Regarding the inappropriate political comments and topics that have appeared on this board recently, one thing we have to keep in mind that amateur radio is inexorably attached to government policy and that means, to a large degree, politics. Since we are directly governed by the Communications Act and federal regulations, amateur radio is probably involved with federal law (acts of Congress) and Executive branch decisions more than any other hobby in existence, equally or even more so than such interests as hunting rights, gun ownership and flying private aircraft.
The problem we have seen here appears when people often try to subtly, or not so subtly, inject comments and oblique references to support their own political agenda or point of view, on highly controversial topics that have nothing remotely to do with AM or amateur radio. I read the newspaper. I listen to the radio. I follow a few politically oriented blogs on the internet. I even watch a little TV every now and again. The point is, I already hear and see enough national politics via other media on a daily basis, and I see no need to follow this message board to read more of the same. Unfortunately, the lunatic fringe of every conceivable political persuasion have succeeded in whipping the public into such frenzy, that many folks see political evil in everything imaginable, or share the delusion that all ills of society can be cured by blindly adhering to some questionable political ideology. I think it not only desirable, but IMPERATIVE that we openly discuss government policy and political shenanigans in the context of amateur radio privileges and the status of the AM mode. Inevitably, some of this will relate to decisions by politicians in Washington. With the advent of computers and the internet, whenever something potentially affecting our operating privileges pops up, whether in the form of FCC proposals, Rulemaking Petitions submitted to the FCC, ARRL policy decisions, enforcement actions, acts by large corporations or whatever, within a matter of hours a large portion of the amateur community will be aware of it. Compare this to the pre-internet days when we had to rely on printed media to disseminate such information. Often, the deadline for filing comments to the FCC would have already expired by the time the news first appeared in mainstream publications like QST and CQ. We had to depend on newsletters like ARRL Letter, H/R Reports, W5YI Report and The AM Press/Exchange for timely information. If the AM community had not become politically involved during the FCC's Docket-a-Month era that ran roughly from 1974 to 1990, and had not mounted widespread opposition to anti-AM petitions and Dockets like 20777 and its ilk, there would be no AM on the amateur bands to-day. Reportedly, FCC officials were "shocked" at the degree of opposition to bandwidth Docket 20777 resulting from its proposal to outlaw AM on all frequencies below 28 mHz. Right now, I believe our greatest threat is not that the FCC might outlaw AM or that commercial interests will take our HF bands away at the next WARC (although we must always keep our eyes open for any such indications); our greatest concern at the moment has to be the proliferation of cheap, poorly designed consumer products and other technology that unnecessarily pollutes the HF spectrum with buzzies and hash. Just a few examples include BPL, the new digital/LED traffic signals, plasma TV's, touch lamps, HomePlug gadgets, and whatever new product came on the market this morning to spew additional trash in our bands. EACH OF THESE ISSUES RELATES TO POLITICAL DECISIONS MADE BY THE THREE BRANCHES OF OUR FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, aka "politics". If discussions on the AM and amateur radio message boards, email reflectors and over the air is to be limited to technical topics, equipment exchanges and trivial chit-chat because everyone is fearful of becoming too "political", we might just as well kiss AM and amateur radio as we know it good-bye now, while the kissing is good. Regarding this forum, I suggest laying off the snide remarks, wisecracks and end-run non-radio related political statements that have lately been slipping into numerous threads and topics, without hesitating to bring up any subject that might involve our radio operation. For those who enjoy openly discussing politics with fellow amateur radio operators, I suggest QRZ.com. They have a closely moderated forum called "Political Junkies" specifically designed to allow political talk while keeping it off their other, amateur radio related forums. In order to post messages, one must sign up separately from the other forums and explain to the satisfaction of the moderators why you want to join, and those who violate prescribed policy may find themselves banned from PJ even though they may still be allowed to participate in the other QRZ.com forums. Go to http://forums.qrz.com/forumdisplay.php?f=34 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
