[Elecraft] OT: Some "No Code" background

[Joe Subich, W4TV]

Given that amateur radio in the US is now completely "no code" - there
is no need to become proficient even for an Amateur Extra class license
- the early "no code" steps were a Faustian bargain just as the fiction
of "semi-automatic control" for digital operations was a Faustian
bargain.

As much as it pains me to say, we would arguably be better off with
fewer licensees and maintaining a reasonable standard for entry.  There
is no credible evidence that amateurs can continue to advance the state
of the art and evidence to the contrary that the current license base
represents a trained pool of operators.  The quality of operators and
the behavior heard on the air today is abhorrent when judged by the
standards of 15 years ago.

Perhaps it is time to review the basis and purpose behind amateur radio
and move to a "national park" model.  That is a place for those who
have proven that they have the necessary skills to continue to practice
those "ancient" and no longer commercially viable skills.  Consider it
the "primitive" areas of the National Parks

73,

    ... Joe, W4TV

On 8/1/2016 5:18 PM, Ken G Kopp wrote:
> I got one of the 1st Novice licenses issued ... in September, 1951.  Took
> the exam in Oklahoma City, where the FCC came only once per year.  My
> "Elmer" was a retired Navy CW op and I was taught well.  Long ago I was a
> commercial shipboard RO on a NOAA vessel.
>
> I'm one of the six people who created the "no code" license.  In what I
> consider one of the greatest honors in my Amateur Radio ... I -detest- the
> name "ham" ... career the ARRL appointed me as one of the six members of
> their No Code Study Committee.  BTW, each of us were / are die-hard CW
> operators.
>
> We we --told-- by the FCC that we would be getting some form of codeless
> licensing and we should come up with something that most could live with.
> Lots of "details" were covered over a year and a half of meetings,
> conference calls, etc.
>
> I still have a large box of pro and con correspondence in the attic.  The
> number of letters is about equally divided.
>
> An example of the results ... yesterday I had a KE0 proudly tell me he'd
> just passed his "expert" license, and, his radio emitted a multi-tone CB
> "roger beep" each time he unkeyed his microphone.
>
> Without the "no code" license we most likely wouldn't have Amateur Radio
> with the record 750K licenses we have today, and there's political "safety
> in numbers".
>
> Please, let's not start a thread on the subject.  I just thought some
> "first person" input would be of interest.
>
> 73
>
> Ken Kopp - K0PP
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