[GreenKeys] RTTY HF technician license? Not so fast.

[wa2hwj at att.net]

Eugene,
The rules have tightened up over the years just as the entry-level requirements have been lightened. I guess there's a ying-and-yang for everything. While the Greenkeys list is all about TTY, you should remember that there's a whole lot more to Ham Radio.  An example: my uncle was a fabulous carpenter and I admired him ever since I've known him. He was always interested in my Ham Radio when I first got my ticket and one day proudly told me that he has a Ham Radio in his car. Turns out he was operating a Yeasu ham rig on CB!! Well, I went through the roof and told him that he's cheating and the he should become a real ham. He studied for his Novice and passed with glowing colors...the code was 5 wpm and he was 55 years old at the time. He became a CW fanatic and amassed more QSL cards in one year than I have collected in my 45 years as a Ham. He then got his General and I set him up on RTTY. He worked all states and over 100 countries on RTTY with a Model 28ASR and a brand new Dovetron (!), eventually moving up to the HAL electronic gear. In all of this, he could hardly figure out how to replace a blown fuse! When his rig stopped working and I couldn't help, he'd buy a new rig. He's now close to 80 and still pecking away on CW. RTTY died out as far as he was concerned, but he just moved to something else he liked.
Long story, short point...if you want something, you'll figure out how to get it. 
CW is fun and makes you "exclusive"...heck, anybody can program a computer, but can they copy Morse code (my daily rationalization)?
This gang will always be TTY-centric and I must admit that RTTY is and was my first "love" in Ham Radio. But, it seems Ham RTTY has run its course in the 50 years it has been around. As I mentioned to Jim Haynes a few days ago, we should be proud that we are associated with the "grandfather of Wi-Fi"!
73 to all,
Jack WA2HWJ
NNNN


-------------- Original message from "Eugene Hertz" <ehertz at tcaf.org>: -------------- 


> Well, as I am studying in my ARRL "Now Your Talking" book, I read something very 
> dissapointing that I did not realize. 
> 
> Many of you have been hams for a while and may not be aware of this. There were 
> some recent changes in the licensing structure and now there are 3 licenses 
> granted, technician, general and extra. The technician allows only VHF and 
> above, unless you also pass the 5 WPM code test which will give you (so I 
> thought) several HF bands to use. 
> 
> What I just discovered was that there is only one HF band that I will be able to 
> use with RTTY. It is 10 meters with about 400Khz of band availble. You might 
> disagree with me, but why not allow a new technician plus (assuming I can pass 
> the test) to use any mode on the HF bands that are permitted for technician 
> plus? I think its a jip. 
> 
> Let me tell you sometime -- this technician license test is no cake walk. If I 
> didnt already have a college level background in electronics, this thing would 
> really be brutal (yes, I know. Nine-year-olds have passed it. How, I can't 
> imagine). I can not imagine how hard the general test would be to get me the 
> proper ability to use RTTY on HF (and run my model 28--ok, this message is only 
> "near-topic"). 
> 
> Very dissapointing and a little discouraging :( 
> Eugene 
> PS Maybe after I study and get my technician plus license, the FCC will let me 
> run RTTY on the citizens band. (just kidding) 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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