[Fists] Avalanche of license apps

[Jim Price]

Fred,

I had to think about your analogy of gourmet cooking and ham radio.  I think
that can be extended even further.  One can go to the grocery store and
pretty much buy any "meal" in a can or microwaveable package. There are many
"gourmet" meals prepared, frozen and ready to be nuked.  Quick and easy, and
it's really the same thing isn't it?  Why go to the trouble of picking up
fresh meat and produce, peeling and chopping it yourself?  Why worry about
the proper seasoning, appropriate mixtures and cooking temperatures when you
can just pull it out of the freezer and have it on your plate in 15-minutes?
It eats the same, doesn't it?  Anyone who has ever had fresh fish they just
caught, or vegetables grown in their own garden knows better.  Anyone who
has worked to develop a skill knows how sweet success can be.

Ham licenses have become microwavable TV dinners.  That's the society in
which we live.  That's all we have time for. As the no-code crowd likes to
point out, "times are changing".  Why yes they are, but there are still
those of us who enjoy a good meal, sails in the wind, a horseback ride, or
good CW in our headphones. 

Jim - N4ST

-----Original Message-----
From: fists-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:fists-bounces at mailman.qth.net]
On Behalf Of Fred Adsit
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 17:50
To: fists at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Fists] Avalanche of license apps

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>From the ARRL Letter, Mar 2, 2007:
"The avalanche of Amateur Radio license and license upgrade applications 
prompted by the FCC's elimination of Morse code as a licensing requirement 
is well under way with no end in sight. ARRL VEC Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM,

reports that paperwork from upward of 450 Amateur Radio exam sessions, most 
held since the new rules went into effect February 23, arrived this week, 
more than her department sees in a month under "normal" circumstances. The 
ARRL VEC has had to add personnel and schedule extended hours to keep up 
with the workload. <snip>
-----------------------------------------------

People are tripping over themselves stampeding to get, in effect, something 
that is next to free. The standards have fallen, never to rise again. All 
opinions I have read are fine, but in my opinion, ham radio will never 
regain the stature it once enjoyed, although those are not the words I am 
struggling to find. What we now have goes a LOT deeper than what results 
from becoming a bunch of appliance operators. We have allowed the ARRL and 
the FCC to sell us down the river. It is, at every age level and at every 
license level, symptomatic of what is wrong with the world we live in.

Too few - this organization included - have fought for maintenance of 
standards. We are reaping the consequences. I find life very much worth 
living. Just waking up each morning is exciting.  Ham radio has been a large

part of my life. That part of life is hardly worth bothering with, at this 
point. It's dinnertime. Good thing nobody has allowed the art of cooking 
great recipes to go to H in a handbasket.

Fred NY2V 

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