Mike Coslo wrote in
:

Alun L. Palmer wrote:

Mike Coslo wrote in
:


Alun L. Palmer wrote:


Mike Coslo wrote in
:

some snippage



I don't know if any of us geniuses have though about it, but
lets say
in a country where a business can get successfully sued for a woman
not knowing that here hot coffee was hot, and burning herself when
trying to hold the darn thing between her legs. (sorry Phil, but
what if she simply ruined her dress because the coffee was wet?-
negligent design of the cup?)

So lets have a newbie ham that fires up his/her kilowatt rig,
and is
half fried because no one told him not to touch the wirey thingies
on the back of the box thingy. Ohh, I can see the successful
lawsuits already!

I've nailed myself with 50 watts, enough to produce a painful
burn and
a cute little scar on the boo-boo finger. Some dunce that catches a
ride on a thousand watts might just have a very successful lawsuit
if we don't train them well.

RF Safety should be the FIRST order of the day, and NO one should be
a Ham until they are tested for RF safety to the ability to handle
full legal limit.


And those who think that limiting the finals voltage, or some
other
weird thing is the answer, are advised to think about things such as
Technician Hams operating under supervision. It only takes a second
to drop a paper and reach behind a Rig. Less time than the control
op can react. I want those Technicians to be exposed to full power
safety requirements.

Anything else is criminally negligent.



It would be interesting to see what the JA 4th class *written* exam
looks like.

And as mentioned before, the number of JA station licenses and new
operator licenses is way down.




That's 18, I didn't count both Austria and Australia!

OK. But it's still a small fraction of the number of hams
and the number of countries.

The big questions: Must all countries drop the code test because
a few have decided to? Or can each country decide for itself.


Each country can do as it chooses, but the trend is to abolish the
code test.


The trend in most countries is to ban or severely restrict
individual ownership of firearms, too.




Has the change caused lots of new growth in countries that have
dropped code testing?


No, but it's increased HF activity in those countries


So all it's done is to permit *existing* hams to upgrade. But it
*hasn't* brought in lots of new folks.

Which means the Morse code isn't the "problem" some people make
it out
to be.


- Mike KB3EIA -





Well, it is a problem. No-coders may have been in the hobby, but they
couldn't do everything that they wanted to do.

People who have not passed the test have been kept out of things they
want to do in the hobby too.


Not that I'm saying that the
Tech theory should get you full privileges, but there have always
been many Techs who could pass Extra class theory.

Yup, Like me. But I apparently showed the character flaw od
learning Morse code! ;^)


So did I, but it was hell!

Yeah, for me too! 6 months of daily studying, one failed test, and
finally passing it. I think that my brain processes audio differently
than does those people with normal hearing.


I have not posted this point for a long time, as it provokes extreme
reactions from the pro code test lobby, but I can beat your 6 months. It
took me 22 years. Can you honestly wonder that I feel the way I do?

If it wasn't a hazing process, then I'm a Dutchman

Don't take it personally! Some people learn Morse pretty easily,
and
for some it is hard. Is it a hazing process if it is easy? Same goes
for the writtens.

I can assure you that no group of Hams ever sat down and said
"Let's
give this Coslo guy a rough time and make him learn Morse code".


As a guy who can't "hear" people unless he can see the mouth of
the person speaking, I have just a little trouble figuring out the
problem with normal people for which the test is too hard to make it
worth getting a license.

But it is! Witness all those who are dropping off the ranks when
their license expires.

I predict the next tack of the NCI's is that not allowing the
codeless Techs HF access is why they aren't renewing their
license.

Certainly that must be true of some of them. What proportion, I
couldn't say.

That would certainly be an interesting outlook for a person. Let
us say
that a person became a ham in 1994, and has a combined intense interest
in operation below 30 MHz, and deep seated conviction against Morse
code testing, leading to refusal to take the Element 1 test.

Somehow doesn't ring true.

It was true enough of me, although I became a no-code ham in 1980 (in the
UK), more or less in defeat at having tried unsuccessfully to learn Morse
code ever since 1970, and passed a code test in 1992.

Getting a no-code licence was something I only did because I was resigned
to not getting the HF access that I wanted. It was a case of thinking it
was silly to stay off the air altogether just because I couldn't get on HF,
and it took me a long time, i.e. 10 years, to grudgingly reach that
conclusion.

Eventually passing the code test was helped by software that didn't exist
back in 1970, and the help of dear friends who took turns to send slow CW
transmissions several times a week that I knew were being done mainly just
for my benefit. Sure, others tuned in, but they stopped sending them when I
passed! I owe them a great deal.

Here's another interesting fact. I was teaching ham radio classes for years
before I passed the bleeping code!

If none of this rings true, I can assure that every word is the truth.

As I said, all of this has been posted here before, but not recently. My
own history hasn't proved as effective as an argument as simply pointing
out that none of the arguments in favour of retaining code testing hold as
much water as a leaky bucket!


I think that those who want to get rid of Element one testing
would be
better off to not try that argument.

That would be reminiscent of the old "Jump Frog" joke!


Except that the circumstances I describe never struck me as a joke.


Herding them above 30 MHz is a problem, not for you perhaps, but
still a problem.

"Herding" is a strange name for allowing access to almost all the
Amateur spectrum.

- Mike KB3EIA -



You mean the part that doesn't refract from the ionosphere, right?

Let us not forget 6 meters.

- Mike KB3EIA -



The magic band is the exception that proves the rule!

73 de Alun, N3KIP, G8VUK