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Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!ptsfa!ihnp4!cuae2!killer!elg
From: elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems,rec.ham-radio
Subject: Re: Public Digital Radio Service wireless modem proposal
Message-ID: <1398@killer.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 24-Aug-87 02:54:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: killer.1398
Posted: Mon Aug 24 02:54:32 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 25-Aug-87 02:27:12 EDT
References: <77@splut.UUCP>
Organization: Bayou Telecommunications
Lines: 60
Xref: mnetor comp.dcom.modems:861 rec.ham-radio:2316

in article <77@splut.UUCP>, jay@splut.UUCP (Jay Maynard) says:
> In article <2788@hoptoad.uucp>, gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes:
> 
> ) > Pressure to end 
> ) > the Morse requirement is growing even among hams. Also, some influential 
> ) > people within the FCC are beginning to say publicly that some of the 
> ) > restrictions now put on hams (particularly the ones on message content) are 
> ) > unrealistic and unreasonable.
> The Morse Code objection is a red herring. Anyone can, with a minimal amount
> of study, learn the code. Are you trying to suggest that computer types
> aren't intelligent enough to do so?

A couple of local hams tried getting me into their hobby by waving the red
flag of packet radio before my eyes. One shoved his ARRL handbook upon me,
which I dutifully read. No big problem there, I like learning new and useful
things (the power supply designs alone were worth the read). Then another one
took me to the local hamfest (where I got a big mungo heatsink for a power
supply I was building :-), and forced one of those introductory kits upon me,
you know, the one with the Morse code tape in it. I read the first few pages,
and listened to a few beeps, and then I said, "Why the hell am I sitting here
listening to a damn tape beeping at me, when I could be doing something
useful?!"  Needless to say, I never did "get my ticket"...  sure, it's only a
few hours, but I'm a busy person, and if something that seems a waste of time
comes along, there's 50 dozen other things to do tacked onto my bulletin board
(hoards of little yellow notes, covered with suggestions, people I need to
call, etc).
     The point: technical information is useful, even though I'm a software
guy. About the only people who'd complain about having to learn some technical
info, would be dweebs who don't belong on the airwaves anyhow.  But listening
to beeps?  I can think of better things to do with my time and money.  Like,
logging onto a USENET machine instead.  And instead of spending a few hundred
bucks on a used transciever and antenna, getting me a better printer, or that
new software package that just came out, or....
     Anyhow, I guess what I'm trying to say is that ham radio has gotten a bad
image amongst todays techies.  They don't see the old '50s image of the
electronics wizard ham enthusiast cobbling up his own machine with spare parts
and advancing the state of the art. Instead, they see basically upscale CB
radio operators, who spend all these jillions of dollars just to beep at one
another and "ragchew" all day, a waste of time and money.  Until ham radio
regains a reputation for technological prowness and sheds the
waste-of-time-and-money reputation, the ranks of amateur radio operators will
continue to dwindle.

 I'm sure you ham folks can think of some good things about Morse code (like
"well, it's as not sensitive to conditions as voice transmission, and in event
of nuclear warfare, reception would be shot to hell, so we need to know Morse
to communicate when the end of the world comes"). But to the average Joe
Techie on the street, the kind of person you'd want to attract (as vs. the CB
radio rejects), he sees no use in it -- all he sees is yet another way of
wasting his time, and is immediately and permenantly turned off to ham radio.
All that blather about ragchewing certificates and talk-to-all-this-and-that
certificates and such, only confirms his suspicions. Raising potted plants
seems more educational and exciting as a hobby, and cheaper, too. After all,
who the f*ck cares if I talked to all 50 contenients and 99 foreign countries
and 15 planets all on a tenth of a milliwatt of power! 
--
Eric Green   elg%usl.CSNET     Ollie North for President:
{cbosgd,ihnp4}!killer!elg      A man we can believe (in).
Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191      
Lafayette, LA 70509            BBS phone #: 318-984-3854  300/1200 baud