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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!hp-pcd!nathanm
From: nathanm@hp-pcd.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.ham-radio
Subject: re: Morse code stinks
Message-ID: <7000002@hp-pcd.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Jul-84 14:47:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: hp-pcd.7000002
Posted: Fri Jul  6 14:47:00 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 10-Jul-84 03:47:22 EDT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Portable Computer Division - Corvallis, OR
Lines: 49
Nf-ID: #N:hpcvre:7000002:000:2299
Nf-From: hpcvre!nathanm    Jul  6 13:47:00 1984

> I'd be happy with a more thorough technical test to separate those who
> REALLY know radio & electronics theory from those who Bash their way into
> ham radio.
>
> The basic idea of the code is to keep the hobby clean-- unlike CB.  While
> the code test has served that purpose in the past, a comprehensive technical
> test could be used today, when knowing ASCII is more useful than morse code.
>
>
> Bob  KG6HV

Alright, I confess, I've never learned code.  Perhaps that's one of the
few reasons I am not a ham at this moment.  But while I don't want to take
on the establishment and all that implies, I am a little bothered by the
"keep the hobby clean" attitude.

Yes, I agree, let's keep the idiots off the air.  As a pilot, I am
similarly interested in keeping idiots out of the sky.  But I don't
believe in the "I had to do it, so you have to do it also" attitude.
It's too damn self-serving.  If anything, I notice aviation magazines
increasingly alarmed at the growing difficulty of getting an airmans
certificate, worried that too many people are being scared away from
aviation.  How exclusive do you want amateur radio to be?

I found the comment about CB quite telling.  No, I'm not one, but I
read a most interesting comment in net.auto.  In an article entitled
something like "an inexpensive radar detector", the author touted
the advantages of CB as a radar detector (channel 19 or thereabouts)
and in emergencies.  The author also pointed out that the crap that
congested the airwaves during the height of CB's popularity has,
by and large, disappeared.  In other words, the problem pretty
much corrected itself once people got over the novelty of being
radio operators.

Times have changed.  Amateur radio operators are no longer blazing
the trails they once did.  DX'ing halfway around the world, while
still not trivial, is about as innovative as, well, crossing the
Atlantic.  I've done the latter in a 747 and it's *really* dull.  I
hope I'm not being too critical in suggesting that amateur radio has
passed its pioneering days in every way except in attitude.  Maybe
it's time to rethink the code requirement and ask whether it still
belongs.

Come to think of it, are they still asking questions about triodes
on the tests?

----------
Nathan Meyers
hplabs!hp-pcd!nathanm