[TenTec] TenTec Digest, Vol 28, Issue 25

[We5f@aol.com]

Hello:

I hope my comments make it under the cutoff the moderator of this list is 
sure to apply soon.

As Scott has eloquently put it, it's my hope that we hams NEVER decide to 
take it upon ourselves to 
censure or try to stop other hams from freely expressing their opinion.  
After all, isn't that 
what we're really all about (free communication)?  If you don't think this is 
a particularly dangerous practice, 
tune in 75M any evening and sample the banter.

The real shame is that our new crop of hams have completely missed the 
critical association 
between CW and ham radio.  Can't really blame them - our representative 
organization has missed it 
as well.  It is what has made ham radio so special since its inception.  
Professing yourself a ham radio 
operator and not being proficient at CW is comparable to calling yourself a 
sailor and not knowing the 
difference between "port" and "starboard".  Or, in the case of an Extra Class 
amateur licensee, it's being 
an "old salt" and not knowing how to navigate by the stars.

Incentive and no-code licensing has done nothing to improve our ranks.  It 
also hasn't delivered on the 
promise to swell those ranks.  We must continue the tradition of being a 
brotherhood (use the term 
generically).  Newbies must need Elmers to introduce them to the precious 
traditions of ham radio.  

Let's keep that concept that we're a brotherhood foremost in our minds.

73, Jim K5HO

-----------------
In a message dated 4/10/2005 5:04:52 PM Central Standard Time, 
tentec-request at contesting.com writes:


> I wouldn't presume to tell others what subjects to talk about or not talk
> about, I just solve my problems without complaining or attempting to make
> anybody else conform to my idea of what is acceptible or not to discuss.
> It's an American principle of Liberty and I am compelled as an American to
> defend it.  Freedom to speak freely.  I will never outgrow it, nor will I be
> silenced.  And I will not stand by while someone else is silenced.  It's in
> my American red blood.  If I could be sent overseas to defend it, I can
> surely stand right here and do the same.   <snip>
> 
> As far as CW goes, it's a major part of the hobby for me, and one of the
> reasons I still have Ten-Tec rigs with their legendary QSK on CW in my
> shack.  If they outlawed CW, I'd probably get rid of my Ten-Tec rigs with
> their legendary QSK on CW.
> 
> I'd certainly spend alot less time enjoying ham radio.
> 
> Ten-Tec and CW.  They go together like peanut butter and jelly.
> 
> For heaven's sake, indeed.
> 
> PEACE
> Scott
>