[CW] Leave no ham behind

[Pedro J. Santa]

Really?  Then great, but then...

73 KP3X..




> Great, more self-rightousness
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "K0HB " <k-zero-hb at earthlink.net>
> To: "CW Reflector" <cw at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 1:33 AM
> Subject: RE: [CW] Leave no ham behind
> 
> 
>> 
>> 
>>           --   THE LAST AMATEUR RADIO OPERATOR   -- 
>> 
>> 
>>      It was a warm sunny day, with just a slight breeze.  Joe 
>> squinted at the top of his tower, admiring the five-element 20 
>> meter monobander he had built the previous winter.  It was an 
>> imposing sight, yet had never been used. 
>> 
>>      Yes, never been used, because you see, Joe was the last ham. 
>> 
>>      Joe never intended to be the last ham, but it worked out 
>> that way.  He thought back to how it had all started in the 80's 
>> when the FCC created the no-code Tech license.  Joe considered 
>> that action the biggest blunder any government agency had ever 
>> perpetrated on the citizens of the United States of America. 
>> 
>>      "Just think of it," Joe had remarked, "an amateur radio 
>> license with no Morse code requirements!  It will mean ruin for 
>> us all!"  Joe ignored the fact that the no-code license brought 
>> new blood into the hobby after the amateur ranks had been 
>> shrinking for many years.  He refused to notice that after the 
>> FCC created this new license category, the number of active hams 
>> increased at a dizzying rate. 
>> 
>>      Joe hated no-code hams.  He wouldn't accept the no-code 
>> license as just another way of entering Amateur ranks, and 
>> refused to acknowledge that many no-coders upgrade to higher- 
>> class licenses.  No explanation was good enough for Joe. 
>> 
>>      Joe and some like-minded cronies hung out on the local 
>> repeater, where they expounded at length their belief that the 
>> new hams are somehow less than human.  They even suggested that 
>> the way to clean up the ham bands was to get rid of all 2-by-3 
>> calls.  They joked that everyone ought to own a no-code Tech. 
>> When new operators dared talk to Joe or his buddies, they found 
>> themselves humbled, scolded, and scorned. 
>> 
>>      In his zeal to control "his" airwaves, Joe monitored the 
>> local repeater with a stop-watch, to make sure interlopers 
>> "ID'ed" on time.  If they went a little over, he gave them a 
>> tongue-lashing.  He even harassed them when they operated 
>> perfectly, just to make sure they knew they weren't welcome. 
>> 
>>      Of course, Joe never gave his callsign when he did this.  He 
>> regarded himself not as a jammer, but as a radio cop -- keeping 
>> the ham bands pure.  Soon others joined Joe's cause.  After all, 
>> "The new no-coders made two meters sound like CB!" 
>> 
>>      Slowly at first, then at a faster and faster rate, newcomers 
>> dropped out of the local clubs, then off the air completely.  Joe 
>> was ecstatic.  It was working; he was saving the airwaves. 
>> 
>>      The number of active hams dropped to far fewer than when he 
>> started.  He figured only the "real hams" were left, so he didn't 
>> mind when the Callbook shrunk to the size of a comic book.  But 
>> with so few hams, the political power of Amateur Radio 
>> diminished.  Soon ham spectrum shrunk, too. 
>> 
>>      That didn't bother Joe; he cared only about 2 and 20 meters. 
>> He thought it was funny when the FCC auctioned many VHF and UHF 
>> bands, "those no-coder hangouts," to commercial interests. 
>> 
>>      Finally, citing "no further need for an Amateur 
>> license category," the FCC stopped issuing new licenses.  Before 
>> long, Joe and his buddies were the only hams left.  But that was 
>> fine.  After all, they all got their licenses back when hams took 
>> tests at FCC offices, and not at one of those VEC jokes that 
>> allowed an applicant to take a test here or there. 
>> 
>>      Joe and his cronies spent long hours ragchewing on 20, 
>> bragging about how good things were.  Occasionally they paused, 
>> but only to note when one of their clan became a "silent key." 
>> 
>>      Then, one day, Joe called CQ on twenty meters and got no 
>> reply.  He tried again the next day with the same result.  He 
>> kept trying for a week, but no one ever came back to him. 
>> Finally, he called one of his friends on the twisted pair, to set 
>> up a contact.  But, an elderly-sounding lady informed him 
>> that his friend was no longer among the living. 
>> 
>>      Joe paged through his old, dog-eared Callbook.  But he 
>> couldn't find a single listing of anyone he had worked recently. 
>> That's when he realized he was the only one left. 
>> 
>>      Joe had just started back toward the house when he suddenly 
>> tired.  He at down to rest on the grass.  He felt a squeezing 
>> pain in his chest, and his left arm ached.  He lay back. 
>> 
>>      His antenna, and clouds drifting by above it, were the last 
>> things he saw.  But Joe and his like-minded friends had lived 
>> long enough to accomplish their goal; 
>> 
>>                 THEY HAD CLEANED UP THE AIRWAVES! 
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> 
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