In article . net, "KØHB"
writes:

"N2EY" wrote

And the alphabetic order of license told who was an OT and who was a
newbie.
W3ABC was an OT compared to W3YIK. W3YIK was an OT compared to K3NYT.
K3NYT was
an OT compared to WA3IYC. Etc. Usually, anyway.


Not necessarily.

That's why I wrote "usually".

Since we all got a new call sign everytime we moved, we
might trade an 'old' call in Minnesota (W0ABC) for a 'new' call in Virginia
(WA4ABC).

Only if you moved to another district *and* the corresponding call wasn't
available.

Not only couldn't you tell how long we'd been licensed, but you
couldn't tell our license class (except for Novices with KN, WN, or WV
prefixes). My mentor, W0VDI, was licensed at a Tech in 1952 and went SK 50
years later with the same call and the same Tech license.

Same sort of thing around here. In fact, until recently there was a 1x2 in the
third call district with a Tech license.

If everything was so nice, why was FCC so unhappy with the way things were
going?

It wasn't the FCC who was unhappy.

Then why did they start the ball rolling with all the changes, both in 1951 and
1958/63?

The unhappy folks were a few resentful
and vocal OT's who felt disenfranchised because a nubby new guy could
operate phone on 20M, not having first passed the old class A exam like he
had to.

You mean like W2OY of "no kids no lids no space cadets" fame?

Note also that FCC had upped the ante in the 1951 restructuring. After the end
of 1952 they would no longer issue Advanceds, so anybody who didn't have an
Advanced by that date would have had to get an Extra just to work HF phone on
80 thru 15. Then, just before Christmas 1952, FCC completely reversed itself
and gave all hams except Novices and Techs full operating privileges. Why the
sudden about-face? Nobody seems to know, and the literature of that era only
briefly mentions the change.

The march to disincentive licensing moved to the beat of drum being
banged up in West Hartford, CT.

And a majority of members wanted it. A very slim majority, to be sure.

I know it's hard for you to accept that,
given that history is written by the victors.

And your source for this is?

I know you were a ham then, Hans, but where does this info come from? Or is it
just an opinion?


73 de Jim, N2EY