[Elecraft] Sad day for amateur radio

[Buddy Brannan]

Jeez. I can't believe I'm commenting on this (or maybe I can?) But  
before Eric comes in and closes down this thread as OT, here goes.

First, I think I'd've been happier if the 5 WPM requirement was still  
in place for Extra, at least. I won't lose any sleep over the fact  
that it probably won't be in several months' time, however.

See, maybe I'm mellowing, or maybe I've actually learned something  
useful in my mere 32 years on the big blue marble, but I don't, as I  
did at one time in my life, think that ham radio's gonna go to hell  
in a handbasket (what's a handbasket, anyway?)

I remember when the first code-free licenses came down. Actually, I  
remember the heated debates leading up to it happening...of course,  
not the first ones, because I haven't been around that long, but the  
ones around 1989-90. I remember being vehemently opposed to the idea.  
Never mind that I was a happy product of Novice Enhancement; if I  
wasn't, I'd've got a ham license anyway--because it was important to  
me to get one, and I'd've done the required work to do it regardless.  
I remember studying a bunch of stuff and resolving that I'd get that  
license, even if I did have to learn morse, which I'd naturally never  
use but would learn because I had to. I remember being very  
disappointed when I learned that not only was a code-free license  
going to be available, but that they'd get full VHF and up  
privileges, never mind that what they got really had absolutely no  
bearing on my life or operating.

Then, Valentine's Day came and went; I met new local hams; many were  
excellent operators; many didn't pass a code test. I met some other  
guys (then and before) who passed all the same tests I did and acted  
like children. Well, actually, they were worse. Anyone know the  
Southern White Racists and Biggots Net on 3853? :) And most  
importantly, the world didn't come crashing down round my ears.  
Course, a lot of supposedly great ops who passed that all-important  
test spewed venom all over creation about how ham radio was now going  
to be wall-to-wall CB, but it's a funny thing...it never really  
happened, at least not where I lived or visited, no worse, anyway,  
than it had been before.

Since that first great big change, I've taken the other changes a lot  
more easily. Maybe I grew up, or maybe I just decided that it really  
didn't matter and it was all down to us regardless of the rule.s  
Maybe I decided to live and let live. Would I rather that things  
didn't change so much and that the license structure and testing was  
more similar to how it was when I got my test? I s'pose; I used to  
tell people that if I was giving tests that I'd still give a sending  
test, even though I myself never had to take one. But today, I think  
maybe all this has more to do with the human condition of not liking  
change than anything else, really. Could I have passed the Extra from  
1970? Sure, but it would definitely have taken a lot more work on my  
part to do it. Same with Advanced. I'm sure to some, I'd be an Extra  
Light because my test was multiple guess, from a published question  
pool, and no way in Hades I could do a bunch of the technical stuff  
without a lot of hand-holding to learn it. Could I have passed a 1930- 
something Class A test? Not in this lifetime, I'm pretty sure; again,  
not without a lot of help, anyway. But that's the best part of this  
hobby: the help's there for the asking. And if that goes away because  
we're all crying about how these new guys don't have to do what we  
did, well then, ham radio really will be dead. Then, we really will  
be those old duffers who just sit in our basements talking to the  
aliens.

So what's my point? I probably had one when I started, but it's  
gotten lost somewhere.

Vy 73,
Buddy, KB5ELV (a proud know-code Extra who thought the written tests  
were harder)