[BCVHFA] LET THE JOKES BEGIN

[K8CM]

LET THE JOKES BEGIN
By Joe Phillips, K8QOE
President

          Now we have a date - February 23 - when CW will no longer 
be required for any ham radio license.
          Now every local Jay Leno wannabe, from Covington to 
Hamilton, will have his or her version of the "death of ham 
radio."  Insert canned laughter here.
          One of the best kept secrets of this issue, since the early 
90s when first proposed a no-code license, is that this was a popular 
idea gaining momentum. By now over 80 per cent of the current hams 
favor elimination of the code. Even CW advocates do. They didn't stop 
loving Morse code; they just want the issue to go away.
          The Leno pundits on code are not impressed with the notion 
that Morse code will survive - maybe prosper - even after it is no 
longer a forced requirement. They just see this as final evidence 
that the hobby is deteriorating - their coded word for new modes 
coming into the hobby "is not really ham radio and the digital people 
are not really hams."
          If you were in Middletown last month at the Southwest Ohio 
Digital Symposium, you would see digital modes being discussed by ham 
radio operators who were actually smiling and enjoying themselves. 
Want bigger smiles? Watch a current Fox hunt with those youngsters 
walking around with DFers and metal tape measures for antennas.
          Funny but I've been a ham for 48 years and this "they're 
not real hams" issue keeps popping up. In 1959 I remember as a novice 
hearing from the AM advocates that "single side band was the 
ruination of ham radio."
          Or the short version - "SSB operators are not really hams." 
By the way, how is that working out?
_____________________________________________

Joe Phillips, K8QOE
Ohio Section Manager
American Radio Relay League
     2800 Jupiter Drive
     Fairfield, Ohio 45014
E-mail: k8qoe at arrl.org
E-mail: jphillips at arrl.org
Home: 513-874-0006
Pager: 513-971-5048

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Reprinted with permission

73  <>  Carl