"Alun L. Palmer" wrote:
wrote in news:1108606123.450223.319640
@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:
wrote:
Alun L. Palmer wrote:
Yes, South Africa has abolished the code test! One more domino has
fallen.
How many countries does that make now, compared to those who still
have it?
A tiny fraction of the number of countries which are members of the UN
and/or the ITU.
About 10% as a matter of fact. A minority, but not quite my idea of a
'tiny' fraction.
Ten percent is a tiny fraction when compared to 100%.
The point is, of course, that we are far from done yet.
Canada may be next.
There's little doubt. The Canadian government is pro-gay marriage too.
Note that most of the countries on Alun's list are
chunks of Old Europe and their syncophants where socialist gummint
giveaways are rampant compared with the rest of the world.
So you prefer totalitarian regimes instead?
Who wrote anything like that?
Nor does it include heavy hitters like the countries of the former
Soviet bloc, Brazil, India and China.
Those countries have large populations, but they don't they have the
highest numbers of hams per head.
South Africa has a population which is a little over 47 million. It has
about 4300 radio amateurs. Finland has that many radio amateurs with a
population of under 5 million. Russia has just under 144 million people
and has about 15,000 amateur licenses. It would seem that Russia isn't
keeping up with the per capita licensing of South Africa. Little Finland
can coast for a few decades.
Gonna be a LOOONG time before the last code test disappears . .
I'm sure it will be a great comfort to you if the Russian Federation is the
last to keep a code test. They are not my idea of anyone I would want to
emulate, however.
I gather that you prefer life in Maryland to life in the U.K., too,
Alun.
As for me, the crime rates in either Russia or South Africa would keep
me from wanting to become a resident of either. Then again, we were
talking about whether they decided to keep a morse test for amateur
radio.
Dave K8MN