[Fists] Crank Up the Garbage Disposal

[Jeff Davis]

* Wt8r@aol.com <Wt8r@aol.com> [2003-08-29 19:26]:
> 
> "The Amateur Service community suffers from the loss to its ranks of a
> large number of potentially excellent operators who are turned away
> because of the CW requirement," the NCVEC petition said.

Yes, it's complete rubbish.

If we had $10 for every generalization in this document, we could throw
one humdinger of a 'Fred Maia Roast'...

"provides a barrier (Morse testing) to otherwise qualified individuals"

"there can be no doubt that the Morse code proficiency requirements have
constituted an unnecessary and artificial impediment ... for many
potential and existing amateurs"

"It appears that the reason many (no-code) Technician amateurs are not
upgrading to license classes that require telegraphy suggests that the
Morse code requirement may be a significant barrier"

"the taking of a telegraphy is an unnecessary burden on the applicant.
Experience has shown that it is more often than not a very stressful
experience for the examinee"

"Most applicants, once they pass the exam NEVER use the mode on the
amateur airwaves"

"it must be acquired by rote memorization of the character meanings of
some 43 combinations of audible dots and dashes"

"the lack of interest in CW has turned many prospective amateur
operators away from the Amateur service"

The best I can tell, not a single, fact has been presented in this
petition. There are lots of words, but none of them are backed up
with data. Exactly HOW many prospective amateur operators have not
joined the hobby due to the CW requirement? I'd like a number not words
like, " a lot" and "many", and "there can be no doubt". 

My personal favorite is the one about the CW testing causing the
applicant "stress". How often in life do we have to take a test and not
experience some "stress".

Maia has made a living out of selling amateur exam training materials 
where rote memorization is all that is required to get a ticket. And yet
he thinks that the memorization of "43 combinations of audible dots and
dashes" is too much to ask?

Let's be clear as to what the NCVEC petition is all about ... it is
authored by Fred Maia of the W5YI Group. They sell training materials
for a PROFIT. If new people don't enter the hobby or upgrade, the W5YI
Group doesn't make money. So they believe that if the entry is made
dirt simple, that hundreds of thousands of new amateurs will BUY their
training materials and enter the hobby.

This is of course, faulty reasoning as it just won't work, but they
intend to give it a try and we won't likely see any vendor or other
organization that stands to PROFIT from a large influx of new radio
amateurs oppose this movement.

And how's this for irony?

If BPL becomes widespread the HF amateur bands will be trashed ... but 
DSP technology available today has the abilitiy to filter most of that 
noise out--the ironic part? It only works well with digital modes, 
including CW.

We may very well see the code requirment go away, but at the sametime, 
it might be the end of 'phone' communication on the HF bands.

So while Billy may not be able to read or write, he could actually get
his Amateur Extra class license--but he still won't be able to
communicate on HF unless he learns the code....

Old HP Maxim has got to be chuckling himself silly over this nonsense!

73,
-- 
Jeff, KE9V