Frank Gilliland wrote:
One license. Existing licenses would be valid until expiration with no
renewals -- they would need to pass the single-license test if they
want to continue.

Let's crunch some numbers: Our total MF/HF spectrum consists of just
3.75 MHz, with only about half of it, 1875 kHz, useful for
communications at any one particular time of the day. If suddenly,
as if by magic, all licensees were granted MF/HF privileges, we could
possibly have 670,000 hams attempting to fill that 1.875 MHz. Okay,
I'll grant you that folks have to work and sleep, so let's say at any
one time, we have one-fourth of all 670 kilohams on the air, with two
per QSO. That would mean each QSO would be separated by just 22 Hz.

I'll be more generous. Let's pretend that all 3.75 MHz is available
all the time, with say, one-tenth of all operators on at any one time;
now each two-person QSO is separated by 112 Hz. Getting better.

Worried that I didn't take into account frequency re-use? Alright,
suppose we could manage three simultaneous QSOs spread across the country
on a single frequency; each such grouping would now be separated by 336 Hz.
That could be done if we ban phone.

I'll never understand this liberal mentality of wanting to grant
everyone MF/HF privileges; it's no longer a privilege if it's something
that everyone can get practically for free. We received our current
spectrum total at a time (WARC 1979) when we had less than half the
present number of hams. This movement of wanting to "fill up the bands
or we'll lose them" is nonsense.

As Michael Savage says, "Liberalism is a mental disorder."

Jeff KH6O


--
Chief Petty Officer, U.S. Coast Guard
Mathematics Lecturer, University of Hawaii System