From Morkie's Blog:

QUOTE

a rejoiner to "now you are HF active"

first I thank the author for his thought wether or I not I agree with
you I do respect.
OTOH I simply feel you and others have failed to understand what you
were up against in the Code test fight which I don't consider quite
over yet, anymore than "mission acomlished" was the end of the Iraq
war.

UNQUOTE

Oh, we (the pro-code camp) KNEW what we were up against...Mostly
the overwhelming attitude of a voiciferous "gimmegimmegimme" generation
that would never be satisfied until they could get "something for
nothing" or as close to nothing as possible.

The written tests have been gutted for years. Colleges that used
to allow extra-curricular credit for possessing an Amateur License no
long do it since the questions are public domain and therefore negates
any evidence that the holder really "knows" anything about radio.

Now the one and only "skill" test is gone too.

There is an overwhelming "give me more for less" mindset these
days, and indeed Amateur Radio is an minute part of that mindset, but
it's here and it's done.

Now to see where Amateur Radio "is" in a year or two from now. I
for one will be watching with bated breath to see if this in-rush of
new operators shows up. I say "it ain't a hap'nin thing"

As I have said previously, this is my guess: There's going to be
an initial rush of "upgrades" of current Techs to HF licenses. There
will be a chartable increase in new-license applicants for the next 12
months, and then it will taper back to close-to-original numbers.

I say the overall census of the Amateur Radio service doesn't have
more than a 10% short term increase, and it will be back to "business
as usual" by this time next year.

Any Takers?

Steve, K4YZ