[CW] Use of AR
Richard
cwmcode at yahoo.ca
Mon Feb 8 16:27:14 EST 2010
To me this little piece is as specious now as when it was first put out on the web......an exaggeration of reality and does nothing to foster further good will or interest in radio. On some forays into the U.S. I would say that the comparison of SOME repeater activity to the antics on 11 metrers is quite accurate. Like it or not any skill that enhances a ham's communication capability does in fact make him/her a more well rounded operator and YES, I am talking about CW!! All the posturing and cute allegorical stories dont change this fact....
Rick VE3MFN
--- On Mon, 2/8/10, Ed Williams <edwill1 at verizon.net> wrote:
From: Ed Williams <edwill1 at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [CW] Use of AR
To: "CW Reflector" <cw at mailman.qth.net>
Received: Monday, February 8, 2010, 3:13 PM
Very well put Hans, Ed Williams, K5POC
----- Original Message -----
From: "Radio K0HB" <kzerohb at gmail.com>
To: "SX-25" <telegrapher at hotmail.com>; <CW at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, February 07, 2010 10:45 PM
Subject: Re: [CW] Use of AR
>
>
>> Before the days of the give-away ham licenses,
>> hams wanted to conform. Figuratively, those achieving a license
>> wanted to "wear pink or black." It mattered not that we were
>> not commercial or military operators; but it mattered.
>> We wanted our performance to comply with the established
>> and respected practices and traditions of this great institution.
>> This meant sending good code, taking the time to learn the
>> correct protocols and prosigns BEFORE GETTING ON THE AIR
>> and not accepting ignorance and poor habits with insipid
>> acquiescence so commonplace today.
>
> -- 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. 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!
>
>
> 73, de Hans, K0HB
> --
> "Just a boy and his radio"
> --
> Proud Member of:
> A1-Operator Club - http://www.arrl.org/awards/a1-op/
> MWA - http://www.W0AA.org
> TCDXA - http://www.tcdxa.org
> CADXA - http://www.cadxa.org
> CWOps - http://www.cwops.org
> SOC - http://www.qsl.net/soc
>
>
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