duntemann.wbst@sri-unix (12/06/82)
C'mon, guys, truth is getting bent here a little bit. I was in Japan on Xerox business in October of 1981, and I worked some 2M FM. It was always busy as hell, but the operators were snappy and unfailingly polite, both when speaking in Japanese to each other and in English to me. Now, I fled CB screaming into hamdom's sanity, and to call Japanese 2M a "CB band" is hazardously close to slander. There is absolutely no comparison. We here could, in fact, learn a thing or three about pushing traffic through a repeater from those guys. Secondly, this oft-repeated motif of CW saving the day when the dam breaks and washes the town away or when the boat's going down and sombody stepped on the mike or when the earthquake has toppled the power lines and all you can do is solder D cells to a transistor and tap wires together, I mean, Lordy, isn't that getting a little obtrusively Hollywood? Since when does public service begin and end with disaster communications? Does the world have to practically end before ham radio performs public service? I've done aa fair share of what I consider public service without sitting in the middle of a hurricane. Also, although I don't have any of my ham books at my elbow, I think there is a little more in the Intents and Purposes section of the Rules than simply Public Service. We also have an obligation to advance the state of the art. The two go hand-in-hand. Now, I asked this before but nobody picked it up. So let me reiterate: WHY do CW freaks always assume that a code-free license is a mortal attack on pounding brass? NOBODY in this argument has yet advocated a reduction of CW-only band space. NOBODY has advocated reducing the privileges of those who earned tickets by learning CW. So why in heaven's name has this issue generated so much heat? The code-free license advocates are putting forth a CHOICE. The CW defenders are insisting on a rigid, single path. I smell a month-old egg. (*Lest folk get suspicious, let me point out that I still use CW when it's appropriate. I built the ARRL's "Third-World" 20M CW station and I run it off solar cells on camping trips. I'll be as ready as anybody when a hurricane roars into Rochester NY. *) 73 and all that, Jeff Duntemann KB2JN
Stephany.WBST@sri-unix (12/07/82)
I understand that there are 4 million Japenese (maybe more now) that use 2 meters. Maybe the Japenese are a little more prudent than us. We have 300,000 licesed to use 2 meter (most don't) and that's becomming a mess. The basic problem is that people intereseted in the commuinication art should be Hams. People only interested in cummunication without leaning the art should be on CB bands, not ham bands. Remember, CBers have other frequencies besides 11 meters but never use them. These are for the people that want to talk and not lean skill. I also disagree that a Code-Free licese will spurn forth technical development. All atempts in this respect have failed, as I have stated. I also would like to point out that we have never had a genuinne disaster on a national scale in the US. For example, a complete failure of power generation in the US (oil cut off), or a large meteor hits ( it happens on the order of once every Hundred years that a few hundred or thousand square miles gets wiped out by one, we have been fortunate up to now), or an atomic war, or an invading Army etc.,etc. Improbable ? Maybe. The choice is not CW or not CW, the choice is a body of technically competent and operator competent Hams that can communicate under any conditions. CW is that competance required so that the operator can operate effectively under any foreseeable conditions. Incidently, the reason for the proposal of the Code-Free Licese is that the Reagn Administration wishes to stimulate the faltering economy by getting a lot of guys to buy Ham rigs. Reagan originally tried to stimulate business by opening all public lands to anyone who could make a buck off of it, reduce taxes to the righ below what taxes were for them 10 years ago while giving the middle class a "tax break" and then raising Social Security so they are mostly paying more. This produced a depression. We are still waiting for the benifits. If the Ham bands open and we have another CB craze then Japan will benifit, not the US. In the last CB craze 95% of the equipment was manufactured in Japan. No import tax because the senate did not want to offend Japan because the farmers were selling them wheat and cotton. So we gave them our electronics industry. The purpose of the FCC introducing code-free liceses has nothing to do with improving the Ham service. So who really benifits from a code Free licese. I don't know. Does anyone ?? Joe 7 Dec. 1982 11:48 am EST (Tuesday)
fayette.wbst@sri-unix (12/07/82)
Jeff BRAVO!!!!!!!!! I like your style I mean that has to be the most lucid responses I have read yet. TNX for your thoughts Mike wb2fsi
tan (12/08/82)
The code requirment is fine & dandy for you people out there that have already suffered, but as an EE I'm interested in the technical challenge of HAM, and am not really interested in being forced to learn code. If I can teach a uP to send/receive morse code isn't that enough ??? Granted, it would not be easy to have people do techincal projects instead of code, but learning code ... By the way, I am trying to learn code !!!! I bought a Heathkit Novice course, and have already learned most of the technical/liscensing (bullxxxt), the code ... ...so far I've learned 'E' & 'T', but 'A' & 'N' confuse me ... ...all this just to get on a packet switching network ...