N2EY:

I don't imagine any can argue amateur radio has "evolved", sometimes
faster, sometimes slower. Now is just another step in that evolution...

Amateur history can be read on the web, or a book from amazon, your local
library, etc, a few authors give a few different viewpoints also...

John

On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 15:22:10 -0700, N2EY wrote:

John Smith wrote:
Phil:

At the core of the "Radio Act of 1912", and grossly paraphrased here by
me, seems the statement, "Here you guys sign up and get registered, then
take this range of freqs and see what you can do with them. See if you can
come up with ideas which advance the use of radio and we can use in the
benefit of america and its' citizens."

Except for "Here you guys sign up and get registered", that's not what
it was about at all.

What the 1912 act did was to organize what had been a haphazard system.
While the Titanic disaster gave them the impetus to act, the
legislation had been
developed and discussed for years before.

Amateurs (meaning stations that were not commercial, government or
maritime) were pushed to 200 meters and beyond, because those
wavelengths were
considered to be relatively useless by the professionals. Licenses were
made
mandatory to keep tabs on all transmitting stations.

But the "200 Meters And Down" spectrum was not limited to amateurs. Any
radio service could use it - all they needed was a station license. Few
except amateurs even tried.

Amateurs did not have free reign, either. Back then a station's
wavelength
was specified on the station license. If a ham wanted to try, say, 110
meters,
s/he needed a license specifying 110 meters.

Somehow, along the way, things got bogged down and an abundance of people
came to the hobby who wanted a set of rules which they could religiously
worship and practice and invoke for disciplinary actions to be taken on
others not holding a religious reverence for such, this has been
detrimental to the original purpose and goals...

That's just nonsense.

What happened was that the regulations evolved over time, driven by a
number of forces.

This now lays at the extreme end where you must be careful what
experiments you undertake, how you undertake them and why you can't
undertake them...

How?

What experiments are you kept from undertaking, and by whom?

in someways there are "guards" on the bands as exist in
prisons, and you are "allowed out in the yard" if you obey all the
rules...

FCC makes the rules. Are you advocating ignoring those rules?

strange for a hobby first created as a means to try new ideas
which could possibly lead somewhere...

So what's your proposal?

BPL is perhaps a very good example, where arrl and other "status quo"
forces banded together and ended up having the effect of saying, "We
already know that won't work! Don't attempt any experiments, don't do any
testing, don't gather any data, don't lay any plans. Don't plan on being
able to change and redesign hardware/software to attempt to make it
work! Cease and desist immediately, we so command you!"

The interference provided by BPL systems has been observed and
demonstrated.
It's a fact. One doesn't have to be a radio genius to see that power
lines
with HF on them will radiate like mad and interfere with licensed radio
stations.

Would you rather that nobody opposed BPL?