On Wed, 25 Feb 1998, Bill Coleman AA4LR wrote:
> Gee, in the distant past, Novices were allowed to operate on the same
> frequencies as everyone else within certain bands. They quickly lost
> their poor operating practices by emulating the fine operating they heard.
>
> Then incentive licensing went into effect....
Well, I passed my Novice test in late 1952 and got my license in Jan of
1953. This was in the very early days of the Novice license. Good for
only one year and not renewable.
There was a Novice band on 80m and one on 40m. As a Novice you could
not use 20m, 11m or 10m. Only 80 and 40 in the "Novice Bands". And
lets also remember Xtal control only and max power of 75w input.
This was also during the time when you needed an Extra class license
to be on 75m Phone!
Wasn't called incentive licensing.
But back then there were a lot of people with General and Extra class
licenses who would come into the Novice bands and chat with us. There
are still some today that do that. (But not enough!)
But far too many just want to sit around and let someone else do
all the work. Or worse yet change a rule to somehow give new operators
the skill then need overnight. (Just by being able to work you in a
contest?)
I hate to break your bubble, but you do need to listen to what many
of the new people think of contest operators! They think they are
very rude, self centered and a few I'll not repeat! How many times
have you heard a new operator call someone in a contest and ask
for them to QRS only to be ignored?
Guess I just have a hard time thinking about where the new hams are
going to find all these shinning examples of fine operating! If
you really want to help these folks get better and develope good
skills, go up there and set the example! I can still remember how
thrilled I was the first time I worked Don Wallace, W6AM. He was
driving around LA in his Olds convertable with the bug on the seat
and running a KW!
Some of you are very well known. When is the last time you took
the time to chat with a new ham and give them a thrill like that?
>
> Seems ironic that over 30 years later we want to go back to the "old"
> way.
Hmmmmm, I cudda sworn you just said it was better back in the "ole"
daze!
While we're at it, why don't we eliminate a couple of license
> classes?
Sure. I think keeping Novice, General and Extra would be good.
cul, back in my hole!
73, Ron, SOWP 5545M,
.........KU7Y.....ARCI #8829.....Monte "Ron" Stark.....
....ku7y@sage.dri.edu...........Washoe Lake, Nevada....
....QRP-L #17...ARS #49...NorCal #330.....NRA LIFE.....
--
CQ-Contest on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST@contesting.com
|