On 23 Sep 2003 03:06:42 -0700, Brian Kelly wrote:

Wouldn't it be great if the next political appointee actually had
some idea of RF communications technology ?

He doesn't need to...That is why he has a STAFF!!!

Yeah he has "staff" but they're as clueless as he is. His staffer
D'Wanna or whatever her name is, the political tootsie who runs the
FCC outfit which sits on ham radio got up at a seminar and expressed
amazement at how people on the ground can talk to people in airplanes
in the sky with radios.

D'wanna Terry is a Division Chief, two levels below the Commissioners.
The Bureau Chief - her boss - is also clueless. His job is to honcho
spectrum auctions. At one time one became a Division or Bureau Chief by
working in the next lower job and getting things right, but that was a
long time ago. The present crop are all "revolving door" appointments
who, in general, do not have any prior Commission experience other
than ability to do what the Eighth Floor wants them to do.

At one time, each Commissioner did have an engineering advisor who
was a senior engineer and knew what the technical problems and
issues were and so advised his boss. The last Commissioner who had
one was Jim Quello, one of the "good guy" Commissioners some 15 or
so years ago, a retired broadcast executive who was the author of
the phrase "If you think that you can buy my vote with a ham
sandwich, you got the wrong guy".

My kind of guy.

--
73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane