Why not good ol' American
made Ten Tec gear throughout?
Better still, why not expertly designed, custom built homebrew rigs designed
pecisely for the application at W1AW? I'm sure the League has the funds and
technical expertise available.
I've had ARRL people tell me that it's no longer
important that hams understand how a radio works or its major components
because "no
one but an engineer could fix it if it broke anyhow".
If that is true, isn't it a frank admission that "Incentive Licensing" has
been a dismal failure in terms of its stated purpose and goal? Why continue
to support licence class subbands that result inefficient use of our HF
allocations, if the fundamental objective of Incentive Licensing has been
abandoned?
I know extra class licensees who can't
even program their HTs. Is this *really* what we want for the future of
ham radio? Is this
approach of selecting what will likely bring in the most users or new
licensees really a good
idea? Obviously not if the ARRL has been "saving ham radio" for the last
10+ years and
it's gotten worse to the point of having to lessen requirements with the
dumbing down
approach...
Personally it irks me a bit that the ARRL did it their way and failed
repeatedly, but since everything else has been tried *now* they're willing
to try to some
attention to basic radio issues and history.
Nothing has worked. Remember Novice Enhancement? Then the no-code Tech?
Volunteer exams? Now 5 wpm code and "restructuring"? Despite this series
of measures that have progressively relaxed the standards, the anticipated
hoards of newcamers to amateur radio never materialised. A substantial
number of existing Technicians and Generals have upgraded, but the total
amateur radio population is still dwindling. Bottom line: appliance
operating is BORING!
One of the primary reasons for the amateur radio "service" is to provide a
source of trained radio operators to help out in >times of local and
national emergency. This seems to have gotten lost long ago in the rush to
promote amateur radio
as a hobby.
Amateur radio came through in the aftermath of the events of 11 Sept 01 in
NYC. Cellular, landline and broadcast communication services crashed with
the loss of the towers and traffic overload. The public became aware that
the non-centralised structure of amateur radio renders it to be the ultimate
source of cricitical communication in a time of emergency, after everything
else has failed. Historians may look back on this national tragedy as the
event that saved amateur radio.
As far as the railroads go, they were still in operation last I knew. Maybe
cheaper trucks
and gasoline had something to do with a more convenient and economical way
of
shipping?
Don't forget the heavy government subsidy of the trucking industry. State
and federal governments build and maintain the highway system, and although
the trucking industry pays substantial taxes to use the interstates, the
tax rate does not fully cover the costs of road damage and traffic
congestion, not to mention the loss of life and property due to 18-wheeler
accidents. The railway industry had to purchase its own right-of-way and
build and maintain its own tracks with minimal government assistance.
Regarding the League's newfound willingness to embrace AM and classic radio,
the current enthusiasm for AM and other ham radio fundamentals is about the
only visible enthusiasm that is left in the service/ hobby these days. You
have to give the League credit for responding to reality. Even if we
disagree with many of the League's policies, would it really be in our best
interest to abolish it? Why not abolish our national and local governments
since we may disagree with pubicl policies? Why not scrap our cars and and
abandon our highway system nation-wide because it directly causes the
deaths of over 40,000 Americans annually?
Don, K4KYV
PS: Why should our military be asked to die for cheap oil when the rest of
us aren't even being asked to get better mileage?
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