Jeez. I can't believe I'm commenting on this (or maybe I can?) But
before Eric comes in and closes down this thread as OT, here goes.
First, I think I'd've been happier if the 5 WPM requirement was still
in place for Extra, at least. I won't lose any sleep over the fact
that it probably won't be in several months' time, however.
See, maybe I'm mellowing, or maybe I've actually learned something
useful in my mere 32 years on the big blue marble, but I don't, as I
did at one time in my life, think that ham radio's gonna go to hell
in a handbasket (what's a handbasket, anyway?)
I remember when the first code-free licenses came down. Actually, I
remember the heated debates leading up to it happening...of course,
not the first ones, because I haven't been around that long, but the
ones around 1989-90. I remember being vehemently opposed to the idea.
Never mind that I was a happy product of Novice Enhancement; if I
wasn't, I'd've got a ham license anyway--because it was important to
me to get one, and I'd've done the required work to do it regardless.
I remember studying a bunch of stuff and resolving that I'd get that
license, even if I did have to learn morse, which I'd naturally never
use but would learn because I had to. I remember being very
disappointed when I learned that not only was a code-free license
going to be available, but that they'd get full VHF and up
privileges, never mind that what they got really had absolutely no
bearing on my life or operating.
Then, Valentine's Day came and went; I met new local hams; many were
excellent operators; many didn't pass a code test. I met some other
guys (then and before) who passed all the same tests I did and acted
like children. Well, actually, they were worse. Anyone know the
Southern White Racists and Biggots Net on 3853? :) And most
importantly, the world didn't come crashing down round my ears.
Course, a lot of supposedly great ops who passed that all-important
test spewed venom all over creation about how ham radio was now going
to be wall-to-wall CB, but it's a funny thing...it never really
happened, at least not where I lived or visited, no worse, anyway,
than it had been before.
Since that first great big change, I've taken the other changes a lot
more easily. Maybe I grew up, or maybe I just decided that it really
didn't matter and it was all down to us regardless of the rule.s
Maybe I decided to live and let live. Would I rather that things
didn't change so much and that the license structure and testing was
more similar to how it was when I got my test? I s'pose; I used to
tell people that if I was giving tests that I'd still give a sending
test, even though I myself never had to take one. But today, I think
maybe all this has more to do with the human condition of not liking
change than anything else, really. Could I have passed the Extra from
1970? Sure, but it would definitely have taken a lot more work on my
part to do it. Same with Advanced. I'm sure to some, I'd be an Extra
Light because my test was multiple guess, from a published question
pool, and no way in Hades I could do a bunch of the technical stuff
without a lot of hand-holding to learn it. Could I have passed a 1930-
something Class A test? Not in this lifetime, I'm pretty sure; again,
not without a lot of help, anyway. But that's the best part of this
hobby: the help's there for the asking. And if that goes away because
we're all crying about how these new guys don't have to do what we
did, well then, ham radio really will be dead. Then, we really will
be those old duffers who just sit in our basements talking to the
aliens.
So what's my point? I probably had one when I started, but it's
gotten lost somewhere.
Vy 73,
Buddy, KB5ELV (a proud know-code Extra who thought the written tests
were harder)
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