[Elecraft] RE: Sad day

Thu Jul 21 14:31:48 EDT 2005

I have a 17 year old granddaughter who just before Dayton indicated she 
wanted to get her ham ticket. I told her about the no code license. She told 
me she had no desire to have that. She wanted to learn the code and take the 
Extra Exam.  I understand you have to take the Technician exam before you 
can take the General, is that right? Her mother and I went to Dayton and got 
the granddaughter the things she needed to start learning the theory. I made 
her a CD of K7QO's CW CD.
Paul Gates
K1  #0231
KX1 #1186
XG1
kd3jf at hotmail.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Kern" <james at kurtadler.com>
To: "'Craig Rairdin'" <craigr at laridian.com>; <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 12:20 PM
Subject: RE: [Elecraft] RE: Sad day

> Thinking about it,
>    I don't think dropping the code will make one bit of difference to CW. 
> I
> agree with Craig in that the guys that just squeak by the CW test most
> likely won't be found on the CW bands. The people who want to learn CW 
> will.
> 99% of my HF operating is in CW. I'm not on HF that often, but when I do
> it's almost always CW. I imagine there will be (at least in the beginning) 
> a
> flood of HF phone activity and then it will taper off back to 'normal' or 
> a
> little higher than normal afterwards.
>
> James Kern
> Network Administrator
> Kurt S. Adler, Inc.
> 1107 Broadway
> New York, NY 10010
> 212-924-0900 x222 (work)
> 212-807-0575 (fax)
> 908-451-6801 (cell)
> 800-209-7438 (pager)
> jkern at kurtadler.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Craig Rairdin
> Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 12:03 PM
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: RE: [Elecraft] RE: Sad day
>
>
> 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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