ARRL Bulletin on Morse Code Elimination

I think I'll start sending them more money right away.

Where do you get your facts and figures?  Please show me some proof.  Just don't pull stuff out of the air.  Can you pull a rabbit out of your hat too?  So what is it?  75 or 80 percent?  You give two different set of numbers.  Do you have a +/- 5 percent margin of error in your facts?

You you guys are at fault for BPL and morse code being dropped from the tests?

So you want to kick me in the "a'send" instead?  No thanks.

 

Wow man, try decaf next time. Your really getting waaaayyyy too hung up on this, even if it did get as bad as you seem to think it will, which I highly highly doubt, its a hobby and not worth sending your blood pressure through the roof.

Its a hobby folks, relax a bit and see what comes, that and help to guide it in the direction you want.

 

John, you are NOT in the minority. I agree 100%.

Merry Christmas!

(And they are getting better.... I worked West Coast from S.C. on 10 meters yesterday. Let's get on there and call CQ!)

 

I agree.  All 3 of those are strange.  As for where "first personal" came from, I think it is a military term.  Not appropriate on ham frequencies.

Every hobby has its language.  The Q-code is ham, "OM" and several others are ham.  What is weird is mixing hobbies.  Ham on CB, CB on ham, sailing language on ham, all are inappropriate.  My sailing friends would think me strange if I asked QTH? on the marine frequencies.  I think it just as strange to hear CB or military, or police terminology on ham frequencies.

Br proud to be a ham, and talk like one! (And I promise not to wish you "fair winds and following seas" on ham frequencies.... unless you're a sailor, too!)

)

 

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good fight...

 

Try the 2005 ARRL Annual Report, the latest edition available, on the ARRL Web site. That will give you their latest membership figures. Then go to the Hamdata site and get the latest amateur radio licensing figures from the FCC database. These are updated daily. Subtract club stations, divide the remaining number into the ARRL membership figure, multiply by 100, and you will arrive at a figure of 20.8%. This means that, of every five hams, four of them DO NOT belong to the ARRL. And the membership figures decline each year! (See the ARRL Report. The latest edition bemoans a membership drop of 2.8% since 2004.) The numbers speak for themselves.

Obviously, your new NCT ticket has given you instant expertise in everything, so I won't try to convice you that you are wasting your money on the clowns in Newington. And with your arrogant, know-it-all attitude, maybe that's why the experienced hams in your area won't "Elmer" you.

You are a newbie with the lowest class license available. Sit back, shut up, and LISTEN to those who have more experience. You just might learn something! Or go back to CB and chat with the guys at your local truck stop.

 

Oh, I don't know about this.

Around here, saying "CQ" on 2M (or repeater FM voice in general) will get you treated as if you said 'Breaker Breaker'. Although it seems some can get away with it. But mostly when they come into a group and spout "CQ nnnn" where it's the name of the group or something. If you used it seriously...

And saying 'listening' IS appropriate. Unless your area of the country has different customs. Around here it means you're throwing your call out just to see if someone wants a casual chat. But then, if we key the repeater, at least in this area, we ID. I guess you don't get out much.

Hmm, it could be worse, you could try to tell a joke or a bad pun and then SAY "Hi hi!" Will plant you solidly in the 'propeller beanie type' to be avoided in social crowds. Only thing worse that I know of is to tell a programmer type joke about hardware and actually laugh when you finish the line "and then the DMA did...." BOTH situations can be made orders of magnitude worse if there are 'non' types in attendence or even in earshot. Dates for example. Unattented females within earshot around single guys add a further multiplier. But maybe you don't realize that...

As to "for ID", I use it all the time. But to be fair, mainly because I know the people (or person) it REALLY riles! (and no, it's not a friendly tease)

 

You ought to thank those of us that carry the load for you, and you being the load, it's not a very easy task.

Oh, you know me so well.  Have another box of doughnuts and calm down a bit.

You kiss your mother with that mouth?  You seem to be a lot worse than any trucker that I have ever known.  One thing to remember lard butt, truck drivers are people too, with families, not some sort of low life pond scum that you and others make them out to be.  Without "the bad ole' truckers", you wouldn't have anything to stuff your face with every day and the economy would come to a screaching hault.  Your scare tactics are as about as useful as you trying to stay on a diet.

Hey there lard butt!  How are things with your boat achors?  Nothing new to learn there, just real old technology.  You are stuck in the past like you get stuck in door ways you try to go through.  

You yourself know it all it seems by your posts.  You see someone with 5 letter call and assume that you are far superior to that person without even knowning their education or background, how pathetic and sad at the same time.

You appear to have a low self esteem as well and take your hatred out on others that don't think or act like you do.  That is why you over eat so much, a pitty.

 

You're the umteenth person that said this.

The FCC CANNOT rob "Our" Frequencies.

The bands are NOT our frequencies. They are the
FCC's / government's frequencies




they can't rob something that is already theirs....

 

no it IS NOT A HOBBY !!

It's a service. And everywhere in the rules and regulations, the FCC refers it to the SERVICE.

And as far as the ARRL goes, they are Not going to see a dime of my money until they quit dumbing down the service. Now they finally got the FCC to get rid of the code requirement, so there isn't any real EFFORT to put in anymore to get your license.
If the Effort is gone out of getting licensed, then people won't value their license and the Privilege of being on the bands, and won't care about the quality of the service NEAR as much.

10-4?

thanks.

 

Been through this before. It is not "service" in the sense that you are thinking. It is "service" as in a government subdivision. Think Internal Revenue Service, or Selective Service.

Almost all divisions of the FCC are divided into services, if they pertain to an actual allocation of frequencies.

And it is a hobby.

Joe

 

It is a hobby, sorry to break it to you. You can use your hobby for public service, but this is still a hobby.  People seem to feed thier egos buy trying to make ham radio "service" a service like military service or something.  Get over yourselves.  I think it is childish and insults those who were in the "real" service, not playing with dials and wires.

The fcc refers also refers to cb as a service as well as family radios etc, so they must be on par with us eh?

For those of you that take the HOBBY seriously, I commend you, I take many of my hobbies seriously, but the value they have is not controlled by a slip of paper with some letters and numbers on it, nor a test I spent a few minutes taking some time in the past, what makes my hobbies good for me is what I do with them.

 

And what do they call CB? The Citizen's Band Radio Service. Go look up Part 95, if you don't believe me.

What was your point again?  

It's a HOBBY. Get over yourself.

 

This has been fun to watch. I have seen the following replies:

1) WooHoo!

2) I don't care.

3) It is the end of ham radio and probably civilization as we know it. Does "hello good buddy" ring a bell?

4) It will be good for ham radio. There will be much new blood.

5) I hate you all. I hope you all die - and your little dog too!


My own view is that it is a good thing. There is no question that the culture of ham radio is going to change substantially over the next few years. By and large, I think it will encourage the entrance of hard-core geeks like me who like the idea of knowing an arcane communication method like code, but are reluctant to spend time on a means of communication that, while fun and worth pursuing as a hobby, is clearly obsolete. Many of the old-timers, for whom I have a great deal of respect, are unhappy at that prospect, but IMHO, it's that or the hobby dies a slow death.

 

The FCC even calls it a hobby. For instance, in PRB 1 they write

The word "service" does not mean to the FCC what you think it does. The FCC uses the ITU definition of service: