Hi all, I just had to respond to this rec.radio.amateur.policy
posting. Decided to share my response with you, hope you agree with
my points. Some of those marshalling against our hobby are
getting out of control! In my opinion.
Jim, KH7M
>>>>
<fontfamily><param>EucrosiaUPC</param><bigger><bigger><bigger>> WB36ATL
<<<underline><color><param>0000,0000,ffff</param>wb36atl@aol.com</color></underline>>
wrote in article
> <<<underline><color><param>0000,0000,ffff</param>19970417052400.BAA09811@ladder01.news.aol.com</color></underline>>...
> > The problem is simple...most hams don't have a POINT >when they transmit.
Of course they do, ENJOYMENT!
Amateur Radio, is just that: read "One who loves
the art/technology of wireless communications."
You know, from the Latin: amo, amas, AMAT =
he loves.
People become amateur radio operators to enjoy the
technology, and talking to other people who also
enjoy it. Not to send traffic, to communicate valuable
and useful information, and in particular, not to
earn a living or try to be as information efficient as
possible for the bandwidth being used.
Though the Communication Act calls our hobby,
The Amateur Radio Service, and it has served many
a communitiess' and individual's needs over the
decades, it was set up for lovers of the art of
wireless.
Many on this news group have written that amateurs
have not contributed technically, nor served any
useful service purpose. Nuts! I personally, with my
rig, saved the ship, Sea Harvest, stranded in the
Caribbean because of lightening strikes to the ship.
All navigation was out. Read about the entire
rescue, and my role as relay station with the
Coast Guard in QST for March 1993, page 90,
Public Service department of that issue. A better
and longer report of this SERVICE was written
up in the W5YI Report of July 1, 1992, page 7.
And my station was the ONLY link to the outside
world from the South side of Kauai for days and
days after Hurricane Iniki wiped out ALL utilities,
phones, etc for weeks here! 7000 utility poles
out of 16000 on the island were down; all the wrong
ones it seemed. But I have a 5 kW Honda generator.
Via my station, FEMA re provisioned the hospital
on this side of the island with vitally needed surgical
and immunization materials, they even had run
out of surgical gloves!!
If the various public service agencies of the USA
have their way -- American Red Cross, Salvation
Army, just to name a couple -- the Amateur
Radio hobby, will be viewed as a VITAL SERVICE
supplement for this nation for a LONG time to come.
Ask the folks up in Grand Forks about the aid from
radio amateurs these days! Read about it later (much
later, unfortunately) in QST or any of the other
hammy publications.
And who are we amateurs that perform these services
from time to time as the need seems to arise? Those
of us who just LOVE radio. We have spent major
portions of our lives being soaked in RADIO; not
as a passing fad interest, but as LOVERS. Most of
us have spent years learning everything we can about
radio, propagation, amateurs who live in other lands
and how they might differ from us in the technology
they may use, etc., etc. Most of us read many more
publications than just QST.
Over the years, we lovers of radio have steeped our
minds in the wonderment of listening for, and hearing
very weak signals coming from the far reaches of the
globe. From a rig set up beside/within a hut somewhere,
with a simple wire antenna hung between a mango and
a palm tree perhaps. Of course, we could pick up
the phone, even our remote digital cell phone and
call that area of the world for 25 cents a minute, perhaps.
But that is not the POINT. The point for us remains
the joy of doing it OUR WAY, via wireless, and
just maybe, still, with the obsolete mode of
ancient communications called CW.
And, many of us still believe, in spite of all the words
with venom spewed out upon this reflector against
the CW testing requirement, that CW rightly belongs
as a FILTER to assure that only those who love
wireless communication enough to master this
singularly enjoyable form of hobby communications,
will earn the right to operate on the world globe
spanning HF amateur frequencies.
There, I've said my bit. Flame away, those who must.
My asbestos suit is on!
73, Jim, KH7M
On the Garden Island of Kauai
http://planet-hawaii.com/charles/
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