David wrote: In the UK, and I suspect most countries, such traffic handling was illegal (recently there are some relaxations) on the basis that it undermined the businesses of the telephone companies and commercial users of radio.
--------------------- Forgive my "US-centric" view David. It is also my understanding that the USA was a bit out-of-the-ordinary in the fact that traffic handling has been encouraged throughout the history of Amateur Radio here. After all, that was why Maxim and his colleagues formed the American Radio *Relay* League back before WWI when the maximum range of most stations was a few hundred miles at best, so a network of stations was needed to pass traffic across the continent. In the USA, commercial messaging companies complained but WWI put an end to that. The large number of trained, ready-to-go operators that were available when the USA entered the war brought recognition from the President of the USA on down. However, the US rules also strictly forbade any amateur traffic containing business or other important communications that would normally be handled by a commercial carrier. Obviously, that has resulted in a lot of discussion and litigation ever since, but the training of skilled telegraphers and message handlers was a recognized cornerstone in the justification for the hobby here. Much positive publicity occurred around Amateur traffic handling, such as the famous example in 1921 when ARRL member stations on the east coast accepted a message for a recipient on the west coast. It was sent, delivered, and a reply returned to the sending station on the east coast in at total of 6-1/2 minutes for the complete exchange! That was the stuff of headlines in a day when the fastest traffic system most people knew about was an expensive telegram that might take hours to go across the country. Amateurs gained a great deal of favorable publicity and recognition by demonstrating public officials could communicate quickly and efficiently through the Amateur network if needed. Right along with that came the work of Amateurs in emergency communications, providing first-ever inside information about disasters with requests for specific aid and the first "health and welfare" messages telling those outside the area the status of their friends and relatives. By the time I joined the hobby in the 1950's, there were a large number of experienced Hams who believed that the only real justification for their license was to build and maintain a station that was very reliable and efficient, and to maintain an strict, regular schedule of checking into daily traffic nets. Their dedication to handling traffic was at least as great as any radiosport enthusiast's dedication to scoring in a contest today. My point was that there has always been, in the USA at least, a large number of Hams whose primary interest is in setting up and operating the best station they can afford. As others point out, American Hams must still know how to properly operate and adjust their equipment to ensure they meet FCC regulations. The current license exams focus largely on testing this knowledge. I suspect that's true world-wide. But many Hams care little about what goes on "under the hood" of their rigs beyond the end results in making contacts, nor do they need to for their purposes. In my view, they are as much Hams as those, like myself, whose primary interest is in designing and building communications equipment. And I heartily agree with you about keeping and protecting that privilege to build our own gear. As more and more Hams are less interested in building, it's important we not lose sight of the fact that much useful and important technical experience is gained by Hams who do tinker with their gear, and we contribute significantly to the communications art. Ron AC7AC _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
