What the **** is,cs?
cuhulin

dxAce wrote:

I asked you a simple question, 'tard boy.


Gawwd, you're a BOZO...







mike

wrote:

Hmmm...since you seem to think that learning an antiquated and absurdly
slow way of communicating isn't the stumbling block, please tell us why
young people are not signing up in droves like they did in the 50's and
60's. And please tell me what "Yankee Can Do" means and how it is
supposed to attract badly needed young blood to a rapidly aging hobby.

Sad to say, but your attitude parrots that of the ARRL and it is
exactly what is going to kill this hobby. Yes, I know it hurts the
pride a bit to realize the test so many hams once had to pass does not
produce meaningful results. Much of the ham test is about as relevant
as requiring buggy skills of prospective automobile driving licensees.
And requiring that new hams pass the old test because the oldtimers had
to will just continue to turn the new blood away.

Ii would be nice to say that hams provide a service in times of
emergency, but the specific instances where they actually benefited the
emergency worker or had a positive impact on locals are fewer and
fewer. I've tried listening to H&W nets in hurricane season and they
seem to degenerate into chaos more than provide a useful service.
People trampling over one another, sending code on top of voice, etc.
It is as though many of them were trying for the contact rather than
trying to help.

If the designation of licensed radio amateur was a desirable goal then
wouldn't we see more young people trying to attain it? But just the
opposite it happening. The graying of the hobby and the inexorable
reduction in the number of active hams is obvious to anyone who listens
in.

And if the greater ham community and the ARRL collectively decides to
continue playing gatekeeper by requiring meaningless tests to become a
licensed radio amateur there will come a time that that nobody will be
knocking at the gate.


I see no reason to become a ham. Never did. Even back when I first
started listening to SW, some 20 years ago, I saw ham conversations as
incredibly dull compared to the programming of the regular broadcasters.
I've NEVER been an avid listener to the ham bands. I'd rather listen to
North Korea. I'm just over 30 years old. Ham radio is increasingly
irrelevant, at a time when China and WWCR are adding transmitters. Hams
no longer provide essential communications in an emergency, not with all
the other methods of communicating. Hams no longer provide worthwhile
experimentation. Hobby broadcasting would reinvigorate the hobby, but
the oldtimers refuse to consider it. They're arrogant and irrelevant,
and rarely communicate anything of importance. Amateur radio's glory
days are long gone, and after the boomer hams die the hobby will die
with them.


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"Tebojockey" wrote

/snip
somewhat outmoded means of communication. Even for seafarers, GMDSS
is taking over and code is used less and less.
/snip

Somewhat outmoded? Used less and less? Here's an update:

Even at sea, where code died a slow death as far back as the 1960's (some
hangers-on who liked it persisted through the 80's) there was no need for
any radio operator to have memorized more than two letters of code after
that point. Except for an outdated concept of licensing. That is also long
gone from the maritime world, with no radio officer aboard any longer. Why?
Simple economics. In concert with great advances in safety of life at sea,
the need for either code or the radioman who knew it faded away completely a
long time ago.

I agree with you that anyone who experiments or legitimately repairs or
modifies radio transmitting equipment should be licensed, and for the good
reasons you explained. But the fact is that neither aircraft nor marine
vessels in private or commercial or military use whose lives depend on
communication, have any such requirements for the operators. It is in fact
quite "plug-n-play" and this is the major reason the MF and HF bands are
still in use at all. When that equipment is no longer competitive with
modern satellite systems, we will see it disappear entirely from commercial
use. By that time new technologies will have other uses for the spectrum,
and its hard to imagine how far some of that will go. But it is no longer
relevant to continue to drag old habits (CW) along, unless you are forming
an "old habit we do for fun" club. If Amateur Radio allows itself to be
relegated to that category, as the legal team proposing new BPL rules argued
in open court last Fall (which they won by the way, in spite of heroic
efforts by the ARRL and others), it has nobody to thank but itself.

73,
Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Virginia

wrote:

Yankee Can Do! Us Yankees are Hunting down and Killing the terrorist
ragheads who want to kill us every day! We! Are! Doing!
cuhulin


You must be THE advisor to the White House. A twin brother to Wolfowitz, no doubt..




mike

"running dogg" wrote

/snip

Hobby broadcasting would reinvigorate the hobby, but
the oldtimers refuse to consider it.

