elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green) (08/24/87)
in article <77@splut.UUCP>, jay@splut.UUCP (Jay Maynard) says: > In article <2788@hoptoad.uucp>, gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes: > > ) > Pressure to end > ) > the Morse requirement is growing even among hams. Also, some influential > ) > people within the FCC are beginning to say publicly that some of the > ) > restrictions now put on hams (particularly the ones on message content) are > ) > unrealistic and unreasonable. > The Morse Code objection is a red herring. Anyone can, with a minimal amount > of study, learn the code. Are you trying to suggest that computer types > aren't intelligent enough to do so? A couple of local hams tried getting me into their hobby by waving the red flag of packet radio before my eyes. One shoved his ARRL handbook upon me, which I dutifully read. No big problem there, I like learning new and useful things (the power supply designs alone were worth the read). Then another one took me to the local hamfest (where I got a big mungo heatsink for a power supply I was building :-), and forced one of those introductory kits upon me, you know, the one with the Morse code tape in it. I read the first few pages, and listened to a few beeps, and then I said, "Why the hell am I sitting here listening to a damn tape beeping at me, when I could be doing something useful?!" Needless to say, I never did "get my ticket"... sure, it's only a few hours, but I'm a busy person, and if something that seems a waste of time comes along, there's 50 dozen other things to do tacked onto my bulletin board (hoards of little yellow notes, covered with suggestions, people I need to call, etc). The point: technical information is useful, even though I'm a software guy. About the only people who'd complain about having to learn some technical info, would be dweebs who don't belong on the airwaves anyhow. But listening to beeps? I can think of better things to do with my time and money. Like, logging onto a USENET machine instead. And instead of spending a few hundred bucks on a used transciever and antenna, getting me a better printer, or that new software package that just came out, or.... Anyhow, I guess what I'm trying to say is that ham radio has gotten a bad image amongst todays techies. They don't see the old '50s image of the electronics wizard ham enthusiast cobbling up his own machine with spare parts and advancing the state of the art. Instead, they see basically upscale CB radio operators, who spend all these jillions of dollars just to beep at one another and "ragchew" all day, a waste of time and money. Until ham radio regains a reputation for technological prowness and sheds the waste-of-time-and-money reputation, the ranks of amateur radio operators will continue to dwindle. I'm sure you ham folks can think of some good things about Morse code (like "well, it's as not sensitive to conditions as voice transmission, and in event of nuclear warfare, reception would be shot to hell, so we need to know Morse to communicate when the end of the world comes"). But to the average Joe Techie on the street, the kind of person you'd want to attract (as vs. the CB radio rejects), he sees no use in it -- all he sees is yet another way of wasting his time, and is immediately and permenantly turned off to ham radio. All that blather about ragchewing certificates and talk-to-all-this-and-that certificates and such, only confirms his suspicions. Raising potted plants seems more educational and exciting as a hobby, and cheaper, too. After all, who the f*ck cares if I talked to all 50 contenients and 99 foreign countries and 15 planets all on a tenth of a milliwatt of power! -- Eric Green elg%usl.CSNET Ollie North for President: {cbosgd,ihnp4}!killer!elg A man we can believe (in). Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191 Lafayette, LA 70509 BBS phone #: 318-984-3854 300/1200 baud
fyl@ssc.UUCP (Phil Hughes) (08/27/87)
In article <1398@killer.UUCP>, elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green) writes: > in article <77@splut.UUCP>, jay@splut.UUCP (Jay Maynard) says: > ... and forced one of those introductory kits upon me, > you know, the one with the Morse code tape in it. I read the first few pages, > and listened to a few beeps, and then I said, "Why the hell am I sitting here > listening to a damn tape beeping at me, when I could be doing something > useful?!" Can't argue with you. I was interested in getting my ticket from about age 10. I got my technician ticket in high school because you are forced to waste your time anyway so why not take a class where you can waste it learing morse code. I then got back to my interest, electronics. I got to build transmitters and remote base stations and test them out because I now had my ticket. Did I ever use morse code? No. Did I learn about electronics and further the state of the art? Yes and I hope so. Next came college and 4 more wasted years. Sure enough, a class where you got a B if you had a technician license by the end of the class, A if you got a general or higher. As I already qualified for a B if I didn't even attend class (really, I checked it out) I decided to take the class time and try for an A. I got an advanced ticket and 4 units of upper division A. In the 20 years since that time I have built a lot of stuff, learned a lot and, um, morse code, what's that? -- Phil Hughes, SSC, Inc. P.O. Box 55549, +----------------+ Seattle, WA 98155 (206)FOR-UNIX | NO CONTRA AID! | ...!uw-beaver!tikal!ssc!fyl +----------------+