From: "Brett Gazdzinski" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
50 years ago, I am sure the old timers complained that the new apliance
operators
dont even make their own capacitors or resistors anymore, or blow glass
for
tubes....
That's about when I first heard the term "plug-in appliance operator". More
and more hams were buying Rangers, Valiants, DX-100's (later Apache's),
Globe Kings, etc, instead of building homebrew rigs up from scratch.
Components were plentiful and readily available then, either WW2 surplus or
brand new from Allied, Burstein-Applebee, LaFayette and Radio Shack, so the
"parts procurement" problem was not an issue. Technical information and
detailed project descriptions were abundant in the Handbooks and amateur
radio magazines of that era.
As SSB became more widely accepted, that accelerated the trend towards
appliance operating, since few hams had the capability or desire to build
something that complex from scratch and try getting it to work, although
there were quite a few homebrew SSB rigs on the air. The commercial stuff,
mostly Collins and Central Electronics, was too expensive for many amateurs,
and "sideband for the masses" (the cheap, flimsy, low-quality transceivers
like the Heathkit Hotwater rigs, Swans, Galaxies and others) had not
appeared on the market yet.
Nevertheless, the growing trend towards appliance operation was one of the
motivators for the incentive licensing proposal, which first appeared in a
QST editorial sometime in 1963. In hindsight, incentive licensing was a
dismal failure in terms of its stated purpose, since if anything, it
accelerated the trend towards appliance operation, and looking at the bands
to-day... well, enough said. Incentive licensing almost turned out to be
the long hoped-for death blow to AM. After the changes went into effect on
22 November, 1968, almost overnight AM and most homebrew rigs all but
disappeared from the bands. One of the reasons was that Generals were
restricted to narrow subbands that soon took on the name "electronic
ghetto", and many went to SSB because they could no longer hack it with
100-watt class rigs on AM. It has been theorised that this was exactly one
of the intentions of incentive licensing from the outset, since powers that
be weren't happy with the pace at which amateurs were changing over from AM
to SSB.
I do agree you are not allowed to take any risks with anything anymore.
Except with the money we invest for retirement. More and more companies are
phasing out their guaranteed pension entitlement plans and replacing them
with risky 401K's that may actually lose money. Your retirement security may
be heavily impacted by current market conditions on the date of your
retirement.
Don k4kyv
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