[ETS/PARC List] FW: [RVRC] Why we have 'amateur radio' today...

[drew Moore]

Subject: [RVRC] Why we have 'amateur radio' today...

As most of you RVRC members know, I am a staunch supporter of The ARRL.  For
many very obvious reasons, primarily, because we owe the fact that we have
this powerful 'voice' to support and advance amateur radio in Washington,
D.C. and at The ITU in Geneva.

A short 'read' here will demonstrate that The ARRL is credited with saving
amateur radio from total elimination in 1919!

Here is a short copy from the first QST MAGAZINE following WW I and the
lifting of amateur radio prohibition.  

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April, 1919

"Letters received from all over the world indicate that a lot of fellows
have only recently heard of the great Radio Bill that was introduced in
Congress in December last, and which would have entirely eliminated Amateur
Radio in the United States.
..............
The result was certainly typical of the way we A.R.R.L. people do things.
Washington was simply flooded with letters and telegrams of protest.

    The Board of Direction sent Mr. Maxim (Hiram Percy Maxim; ed) our
President, down to Washington to appear at the hearing against the bill, and
he with others did such a good job that the HOUSE COMMITTEE on MERCHANT
MARINE and FISHERIES, declined to report the bill out of Committee.  In
other words, the bill was absolutely killed. In our humble opinion one of
the most serious of the fatal wounds given the bill was the public
indignation administered by the attempt to eliminate amateur radio.

    We amateurs were able to establish the fact that we were one of the
greatest assets the country possessed when the Great War broke out.  The
Bill was primarily intended to make over to the Navy Department, the
exclusive ownership and control of all radio in the United States, but the
Board of Direction of our A.R.R.L. decided that this part of the bill was no
concern of theirs, and therefore, they would make no comment upon it.  But
the ATTEMPT TO ELIMINATE THE AMATEUR was very positively a concern of
theirs, and they went to it with a will.  It is thought by some, that the
Bill would have gone through had it not been for the attempt to eliminate
the amateur.

    The killing of the Bill leaves amateur radio under the old and very good
law of 1913, and if the Navy Department relinquish their control with the
passing of the state of war and the condition of ''public peril'', we shall
go back to our old and much respected boss, the Department of Commerce.''

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I encourage all RVRC members who have not yet joined ARRL in support of our
beloved hobby and endeavor to join ARRL. Currently there are major battles
ensuing over RF interference issues and ''spectrum reassignments along with
international negotiations for spectrum that need our support lest we lose
it.
The ARRL also affords members much valued assistance in technical matters,
operating matters, antenna restrictions, training and education among other
valued benefits.

73,
Marv, K2VHW
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