"John Smith" wrote in message
...
Jim:

No. You make one big mistake if you think I asked for all these
changes, or for that matter, find some easy to tolerate. Dumpsters
full of aborted fetuses, 14 year old child prostitutes, gangs of
murderous thug teenagers, homeless people in masses, child molesters
demanding rights, etc, etc...--looks kind of like a third world
country if you ask me...

CW is a simple thing for me. I never did like it, and still bitched I
had to learn it to get a decent license!

I have passed a 20 WPM test--and managed NEVER to use it on the bands,
if you catch me on CW it will be a code reader/keyboard handling my
key--I hate the sound of morse in my ears, I type 80+ words a
minute--and can talk more words than both those two sums combined, a
minute! Which, I vastly prefer to do (I prefer women to chat with
too--you don't have a 45-55 year old sister do ya
evil-glint-in-eye?)

I simply want more people on am/ssb phone to chat with, as it stands
now you will generally only catch me chatting with the aussie gals on
HF--if not there, then on CB...

In fact, because of the lack of interesting and/or younger people on
the bands, I have been on msn chat, yahoo messenger, IRC, etc, etc
lately, and of course--here in the newsgroups...

One thing I am positive of, amateur radio needs to change just to get
me back, let alone new guys/gals into the hobby...

I can't say I don't like arguing, but my real goal is a change here.

My bark is much worse than my bite, I am here for the long haul (where
they haul my coffin off that is, and I'd sooner not be in it!!! But,
really can't promise I will be able to pull that trick off... grin)

I am actually a friendly type--I don't expect you to be able to tell
from our exchanges here... ROFLOL!!!

We march on and hold a stiff upper lip--it'll all work out...

John



Hello, John

Actually, I enjoyed your response (did I admit that? For shame! LOL).

If you can type 80 words per minute, you'll certainly beat me. My best
days, years (and years!) ago, I might have been able to keep an average of
75 or so. I did 65 on the typing test on a manual typewriter in high school
after a 1 year business typing course (I can not write or print decently;
readable, perhaps, but not well). I must admit to having slowed a tad (not
a lot, but a bit) as I've aged. Sigh.

I honestly don't know what can or should be changed with amateur radio. If
someone is truly interested in it, they will learn and pass the tests. The
tests are hardly difficult. Heck, I got a commercial telegraph ticket and
never used it. Very difficult technical questions such as "why do you avoid
long horizontal sections of waveguide?". Ooops, that was the radar
endorsement. Everyone should know that radio waves have to bounce up and
down to be reflected. Horizontal doesn't cut it. Right? )) Common
sense dictates about condensation and many of the questions on the
radiotelegraph, radio telephone, and amateur tickets are simply common
sense. Sure, there are some tougher questions, but common sense will get
you through perhaps 1/3 of the exam. With no study.

The fact is that between cell phones and the Internet, a lot of kids don't
even see why anyone would be interested in radio. Should they not even
think about it until they are 12 or 13, then their minds tend to gravitate
*very* strongly towards the opposite sex and just about anything else seems
unimportant. Been there, worn that T-shirt LOL. I had been bitten,
however, around the age of 11 and the radio bug just didn't completely go
away (although it did fade quite a bit from time to time).

I've seen folks try and start honest threads about what should be done to
try and kickstart amateur radio again. I honestly don't have an answer.
Usually, arguments result.

Eliminating cw may eliminate a "barrier", but how do amateurs interest
others in amateur radio? Forget the barrier as it appears about to be
eliminated.

There are a lot of good CBers, but I certainly don't want folks screaming
"AUDIOOOO" into their mics. I also don't care to hear the "radio cops"
slamming someone for saying something like "my preferred first personal is
...." or "the handle here is ....". All of us were beginners at some point.

Quite frankly, in the early 60s, it was common in amateur radio to use the
term "handle". My guess is that when the CB community picked it up, the
radio cops started condemning it on amateur frequencies.

Unless you fear causing real hate and dissent amongst this group, I'd like
to hear some suggestions concerning getting folks interested in amateur
radio.

As to me, I'm not going anywhere very soon as I've a number of graves I've
yet to p*ss on LOL



73 from Rochester, NY
Jim AA2QA