> Probably the best way to attack this situation is, all of us who > can, use all frequencies available. I am a extra so when I go into > the shack to check for activity, I tune to 7.280-95 then down to > 7.160 to see who is on the air. I don't make a decision about who > to talk with by frequency. > > So if there is a good signal on 7.293, I will be there. I urge > others to do the same and those who are Generals to upgrade if they > choose. Personally I was a General (Conditional class) from 1956 > until 1973 and saw nothing bad about it. I did the upgrade in 1973 > because of the possibility of Incentive Licensing restrictions. > Then I went to Advanced and stayed there until the next round of the > FCC actions about licenses in 2000. I decided to get the Extra > because I was tired of them fooling with my frequencies and > privileges. > > So if someone doesn't want to change license class that is just > great with me. As I said I don't make my decisions about my > conversations by license class but by signal strength and quality. > Knowing most of the people who posted to this discussion topic, I > don't believe it was meant to be exclusionary, just an attempt to > promote activity and to use frequencies most AM operators haven't > been using for quite a while. Welcome aboard to all. > > Jim/W5JO
I don't know why they even bother to keep the US amateur bands segmented with all these subbands and sub-sub bands. The whole concept of incentive licensing was obviously abandoned long, long ago; even the ARRL now publicly admits that amateur radio is no longer a technically oriented endeavour but a "communicator's hobby". The League even took most of the technical stuff out of QST and squirreled it away in that separate publication that even full members have to pay extra for, QEX, based on the notion that the majority of QST readers would have no interest in technical articles. Not only did incentive licensing prove to be a dismal falure in terms of its stated purpose, which was to enhance the technical knowledge and skills of the amateur radio population, if anything, IL after it went into effect in 1968, *accelerated* the demise of technical experimentation, home-building and AM phone. Just look back at any of the amateur radio magazines of the pre-inncentive licensing era, 73, CQ, Ham Radio or QST, and compare the content to what you see in CQ or QST to-day. Due to the present sub-band/sub-sub-band structure, large segments of every HF band have turned into vast wastelands with no US activity, period, while other segments remain overly congested, and much of the spectrum where phone is used world-wide remains off limits to US hams and US hams only. It reminds me of the Jim Crow South in the pre-civil rights era: when using phone US hams are relegated to the back of the bus. We should simply go the way of Canada, UK and many other countries round the world that have only a couple of classes of licence, offering "limited" and "full" privileges. The limited entry level class would have limited privileges not based on band segments, but perhaps based on maximum power level and/or access only to certain bands or modes. That was the way it actually was prior to 1968, when we had Novice (very limited CW privileges), Technician (all privileges above a certain VHF/UHF frequency), and General (full amateur privileges). Our sub-bands and sub-sub-bands based on such a complex matrix of operator class and modes of emission is nothing short of ridiculous, and no such a thing exists anywhere else in the world. Don k4kyv _______________________________________________________________ This message was typed using the DVORAK keyboard layout. http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/ http://gigliwood.com/abcd/ ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Post: [email protected] To unsubscribe, send an email to [email protected] with the word unsubscribe in the message body. This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
