"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in news:7E3uh.99531$jb3.54907
@newsfe18.lga:

Any idea why there is still a separate rule for
Advanced when they no longer exist?


Advanced Class licenses still exist and I think they are still being
renewed to current holders, last time I checked....

Ham radio has always resisted any changes to the status quo, especially
the ARRL who has always wanted to turn back the clock to 1939. They
fought against AM, SSB, RTTY, Packet and every digital mode. Then they
fought to preserve prime frequency territories for the old fart Extras
who never took a test in the first place, but happened to be born into
it. I'm old enough to remember them fighting Wayne Green (73 Magazine's
founder) over RTTY, trying to restrict it so much as to be useless.

FCC has gotten a dose of its own testosterone, of late, mostly from Riley
Hollingsworth. He gave a speech at our Charleston Hamfest a couple years
back, which was excellent. After the speech, he hung around, jealously
guarded by an ARRL official all dressed up to look like someone
important. I shook his hand and asked him, "Is this your ARRL handler?",
pointing to the suit next to him. The look on the ARRL suit's face was
one of shock. Any time an FCC official comes to a hamfest, ARRL is right
there to try to make sure he thinks ARRL is the official voice of all
hams, which might have been true many decades ago, but is not for the
last decades. FCC knows that and tries to do what it can to preserve ham
radio, lately, ESPECIALLY eliminating this 1939 Morse Code nonsense they
should have dumped in 1955...before I was forced to learn it for no
reason at all...

I never said code should be eliminated from ham radio. Those that love
code should be allowed to live in the 30's and use it. However, as code
has always been used as a phone band jamming device since the first AM
station started transmitting, I have always promoted the idea it be
CONFINED to the code-only part of the bands. Code has no place in the
phone bands, except as a jamming device of some jealous *******s.

I just hope it's not too late to save ham radio from its death of old age
and ARRL's reticence. Go to any hamfest and guess the average age of the
total attendees. My guess is now in the low 60's, where I am. Few kids
are interested. They have full duplex video conferencing in their
bedrooms on serious broadband with the whole world at their keyboard.
What the hell do they need some ancient form of communications for,
populated by an bunch of really nasty old *******s that bitch at them
using "their frequencies" just because they've had some totally
unnecessary traffic net on it for the last 60 years. Saving ham radio
may depend of waiting for death to free up HF for a newer generation.
Unfortunately, the newer generation could care less, having moved on to
better technology.

Oops...got a Skype call coming in from Guam. Who needs ham radio? Ah,
boaters...right.

Larry
--
Democracy is when two wolves and a sheep vote on who's for dinner.
Liberty is when the sheep has his own gun.

On Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:00:38 -0500, Larry wrote:

....snip

FWIW... The ARRL tries to represent it's members and that usually means
the ones who make the most noise. That, in turn, usually means those who
are against change. I don't think the ARRL are intrinsically bad.

I never said code should be eliminated from ham radio. Those that love
code should be allowed to live in the 30's and use it. However, as code
has always been used as a phone band jamming device since the first AM
station started transmitting, I have always promoted the idea it be
CONFINED to the code-only part of the bands.

I don't agree. Some folks like code - what's wrong with that? Some folks
use code because code transmitters are by far the least expensive to build
and they aren't terribly rich.

Code has no place in the phone bands, except as a jamming device
of some jealous *******s.

Well, I'd agree with that, but I'm not on the air much, so I wasn't aware
that was going on.

I just hope it's not too late to save ham radio from its death of old age
and ARRL's reticence. Go to any hamfest and guess the average age of the
total attendees. My guess is now in the low 60's, where I am. Few kids
are interested. They have full duplex video conferencing in their
bedrooms on serious broadband with the whole world at their keyboard.
What the hell do they need some ancient form of communications for,
populated by an bunch of really nasty old *******s that bitch at them
using "their frequencies" just because they've had some totally
unnecessary traffic net on it for the last 60 years. Saving ham radio
may depend of waiting for death to free up HF for a newer generation.
Unfortunately, the newer generation could care less, having moved on to
better technology.

Unfortunately, there's a lot to agree with there. The expense connected
with the hobby has risen quite a bit as well. If it isn't something one
likes as a sport or hobby, it is a lot cheaper to get involved with
computers. FWIW, I'm 66 and licensed since I was 14 - I hope I'm not a
"nasty old *******"...
--

Larry W1HJF
email is rapp at lmr dot com
1/26/2007 10:51:02 AM

Larry wrote in :

FWIW, I'm 66 and licensed since I was 14 - I hope I'm not a
"nasty old *******"...
--

Larry W1HJF
email is rapp at lmr dot com
1/26/2007 10:51:02 AM



Me, either! I'm 61, licensed since I was 11 in 1957....

ARRL USED to represent the licensees of ham radio. I feel that is no
longer the case. Today, ARRL is a book and magazine specialty company.
Ham clubs don't try to force you to join just to look at all their
webpages.

Larry
--
Democracy is when two wolves and a sheep vote on who's for dinner.
Liberty is when the sheep has his own gun.

On Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:00:38 -0500, Larry wrote:

I just hope it's not too late to save ham radio from its death of old age
and ARRL's reticence. Go to any hamfest and guess the average age of the
total attendees. My guess is now in the low 60's, where I am. Few kids
are interested. They have full duplex video conferencing in their
bedrooms on serious broadband with the whole world at their keyboard.

Except for Pactor, Winlink and APRS, ham radio on HF frequencies has
become largely irrelevant. Fortunately there are very few commercial
or military services still interested in HF either.