[CW] ARRL Divisions' Poll

[scott mcmullen]

1. ARRL member? Yes/No - yes, arrl life member
2. ARRL Division or your state if you don't know the
Div. - west gulf division
3. Where you polled by the Div. Director? Yes/No
- my division director sent an email out soliciting
member's opinions. i sent him mine, and received a
courteous reply from him. 

i think the arrl solicits your email address when 
you sign up for a login on the arrl web page. if you
haven't done this, then your division director may
not have your email address.

input from members was solicited in qst. see the 
'happenings' column, december 2003 issue, page
67, in the 'fcc news' column, the article entitled,
'fcc invites input on additional morse code related
petitions'.

'ARRL members are encouraged to comment via their
directors (see p 15 of any recent issue of qst).'

what i found kind of grating was a comment in that
same article by one of the arrl directors.

"The CW issue, as expected, is a very gut wrenching
issue for many hams," observed ARRL Great Lakes
Director Jim Weaver, K8JE. "Sometimes we mortals let
issues to which we have emotional ties get out of
perspective."

to me, this director had already made up his mind
that anyone advocating retention of the cw testing
requirement was doing so based on their "emotions",
discounting the possibility that anyone could 
*possibly* have a thoughtful, reasoned, or 
insightful basis for advocating retention of
demonstrated cw proficiency as part of the 
licensing process. that irked the heck out me. 
!!now!! i'm emotional. 

GGGRRRrrrr!!

scott nj0e
arrl life member


=====
Scott McMullen, NJ0E
http://www.geocities.com/scottamcmullen
scottamcmullen@yahoo.com
Dripping Springs, Texas

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