"Dick Carroll;" wrote in message
...
If/when the FCC totally eliminates code testing it will have made the
second biggest mistake of its tenure of regulating amateur radio. The first
was
the introduction of a Citizens Band on frequencies where
propagation causes RF to travel long distances.

Anyone who believes otherwise will, in time, learn the truth.

Dick

Hey Dick........

Were you perchance a Ham-Op in the 80's and early 90's
when the infamous "14.313 Booer Wars" between
KV4FZ's "anti-phone patch" factions and the opposing
Maritime Mobile Net's faction were in full swing..?

It was QUITE a time!

Just about any week night and all weekend long you could
tune to either 14.300 or 14.313 and hear any variety of
catcalls, music, snide comments, foul language, noisemakers,
the infamous "dirty black box" and anything else in-between.
(the way it worked was if the MM Net was on .313 then the
nuts were on .300 and visa-versa) This went on for close
to 12 Years that I was aware of. It became known as the
Ham Radio Comedy Channel and before it ended it drew in
just about every kook from 75 Meters.

Guess what Dick...? It turned out that 90% of the WORST
on the air offenders and un-ID'ed stations turned out to be
Hams with Advanced and Extra Class Licensees, most of
of which had held that ticket for 10 or more years duration
and more importantly, at that time one needed to pass a 13 and 20
WPM code test respectively to obtain in the first place!
(...unless of course, you bribed the VEC for your code-credit
which was occuring in parts of the Southeastern USA at the time)

So Dick, please remember that keeping Code WILL NOT
keep the fruitcakes out of the hobby, nor will it bring more stations
into the same. The fruitcakes are already here, and for the most
part, the general public does not know ham radio from a wris****ch
nor would they as the "radio craze" of the late-70's CB Era
ended a VERY long time ago.

Besides, if they (the public) want "radio communications" they are
going to go to WalMart and purchase a pair of blister-packed FRS
Radios for $39.95 from off the pegboard in Asile #7. (...and if you
went to WalMart back in April or May, you could have snagged
a pair of full-channel Motorola FRS Radios for $26.68 as I did
when they were on sale)

I've been in ham radio since the late 60's and
supported the ending of code
in the 80's when it would have done some good.
Forget it doing ANY good now of course as
today's youth are more interested in the Internet
than in ham radio. If they want "radio" there's FRS.
Buy em, put in 3 type AA Cells and your talkin with FRS.

Sorry but that's the truth.

Still, it's ****Un-be-freaking-lievable**** that the
same ages-old debate of if to keep stupid
damm old code or not is still going on.
Then again, ham radio has been in an arrested state
of development for Years.

Looks like ole Wayne Green was right ALL ALONG.

..... .. : ) : ) : )