[Elecraft] RE: Sad day

[Craig Rairdin]

I sympathize with you, and certainly welcome your contributions to the hobby and to your local emergency services organizations (as if my "welcome" were necessary or even important).

On the other hand, there are concepts on the written test that seemed like garbage to me no matter how much I studied. I have a computer science degree with lots of advanced math and engineering but some of the formulae and algorithms required for the Extra exam just leave me scratching my head.

So my question is, should a bunch of us be able to get together and ask that all the technical requirements for ham licenses be dropped just because it's hard? That's what this "no code" thing sounds like to me. To me dropping the code and only having a written test is philosophically no different than dropping the written test and keeping the code.

In the end, the hobby is changing. Other countries have dropped the code requirement. We should follow suit. It sounds like the tests have been steadily getting easier over the last 100 years. This is just the next step.

As a CW-only, HF-only ham, I think this seems more ominous and wrong-headed to me than it does to others. I don't think other points of view are invalid, though. Just trying to make my opinions known. The guys who squeak by on a CW test just for the test's sake are probably never going to show up in the CW bands anyway so it may be a net zero loss for the practice of CW.

I think I'll stop posting on this subject now. :-)

Craig


----Original Message----
From: DAN ABBOTT <DWAGABBOTT at MSN.COM>
Sent: 07/21/05 10:41 AM
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] RE: Sad day
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I have been reading the comments about the possibility of dropping the requirement for CW in order to advance your license. I have great respect for those who have passed the code test and one day I would like to be able to use CW, but it will take a converter and keyboard to accomplish the task. Let me explain.
I built my K2/100 while trying to learn the code to achieve my General license [ it's been three months now] with absolutely no success, my K2 is now only a listening device. I have used Ham University and Your Introduction to Morse Code from ARRL with no success. If your familiar with the courses, I get to the letter L and when you add all the other letters to the sentence it sounds like garbage to me. 
I guess my question is, does it make you less of an operator not knowing CW? I have an EE degree, so there is no problem with the concepts and I am the Resources Coordinator for ARES/RACES for my county.
When the FCC dropped the requirement for CW, that opened the door for me to be come a HAM and be able to do the Emergency work I do now. So why should it stop me from expanding and being of even more use to the community?

73's

Dan N7DWA  K2/100 # 4775    
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