karn@allegra.UUCP (12/15/83)
The FCC today abandoned its proposal to create a code-free amateur license. The vote was unanimous despite the fact that the original vote in January to propose the license was also unanimous. The original chief of the Private Radio Bureau, James McKinney, whose staff wrote the no-code proposal is now the head of the Mass Media Bureau and his successor, Robert Foosaner, made the recommendation that the commission drop the proposal, citing 5,000 comments that ran 20:1 against. Personal comment: it does appear that, for better or worse, the FCC weighs comments primarily on volume rather than on substantive arguments. Sad. Phil