RadioBanter - View Single Post - 05-235

December 12th 05, 08:45 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.policy

From: on Sun, Dec 11 2005 7:33 pm

wrote:
From: on Dec 11, 11:03 am
wrote:
wrote:
From: on Dec 7, 5:28 pm
wrote:
From: Bill Sohl on Dec 6, 6:11 am
wrote in message

I'm not convinced that a "starting path" is necessary.

The alternative would be to eliminate all license classes except
the Amateur Extra, and require all new hams to meet all the
requirements of the Amateur Extra without any intermediate
steps.

The ONLY alternative? :-)

If you don't want to lower the written test requirements, yes.

Jim just got through posting that in 1936 the code speed was *increased
and the written exams made *more comprehensive for the three license
classes at the time. Later, all priveleges were granted to the
General class license. Then they were taken away.

Now, one license class with the equivalent of the General Class exam is
"lowering the requirements."

Jim sees what Jim wants to see.

Jimmie need help of opthalmologist...he have astigmatism.

He have a stigmup tis bottom.

Well, he has 20-20 hindsight but seems to be of extreme
tunnel-vision
for the future (only He "knows" what will come to pass).

It isn't logical to have ONE license labeled "Extra." :-)

Then call it something else.

"Amateur"

Ummm...yes, that's what I answered. Too obvious to be "seen,"
I guess...

Not enough "prestige."

...and Rank, Status, Privilege. All POLITICALLY stomped into the
regulations by those who thought they were "better" than others
in a HOBBY radio activity over the last half century.

I wish I had saved a longish post made by another about the time
I started accessing this newsgroup. Someone had written the
"new classes" of ham licenses, perhaps fifty-plus, delineating
how so many were so "superior" to those of "lesser rank."
Such as the supermen of amateur radio "able to leap tall pileups
in a single QSO." Hilarious!

Every month, a few dozen new licenses are issued to
Generals and Extras. While that number is small
compared to those who start out as Technicians, it
proves that at least some new hams bypass one or both
upgrading steps.

Why does one have to "upgrade" through license
classes?

One doesn't. Anyone can "go for the Extra right out of the box".
You haven't.

One doesn't have to upgrade at all. At one time the General conveyed
all amateur priveleges, and few amateurs tested higher. Then the FCC
implemented the Incentive Licensing System which you loved, took away
priveleges, and the rest is history. Now you say that going back to
all priveleges for the General exam is lowering requirements.

Sorry you feel that way.

Confusion reigns there. Must be the weather...

When it reigns, it poors.

TRUE! While these super-extra morsemen are busy hurting their
shoulders by patting themselves on the back over their superiorness,
the number of Expirations each month is just slightly more than the
number of Newcomers (never before licensed). Not many, but it is
consistent and has been so for the last 2 1/2 years. It's not a
"statistical anomaly" anymore. Amateur radio is getting "poorer"
as a result.

Advertising revenue - the fuel that feeds the periodical fires -
has been dropping for over a decade. Two major independent
publishers had to drop out of the business. The league wants more
money...to "keep the faith" (in the Church of St. Hiram?). Way
too many hams are busy with a "Let's Pretend" fantasy (almost
palpable) about their glorious service to the nation (as radio
hobbyists) and wearing virtual uniforms (unseen by ordinary
mortals) of glory and honor in their morsemanship a vital asset
in the War Against Terrorism! [I kid you not, some comments were
made in 05-235 saying that very thing] The "richness" is in
the tales of fantasy they generate, NOT a commodity that generates
any sort of revenue.

If there were only ONE license, there would be no
"upgrading" via licenses, would there?

Right.

And if there were only one license, regardless of
what it would be called, its test(s) would
have to contain everything that is now contained in
the three written tests for the Amateur Extra.
Otherwise the standards would be reduced.

No, it wouldn't. Strawman.

The General License used to convey ALL AMATEUR PRIVELEGES.

Not applicable to Jimmie-discussions. He get Extra license,
be "superior." He typify "superior" class, elite. Nobility?

Blue blood is thicker than water.

Just thick. Need thinner. Coronary imminent.

Similar to their self-coronation as Kings of Radio.

"Bloody clots" as the Brits might remark. :-)

So what you propose is that all new amateurs would
have to pass the equivalent of all the written tests
for the Amateur Extra all at once, just to get an
amateur radio license.

Is that what you want?

You're the one who loved the Incentive Licensing System which took
priveleges away from fully qualified amateurs. You're the one who
loves unnecessary licensing requirements.

Brian, that wasn't the point.

Good. I'm glad I was able to bring Jim back around to the discussion
of policy.

Don't bank on that lasting.

Jimmie try more misdirection
by trying to start yet-another controversy over "what I want."
That can be expanded with his imaginary helium to "reach the
threshold of [newsgroup] space."

Wonder how Coslo's BBS is coming along?

I wonder too. Anyone else know?

He tried the same bull**** with my remark on "extra out of the
box" five years ago in here...that I "WANTED" one...and the same
thing on my Reply to Comments of Mikey D. on WT DOCKET 98-143
six years ago with "my WANTING an age limit on licensing."

Tsk, Jimmie complains that I "don't *read* what he wrote" and
then takes my postings so far out of context that we might as
well all be in outer space and/or the Twilight Zone.

Okay, in that spirit of misdirection in here, let me pass on
an EXACT QUOTE of Jimmie's made on 10 December 2005:

"The FCC doesn't license radio amateurs."

He presumes that the VEC does? Like so many Morsemen confuse "ARRL"
with "FCC?"

Jimmie just said "major typo alert!"

He acknowledged a MAJOR mistake in posting as a "typographical
error" but that is apparently okay for him to do. It's not okay
for any of us to do it...if we do it, we get reminders of it for
the next five years, negative critique, accusations of "not
following up on 'promises,'" the whole magilla. :-)

Offhand, I'd say that Jimmie "wants" amateurs to be UN-
LICENSED! :-)

Let's see if he can "tapdance" a few time-steps on that one?

Jim has his back in a corner. He's losing major ground on his lifetime
achievement of being an Extra, and the worst is probably just around
the corner.

Not to worry. He will rationalize the "worst" somehow, probably
based on "what the FCC did 37 years ago" or his getting a license
at age 14 or getting a college degree without having a car or
being a "manufacturer of amateur radio equipment" in the 1990s
using recycled vacuum tube technology. Whatever he's done is
guaranteed to be "better" than what anyone else has done, whether
avocationally or occupationally. shrug