I agree with that. But the FCC has approved low-power FM broadcast licenses,
they just haven't got their heads out of someplace to make it easy enough
that it takes hold. And there is no conceivable reason that every
neighborhood couldn't have a dozen such stations if they wanted them. There
are almost as many groups advocating the free right to such low power
broadcast (without any kind of license at all) as there are those that
espouse income taxes to be unconstitutional. Hopefully the FM broadcast
groups actually have a chance of persuading legislators - we know taxes will
never go away, lol.

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Virginia

"running dogg" barked and slobbered in message
...
SNIP SNIP
Hams no longer provide essential communications in an emergency, not with
all
the other methods of communicating. SNIP

I direct you to the following URL's
http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/2002-arlb012.html

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/10/29/102/?nc=1

http://mrtmag.com/news/sept2002/radi...teurs_nonstop/

http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/03/0801/ See San Diego Tribune article

Dozens more on request - or use google if you know how.

You Sir, simply don't know what you are talking about.

The 500+ Amateurs who participated in these disasters would agree with me as
well as the civil authorities and the public who benefited from the Amateur
Radio communications when the silly phones were overloaded and the phone
lines were toast.
--
Lamont Cranston

You know, the only way these things will change is when the oldtimers die
off. I'm one of them but agree with you.

wrote in message
ups.com...
The issue is not whether one could "suck it up" and take the
meaningless test if they want a license. No doubt, if someone wanted
to become an licensed amateur they could learn the minimum speed for
code and then never use it again.

The issue is how such requirements are are perceived by and whether
they motivate prospective hams to study for one or more licenses. Like
it or not licensed amateur radio communication and it's sister hobby
SWLing face a lot of competition from other modes of communication and
gathering information about the world that were not there 20 years ago.
And none of those modes require testing and licensing. That
competition is real and the amateur radio hobby needs to recognize that
it no longer has the appeal of being the premier method of long
distance communication. If the hobby doesn't, it will gradually fade
away.

"CW" wrote in message
...
You know, the only way these things will change is when the oldtimers die
off. I'm one of them but agree with you.

Disagree

There is no issue -- until recently Morse code testing was an international
requirement.
Requirements are just that whether you like them or not.
(hated hygiene in college - useless course, bit the bullet and got thru it
anyway)
Now Morse it is no longer an international requirement (agreement), the US
FCC will undoubtedly drop it. Standby

We are talking about testing not the use of the Morse code.

I have no doubt what so ever that Morse will be used on the Ham bands
indefinitely by new folks, old folks and just plain folks and you can be
sure - contesters.

A charming mode such as this will refuse to die -- requirement for testing
or no.

The difference between the Morse code and PSK31 is nil -- speed is 30 to 50
WPM in either one.
The difference is a skill set that the anti-code bunch here refuse to buckle
down and learn

During the last county fair, I took a code practice oscillator to our Ham
booth and tapped out Morse code, dozens of kids stopped by and were
fascinated with it. Several wanted to know how to learn the code -- we gave
them handout sheets to get them started. We could not only attract youth to
Amateur Radio, we used Morse code to do it!! How do like them dity dots
hjsjms ???

We now have over 30 school kids enrolled in Ham classes.

What have you done to further the cause of Amateur Radio ????

Lamont Cranston
I shadow, therefore I am

wrote in message
ups.com...
The issue is not whether one could "suck it up" and take the
meaningless test if they want a license. No doubt, if someone wanted
to become an licensed amateur they could learn the minimum speed for
code and then never use it again.

The issue is how such requirements are are perceived by and whether
they motivate prospective hams to study for one or more licenses. Like
it or not licensed amateur radio communication and it's sister hobby
SWLing face a lot of competition from other modes of communication and
gathering information about the world that were not there 20 years ago.
And none of those modes require testing and licensing. That
competition is real and the amateur radio hobby needs to recognize that
it no longer has the appeal of being the premier method of long
distance communication. If the hobby doesn't, it will gradually fade
away.

On Fri, 4 Mar 2005 06:33:37 -0800, "Senor Sombra"
The 500+ Amateurs who participated in....

another excuse to key up.