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From: "bb" on Sat 4 Jun 2005 17:22

wrote:
From: "bb" on Sat 4 Jun 2005 05:54
wrote:
From: "bb" on Fri 3 Jun 2005 03:51
wrote:
From: bb on Jun 2, 6:27 pm
K4YZ wrote:
bb wrote:


Ham radio has certainly changed since I first heard about it
back in the 40s. So many uptight folks in it now, so easily
bruised, some wanting to bully, terrorize, and FIGHT! :-)

These are certainly not the good people that I first met when I became
a ham. The trouble with amateur radio started with the advent of the
no-code license. People began entering the service that did not
worship at the altar of St. Hiram, and did not kneel and kisst the feet
of Extras.

Well, from my point of view, the change started a lot earlier.

The movement to implement a no-code amateur license class
was already underway at least a decade prior to 1990. The
olde-tyme hammes "dismissed" such riff-raff haughtily,
tried to bruise no-coders' knuckles with code keys and
trumpeting like King Kong (complete with chest-beating) or
the disdain of a sneering (but clumsy) Basil Fawlty in a
(funny) English sit-com.

The Ham Lifestylers created themselves around the 60s when
there was left-over money to spend for fancy radio toys and
time to do "radio pioneering" in "DXpeditions" and the
self-styled "radiosport contests. They were the "Greatest"
according to the ham publications, sort of like radio
versions of Cassius Marcellus Clay after his name change.
[look at Clay/Ali now...]

"Radio" in itself can be very fascinating in and of itself.
But, "radio" is really just one form of electronics and
cannot, nor should not, be rooted/shielded/isolated into the
old analog ways nor communications modes of six decades past.

One problem, quite evident in here, is the Lifestylers trying
to force everyone into THEIR way of thinking/doing as if that
were the "voice of the amateur community." There is NO real
voice, not even in the mighty national membership organization
of hams that "represents" (according to them) only 1 out of 5
U.S. amateur licensees. It is THEIR little clubhouse and they
are supremely, arrogantly intolerant of those who do not
acknowledge THEM as the "masters." Their feet MUST be kissed
and all MUST respect them...they keep telling others that in
so many different ways. THEY are "superior."

What is worse for the HOBBY is the attitudes of the Lifestylers
is clearly evident to all those outsiders who greatly out-
number them. The Lifestylers fear their Way of Life is
Threatened by "mere hobbyists" and that fear makes them blind
to their own actions and attitudes. They remain resolute and
arrogant, elitist in their self-styled "superiority" and
cannot recognize THEY are the greatest danger to the hobby.





Len. Question.

What is your callsign?