[InHam] Enough is ENOUGH

[Bob Burns K4RXR]

At 10:43 PM 3/18/2003, mike wrote:
>I have received no less than eight emails saying the same thing tonight.

Mike, I feel your pain.

Adding up the messages I've gotten as a result of being an Indiana Section 
ARRL member and as a subscriber to this Internet mailing list, I received 
five messages today about SB109. Is it overkill? I don't know. Many hams 
feels that this is very important legislation. On the other hand, if you 
consider the many other weighty issues that our legislature must consider 
this session, it's no small wonder that the House leadership has put SB109 
on the back burner. If constantly reminding Indiana hams to communicate 
with their representatives about the importance of SB109 gets the bill 
passed, then we all benefit.

The sad fact is that the number of ARRL members in Indiana and the number 
of Indiana hams who subscribe to this list is pretty small in comparison to 
the number of licensed hams in the state. How do we communicate with the 
entire Indiana ham community about this bill? If every license amateur 
radio operator in Indiana sent just one letter to their representative 
about SB109, it'd pass in a heartbeat.

>I think if a HAM is smart enough to get a license, they are smart enough...

Don't go too far with this line of thinking. It's my firm belief that when 
many hams get their license, the word "map" is deleted from their 
vocabulary. Why else would hamfest talk-in stations have to repeat the same 
information over and over? When I go someplace I've never been before, I 
start looking at maps and plot out my own route. I've heard some pretty bad 
talk-ins. I bet you have, too. A little time spent studying a map would 
eliminate all that. Hams are smart enough to pass a license examination, 
but are they smart enough to [fill in the blank]?

Bob...

P.S. Yes, I communicated with my senator while SB109 back when it was in 
committee. As it turns out, my senator sits on the committee that handled 
SB109. She did not support SB109 while it was in committee, but seems to 
have changed her mind a bit when it got to the full Senate. Yes, I have 
communicated with my representative about SB109. He was non-committal.