.

Change the word "make" to "save," and you've finally got it right.

What
money are you talking about? (If you say "the manufacturers" that's
baloney.
I haven't seen a SINGLE comment filed on the current round of petitions
by
any manufacturer ...)

Carl - wk3c

The "money" I'm talking about is that represented by all the OTHER
commercial radio services administered by the FCC.

Oh ... why didn't you say that?

Didn't have to. The ARS doesn't "make" money, Carl -- except for the
equipment manufacturers, but as you said, they aren't fighting any
of the petitions to eliminate code testing, since they figure it's going to
result in increased future sales. In any event, they're just pocket
change compared to the commercial broadcasting and communications
services.

This is where the FCC's true mission exists,

The FCC has a Congressional mandate to regulate all of the radio
spectrum "in the public interest, convenience, and necessity" - that
includes the ARS.

Which doesn't say anything about how far they can reduce licensing
standards.

and to a far greater extent than in what
is now primarily a hobbyist service (amateur radio).

YOU view it as primarily a hobby ... and it is a hobby, but the
FCC and Congress look at it as a public service *provided
for free to society* by folks who do it as a hobby. They also
value the educational opportunities it presents in a society that
increasingly requires people who are trained in radio/electronics.

Well, considering the fact that licensing requirements are already
just short of meaningless, and that most hams these days haven't
a clue about what's going on inside their off-the-shelf gear, it's
kinda hard to view the ARS as a particularly rigorous training
experience for future electronics technicians.

Even the "money"
you allude to, represented in the business done between radio amateurs
and the manufacturers of our radio equipment and accessories, is a
spit in the ocean compared to that represented by the commercial
broadcasting and communications services. So little, in fact, that the
FCC obviously needs to direct it's administrative resources away from
amateur radio and toward the commercial services to the greatest
extent possible.

Sure, services that affect/are used by 10's of millions of people will
get more attention ... that's logical.

The best way for them to achieve this is to reduce
licensing standards to the greatest extent possible, in order to keep
from repeatedly dealing with the same issues.

That's nonsense ... all they have to do is set reasonable, logical,
and justifiable licensing standards and then stick to their guns.

I see. Well, on April 14, 2000 we *had* reasonable, logical, and
justifiable licensing standards. Someone musta cleaned the glue
off of their M-16's that evening, because on April 15, 2000 we
suddenly had licensing standards which were dumbed down to
a level which can only be viewed as downright silly.

Just because some yahoo asks them to do something stupid
(like the Petitions for Reconsideration that came out immediately
after restucturing, asking the FCC to re-institute 13 and 20 wpm
code tests) doesn't mean they have to honor them ... such nonsense
should be summarily dismissed with virtually no consumption of
FCC resources.

Yeah, they'd rather listen to the yahoos that wanted them to
reduce licensing standards down to a meaningless level.

73 de Larry, K3LT