[ARC5] And then there were none

[arc5 at ix.netcom.com]

IMHO, VMMV etc.The bottom line: It's a short-sighted waste of a working system.  That Congress critters get new graft opportunities every time a technology is retired by Congressional edict and a new one is brought online is no coincidence. Never underestimate congressmen's and Senator's ability to skim some cream off of any pot, and the new equipment manufacturers always make sure there's plenty of new pots coming down the pipeline.  Who remembers the CB boom in the 70s that had his throat cut by Congress when they suddenly commanded- through their FCC minions- that all 23 Channel radios cease and everybody buy brand-new 40 channel radios? Or more recently, the federal edict to switch from 5K FM channels to 2.5 KC, requiring every radio in the field be thrown in the trash and brand new radios be bought. Our people had to gather up all those radios and smash them before we threw them in the dump.You don't honestly believe there was a valid technical reason for those changes? A lot of cream was skimmed from those two.There is no downside to leaving the NDB system online. In the big picture, the maintenance costs and trouble could be minimal, but are artificially inflated by federal edict. We can't reallocate the spectrum to something we need, because other countries are continuing to use NDBs and will for the foreseeable future. So all we can do is empty it of our NDBs and leave it sitting there empty.One of the things I've always admired about the Russian character is their take on such as this. They don't destroy their systems unless there's an over-riding need to do so.  During my time working on one of Uncle Sam's reservations, we did a couple of joint projects with the Soviets. They brought their own equipment over. One of the things that I found memorable was a trailer they used to haul their equipment. This trailer was obviously a new manufacture, but it looked like it had been carved out of granite by Fred Flintstone; like it had been built for World War One. However, it did the job they needed and did it well. The technical and sensing equipment which was being hauled by that trailer was built to an amazing standard. Our American arrogance took a whacking because some of their gear worked better than ours. If the task needed the very latest cutting-edge technology, they built it and used it.  They didn't spend money or time building a GPS-controlled Artificial Intelligence pencil to write reports about it.The point is that there was no valid reason to spend money to destroy that trailer and build some modern GPS-controlled-steering and computer-controlled axles, directed by artificial intelligence or any other such bullcrap. They needed to carry delicate equipment up into the mountains safely and it did that job splendidly. So why on Earth should one destroy it?   If we have a valid need for a more complex trailer, we'll build one. But we don't need to destroy the old one. Most of the time the old one will work just fine. Complexity for the sake of complexity might make us feel like a brainiac, but in a world with limited resources and time, it's actually dumb.I do not say that we should not have GPS; of course not.  GPS has done wonders for all facets of society. What I'm saying is that the old system works, we don't have to rebuild it, we gain nothing from destroying it other than money in the pockets of manufacturers  and politicians.   It's there in case somebody is smarter than us and knows how to turn GPS off. And guess what? That smart guy seems to come-along regularly to up-end all of our arrogant suppositions.GL OM ES 73 DE Dave AB5S
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/arc5/attachments/20191207/889e72d5/attachment-0001.html>