[TowerTalk] ARRL Proposes License Changes ...

[DavidC]

Tod:

   I have little quarrel with your proposed licensing changes, since they
are just shuffling the chairs on the Titanic, as as it were ... thus
essentially token in nature.

   It seems to me that there is no measurement of knowledge, just
memorization, in the current system, so this doesn't address the issue of
dumbed-down Hams.

   This also doesn't address the issue of the utterly failed enforcement of
rules on the air now -- and if there aren't any teeth in enforcement there
will be increased anarchy on the bands (K1MAN and others broadcasting on
75m, jammers on top of the emergency net on 14.300, etc.  It doesn't take a
technical Sherlock Holmes to identify and convict these folks -- ignoring
them teaches disrespect for the law to all.)

   There is a critical threshold where two things will happen, the first is
where the technically competent and civilized Hams will abandon the hobby
because the incompetent and uncivilized will render the bands intolerable,
the second is that when things get bad enough the commercial interests will
flex the necessary muscle and buy band segments and sell access -- and
those who pay for access will see to it that troublemakers are quickly
prosecuted -- and the hobby will cost us all big bucks and more lost
freedoms.

   The future of the hobby is not in tinkering with licensing, it is in
assuring that licenses only go to those who genuinely understand the rules
and technology, and in enforcement so that those who are licensed are
protected against those who would prevent them from enjoying the hobby.

   If this is about money, then let's just surrender all of 10 meters to CB
and let the troublemakers buy tons of equipment with unlimited power (they
do that now on 11m without consequences) and spread out there.  Then they
will be without excuse to invade the other bands and law enforcement can
justifiably come down big time on anyone who escapes the 10-11 meter
asylum!  :-)

   This way the manufacturers will have all of that (now illegitimate)
business they count on for cash flow, and we don't have to water down the
hobby just to artificially puff up the Ham numbers.

   Now I've done it ... please be gentle folks!

73, DavidC  AA1FA

----------
> From: Tod Olson <tao@skypoint.com>
> To: K4SB <k4sb@mindspring.com>
> Cc: _TowerTalk <towertalk@contesting.com>; _DX <DX@ve7tcp.ampr.org>;
_Contest <contest@contesting.com>
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] ARRL Proposes License Changes ...
> Date: Monday, July 20, 1998 11:45 PM
> 
> 
> K4SB said,
> 
> <Sure, they make questions and answers which are known beforehand
> more <difficult. Just how much does it take to memorize an answer
> to something
> <you read of which you have absolutely no comprehension.
> 
> <First step is to learn which 9 of the 15 voted for this
> aberration.
> 
> 
> 
> The Meeting minutes will tell you. Look at the last motion but
> one.
> 
> To save you and the members of my Division effort, I voted
> against it in the original vote and for it when the motion was
> reconsidered. At that point it was the decision of the majority
> of the Board and the reconsideration offered an opportunity to
> show acceptance and support from more than a simple majority.
> 
> I have been attending ARRL Board meetings since 1976 and this was
> the most difficult one I can recall. Every Director struggled to
> resolve the issues and arrive at a decision which they believed
> to be the best for the future of amateur radio.
> 
> One of the Laws of Life is:
> 
> "There are no solutions, only different sets of problems; we
> select the set of problems we think we can best deal with".
> 
> Tod Olson, K0TO
> ARRL Director Dakota Division
> 
> 
> 
> 
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