yba@mit-athena.ARPA (Mark H Levine) (07/22/84)
In regard to the no-code discussion, which I feel somewhat responsible for restimulating, I would like to indulge in patting you guys on the back a wee bit: In other news groups on this net, any discussion with this kind of emotional loading would have propagated to net.flame, net.general, and net.followup by now. I have also seen only one "personal attack" in the whole of the discussion. The quality of knowing how to communicate without abusing the medium seems to be the prime requisite for being a ham. All else is really just an attempt to express that in rules and requirements. And we never explicitly test for courtesy! I see we're still about evenly split on this network; I think it is because the combination of ham radio and computers selects some good minds (and naturally I feel this is demonstrated by coming out on my side of the argument :-)). The outcome for Morse code requirements will probably be the "test of time". I was listening to Hal Abelson a few nights ago in an after dinner talk; he mentioned seeing some quotes on an office door about education--he realted these to computers and education. The quotes were the collected ramblings of educators of the past discussing what was really NEEDED in the school curriculum. The progression included: "I think it is criminal to give these students slates--what will they do when they find they have to write in the middle of the woods and do not know how to prepare tree-bark?", "We cannot allow students to use pencils, as they will then lose the necessary skill for filling their pens with ink" and similar sayings. Like educators, I think we lose sight of just how technology driven our license requirements are. Morse is no more nor less important than the papyrus reed, the cuneiform tablet, or parchment. We do not require writers to study these because we can get by easier without them. We don't require engineering students to use a slide rule because calculators are faster and economically cheaper. We still have people who can and do use all of these. Radio has been with us for such a short time that we haven't really had time to see many technical revolutions. This disagreement by people, even loudly and irrationally, is the process by which we decide WHEN the time has come for a change. I guess it isn't time yet. I still cannot picture ham radio in the year 2025 as being involved with Morse code--more likely Huffman codes!) I guess we`ve done okay so far, and I'm willing to talk while I wait for the twelve year cycle. Meantime it's on to the satellite computer net. Whatever technology we use, let's just make sure to keep the spirit alive! WA2YBA -- yba%mit-heracles@mit-mc.ARPA UUCP: decvax!mit-athena!yba