From: utzoo!decvax!cca!teklabs!edr@Tektronix@sri-unix
Newsgroups: net.ham-radio
Title: Re: CODE FREE
Article-I.D.: sri-unix.4692
Posted: Tue Dec  7 10:10:33 1982
Received: Wed Dec  8 03:22:40 1982

	Thank you for your message Joe.  One of the best parts about it is that you replied by mail rather than a net posting.  The subject is getting rather
tedious and it's good that we keep the crud down as much as possible.

	However, I catagorically disagree with the statememt that Ham radio
exists solely for the public service and has little other justification.
In fact, in the first part of the Communications Act of 1933, which is the
canonical piece of legislation for Ham radio, it states that the purpose
for the Amateur Radio Service is to promote the state of the radio art
and provide a public service in times of need.  If CW requirements merely
impede the promotion of the state of the art by keeping out those people
that would otherwise provide a valuable(?) contribution, then the CW
requirements are meaningless and should be removed.  Then these people
would truely be engaged in promoting the state of the art and would therefore
in the truest and most conservative definition of the term, be Amateur
radio operators - Hams.
	Also, it has been my experience that in this day and age, very little
true public service is provided by an Amateur's actually knowing the code.
There are alot of CW traffic nets running around on the HF bands which
have become "grandfaloons" ( A Kurt Vonnegut term meaning a proud but
meaningless organization of individuals such as the Veterans of Future Wars,
or the Portland Radio Club).   Some bands have become grandfaloons altogether
and provide little to the promotion of the radio art or the public service
regardless of the activity on them.  Most Amateur public service comes
from a bunch of radio nurds running around with 2 metre HTs in their hands
or mobiles in their cars.  Occasionally, in the case of a large disaster,
this is augmented by one or two base stations relaying DX traffic around
the country on the HF bands, some of which is done - quite efficiently -
in the CW mode.  But the actual amount of public service provided by the
CW mode, when compared to the public service provided by other means, is
only a few percent.
	I, therefore contend, that if we intend to keep our frequencies,
we better start letting in those people with the real talents neccessary to
make Ham radio a true and meaningful public service, before the FCC starts to
catch on as to how much Ham radio is becoming an anachonistic grandfaloon.

	Again, I thank you so very much for your response.
					Ed 	KC7AK	...-.-