From: on Oct 20, 3:53 am

wrote:
From: Leo on Oct 15, 9:36 am
On 14 Oct 2005 15:02:32 -0700, wrote:
Leo wrote:
On 14 Oct 2005 12:39:50 -0700, wrote:
From: on Oct 14, 9:20 am
Bill Sohl wrote:
wrote in message
wrote:


One of the reasons repeatedly given for the elimination of
the code test is that it is supposedly a "barrier" to "otherwise
qualified people" who would bring "fresh, new blood" and *growth* to
amateur radio.

Were all those people wrong?

Only to old morsemen who can't grow and have old tired blood...


"Growth in numbers" is not a raison d'etre
for the elimination
or retention of the code test.

Tell that to NCI...

WHY? I'm not afraid of any dues increas at NCI... :-)

ARRL is very much concerned with growth and numbers. If the
ham numbers decrease, their publishing business will suffer.


The lack of love and worship
of morsemanship should be enough.

IOW, since *you* don't have a high regard for Morse Code
skills, there should be no test...

Tsk, tsk, tsk...you are jumping over tall conclusions thinking
you are getting somewhere. You aren't.

Having BEGUN in HF communications 52 years ago and NEVER having
needed any morse code skill then or in all the years since, I
just don't see why it remains an amateur radio licensing test.
No other radio service bothers with using morse code for
communications now, why should amateur radio still retain a
code test because of one national membership organization and
a bunch of old morsemen fearful of losing their exclusive
radio playground?


I don't know when Leo was a kid, but I know that when I
got my ham license in 1967 at the age of 13, there were only about
a quarter-million US hams - less than 40% of today's total. The US
population back then was a lot more than 40% of what it is today.

TODAY's laws are not governed by conditions of 38 years ago.

You remain in total denial that no-code-test Technician
licensees numbered as many as 200 thousand and that the
present-day U.S. amateur radio license totals would be
definitely smaller without them. Your problem, not mine.


today, there are too many other far-more-glamorous things
competing with it.

Such as?

There was all sorts of competition when I was a kid, too.

Not at the seminary for the order of the Church of St. Hiram.

One thing for sure, you didn't have any interest in a
military experience, did you?

One of the first signs of that outside amateur radio was
the USA's creation of Class C and D CB in 1958. NO test of
any kind, just a Restricted Radiotelephone license form
needed for anyone to use the 22 channels (23rd shared with
radio control). Excellent in large urban areas before the
offshore products appeared about four years later and the
trucking industry started buying them.

But what happened after that? You stopped the story at the most
important part, Len.

Soon to be a major motion picture? :-)

27 MHz cb was pretty well behaved at first. But by the mid 1960s
that service had big problems with rules violations. When the oil
embargoes of the early 1970s hit, cb became a major tool for truckers
and others to avoid law enforcement of the 55 mph speed limit, weigh
stations, etc.

Jimmie, Jimmie, Jimmie...show us WHERE the truckers stay
UNDER their "legal speed limit" of 55 MPH. Having gone
cross country a few times since 1974 by motor vehicle (over
2000 miles one-way each time), the truckers do NOT obey
those "55 MPH limits." The presence or absence of a CB in
their cab has NOTHING to do with getting their cargo from
one place to its destination...so they can quickly pick up
another load and make another run...for PROFIT.

The use of radio to intentionally violate local, state or federal law
is clearly a violation of the Communications Act.

So...what have YOU done about this "violation of the law,"
Mr. Holier-than-Thou Morseman? Did you join the PA Highway
Patrol and get a spiffy uniform in which to catch all those
evil violators?

Did you join the FCC or the Federal Marshall's Service to
ENFORCE THE LAW?

I don't think you did. You LIKE to sit in here as a holier-
than-most everybody person and talk down to others.

Other violations (unlicensed operation, "shooting skip", failure to
identify, use of power far above that authorized for the service)
became more the rule than the exception on 27 MHz cb. Indeed, some
began to use frequencies near but outside the authorized cb channels,
including the 10 meter amateur band.

Well? What did YOU do about it? CB on the old 11m band became
a reality in 1958, 47 years ago. If this so offends you, why
haven't you written a "sharp" report and submitted it to the
FCC? Or the ARRL? Or your elected Congresscritter?

IMHO, one of the main reasons for that behavior was the lack of any
sort of license test for a cb permit.

Oh, dear, I guess that shoots down about 100 million USA
citizens who use little two-way transceivers called "cell
phones!" No license, no TEST required for those!

How about those evil, NO-LICENSE-REQUIRED R/C transmitters
on their 72 MHz region channels? Aren't you worried about
UNLAWFULL ACTIVITY there, perhaps causing TVI while we still
have analog TV?

How about NO-LICENSE-REQUIRED FRS transceivers? [etc., etc...]


That's nice, Len. But how well did the cell phone work away from the
major interstates?

Very well, Jimmie. :-)

Had you been ON THE ROAD you would have seen lots and lots and
lots of cell site towers, some of them quite far away from the
Interstate highways. In Wyoming. In Nebraska. In Nevada. In
Utah. In many states.


Or maybe not. The growth of US amateur radio in the 1980s (without a
no-code-test license or medical waivers) was about the same if not
greater than the growth in the 1990s.

How do you explain that?

I "explain that" by pointing out you are still in denial that
all those no-code-test Technicians made a sizeable impact on
U.S. amateur radio license totals.

I "explain that" by pointing out you are wayyyy too deep into
love/honor/obeying old, old morsemen "rules" of yesterday by
trying to retain outmoded standards and practices in licensing.

I "explain that" by telling you and other staunch old-timer
morsemen that you will LOSE your self-perceived status as high-
rate code-tested "experts" in radio if the code test is gone.

So what are your new paradigms, Len? Besides "dump the code test"?

To quote what another old-timer said, the amateur rules might
open up with: "Here's your rules, have a nice day." :-)

Problem really is, you old-timer morsemen fanatics just CAN'T
envision amateur radio WITHOUT any code test. It is the "heart
and soul of amateur radio!" according to a few Commenters on
WT Docket 05-235.

Should amateur radio become like cb? No test at all? We've seen how
well that worked...

Tsk, tsk, tsk...still using the "dropping the code test is the
end of all testing" ploy, aren't you? Dumb thing to do, Jimmie.


You've predicted a growth of 20% in a few years if the code test goes
away.

I "predicted it?!?" Did you get a GUARANTEE on the "prediction?"

I can't read the future, Jimmie. You apparently can, knowing all
of electronics hobby life before you ever existed. You are a
Radio god and "know all." :-)

Will you admit you were wrong if the code test goes away and
there isn't that much growth?

Tsk, tsk, tsk...still being the argumentative sore loser,
aintcha? :-)

Will YOU admit you are full of snit about the efficacy of morse
code in radio even when all the other radio services have given
up on it (if they ever used it from their beginning)? No, you
haven't yet and all those other radio service HAVE given up on
morse code for communications. It's predictable that you will
NEVER apologize for anything you've said..."everyone else makes
mistakes, but you never have." :-)

I don't care one way or the other what the growth of U.S. amateur
radio is AFTER the code test is eliminated. However, you think
that idle speculation is some kind of "official prediction" so
you want to make a Big Issue out of it. You already have. :-)

Why are you sitting around playing with your computer in the
middle of the day, being argumentative to others? Can't you
play with your "Southgate" thingy, working DX on HF with CW?