Alun L. Palmer wrote:
"K=D8HB" wrote in news:7UEqe.2534$hK3.1424
@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net:

"bb" wrote

Your strangle hold on the amateur service may not end until the a=
ctuarial tables kick in, but they will end.

Jim has a "strangle hold" on ham radio? Gee, I didn't know!

Hey, Jim --- loosen up and let me breathe!

did dit ----- Reverse Fransworth
de Hans, K0HB

It occurs to me that the references to "actuarial tables" is
a backhanded way of telling me to drop dead....

Not Jim specifically, but all the Pro Code Test Advocates
(PCTA).

It was aimed straight at me.

I think
it was Goethe who said something about new ideas not being
accepted until
those who cling to the old ones have died.

That claim is incorrect.

It has to be said that there is some truth in that.

Not much, if any.

Not all new ideas are good ideas, either.

I think that the FCC will abolish the code test before we get
that far, though.
They are taking their sweet time, though.

Yep - and that may or may not be significant.

My XYL is waiting on this
event to go for her General, so that's my main interest.

With all due respect - it's been five years plus since the 2000
restructuring made 5 wpm the only code test. Most people can learn
code well enough to pass that test in 4-6 weeks of practicing
about a half-hour a day.

More countries abolish the code test all the time, although
it's slowed to a trickle.

That says something. Japan, long the poster-country of nocodetest
amateur radio, just announced reduction but not elimination of
their code testing.

It would be interesting to see a list of countries with and without
code tests.

I think Spain ditched the code test quite recently. OTOH, I
think Italy may be one of the very few holdouts in Europe, but I think =
it
is merely a delay. Canada looks set to do it soon, but has
looked that way for a while, LOL!

IIRC, Canada is also beefing up its written standards.

It will happen here too, but will have taken so long that
some people will be shocked by it, as they will have pretty
much forgotten about it by then.

I don't think I'll add another date. I think it will be this
year, though.
All right, put my second guess as December 31st, 2005.

I think that's way too soon. FCC is obviously going the NPRM
route, and that document isn't even out yet. Even if the NPRM
shows up tomorrow, it will probably have a comment period
lasting months, then FCC will take more months to do the R&O.

73 de Jim, N2EY