STS51L Accident Questions

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 03:14:19 -0800, Dale wrote:

But it's amazing the FCC even deals with hams directly anymore...

....Do they? It's been my understanding that Uncle Charlie has pretty
much turned all exams General and below over to the Volunteer Examiner
programs.

Hiram Percy Maxim is now spinning in his grave

....1AW gave his all in his time, but Code is what's been holding back
far too many from getting their tickets. And when tradition becomes a
detriment, you adapt it or toss it.

....More and more Hams tend to agree that the Code reqs these days are
a joke and a hindrance. The fact that they're only now becoming vocal
is that all those Elmers who sat at the feet of 1AW and his peers and
assumed the attitude of "if we had to learn it, you goddamn kids will
goddamn have to suffer as we did!" are finally dying off. Many of them
are speaking out now, and have been lobbying the FCC to drop the Code
reqs regardless of what the ITU and the treaties say. Some are even
circumventing the Code reqs by testing applicants harder in theory and
fudging the Code reqs. In fact, I know quite a number of VE's who, in
years past, allowed Novice applicants the opportunity to skip the code
and go straight to Technician *if* they took the General multiguess
exam, got at least 90% correct, and at least -tried- to answer an
extra credit question which allowed the applicant to explain how to
set up an efficient station geared for a particular band within a
residential neighborhood, with the goal being to see whether the
applicant had a clue how to run a rig and not drive his neighbors
batty by sending the Tennesse Valley Indians over to kill their TV
sets during their QSOs.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 05:33:54 -0600, OM
om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org wrote:

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 03:14:19 -0800, Dale wrote:

But it's amazing the FCC even deals with hams directly anymore...

...Do they? It's been my understanding that Uncle Charlie has pretty
much turned all exams General and below over to the Volunteer Examiner
programs.

Yeah, the exams are farmed out now, but at least I can send my renewal
form in to Gettysburg, PA. Which is what I'll do tomorrow. I still go to an
old-fashioned polling place to vote, too.

Hiram Percy Maxim is now spinning in his grave

...1AW gave his all in his time, but Code is what's been holding back
far too many from getting their tickets. And when tradition becomes a
detriment, you adapt it or toss it.

That's why God gave the world cell phones

...More and more Hams tend to agree that the Code reqs these days are
a joke and a hindrance. The fact that they're only now becoming vocal
is that all those Elmers who sat at the feet of 1AW and his peers and
assumed the attitude of "if we had to learn it, you goddamn kids will
goddamn have to suffer as we did!" are finally dying off. Many of them
are speaking out now, and have been lobbying the FCC to drop the Code
reqs regardless of what the ITU and the treaties say. Some are even
circumventing the Code reqs by testing applicants harder in theory and
fudging the Code reqs. In fact, I know quite a number of VE's who, in
years past, allowed Novice applicants the opportunity to skip the code
and go straight to Technician *if* they took the General multiguess
exam, got at least 90% correct, and at least -tried- to answer an
extra credit question which allowed the applicant to explain how to
set up an efficient station geared for a particular band within a
residential neighborhood, with the goal being to see whether the
applicant had a clue how to run a rig and not drive his neighbors
batty by sending the Tennesse Valley Indians over to kill their TV
sets during their QSOs.

The VE's in question could lose their licenses over that. I guess mum's
the word, huh? Code really isn't that hard, especially at 5wpm. I don't
mean to sound elitist, but if you can't make the effort to learn it, maybe
you also won't make the effort to be a good ham. I'd hate to see the ham
bands turn into what the CB bands have become. Sometimes, they seem
to approach that, even now.

That aside, as long as the band plans set aside some frequencies for
CW only, I'm happy.

Dale

OM wrote:

...Except for the Japs, who dropped it something like 15 years ago,
IIRC. And it was - you guessed it - the Frogs who whined the most,
because it was against the treaty they established.



Cut to MacArthur's office, early 1945:
"So here are the planned terms of the surrender to establish the new Japan:
1. Emperor to become a powerless figurehead.
2. Shinto religion banned.
3. Military to become a self-defense force.
4. Women to be given the vote.
5. Amateur radio operators to be required to learn Morse code...?
6. Wine to replace sake?!
7. Kabuki theater to be replaced by Mime theater???!
8. Water rationing to reduce baths to one per month???!!!!
You tell that big nosed ******* that the Free French weren't even
fighting in the Pacific theater!" ;-)

Pat

Dale wrote:

BTW, I've had some of my best CW QSOs with "Japs". Not to mention
some of the best internet-contact-resulting sex. But that's another story





Yeah... and all you had to do in return was hand over the plans of the
B-2 Spirit bomber.
They lied to you...they really don't have giant reptiles and insects
attacking them all the time, and they have no need for a stealth bomber
to "Defend ourselves against the Mysterians, who are stealing nubile
young women from our land and forcing them to learn twisted and exotic
sexual techniques ...like this, for instance..."!
Let's hope we don't see Batarang-shaped things with red meatballs on
them over Pearl Harbor _this_ Dec. 7th, traitor! :-P

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 03:50:11 -0800, Dale wrote:

Code really isn't that hard, especially at 5wpm. I don't
mean to sound elitist, but if you can't make the effort to learn it, maybe
you also won't make the effort to be a good ham. I'd hate to see the ham
bands turn into what the CB bands have become. Sometimes, they seem
to approach that, even now.

....Which is why you make the exam harder, to weed out the Chicken Band
types. I see CW as an unnecessary evil these days that's kept Ham
radio hindered in an era where technology should have caused a boom in
the hobby. Ask anyone interested in broadcast communications who isn't
a Ham why they're not, and at least 90% will tell you it's because
they don't have time to **** with learning Morse Code.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

On 2005-03-20, Pat Flannery wrote:

7. Kabuki theater to be replaced by Mime theater???!

I had to go digging through a gazetteer to try and find somewhere the
other day. I ran across an entry for a small Japanese town that utterly
threw me for a couple of minutes. Right at the end:

"The town contains (...), and No theatres."

It took me a good deal of thinking to remember why that actually was a
sensible thing to list.

--
-Andrew Gray

Andrew Gray wrote:

7. Kabuki theater to be replaced by Mime theater???!



I had to go digging through a gazetteer to try and find somewhere the
other day. I ran across an entry for a small Japanese town that utterly
threw me for a couple of minutes. Right at the end:

"The town contains (...), and No theatres."



That's what I typed first, but realized it was going to cause confusion,
so switched it to Kabuki. :-)

Pat

Pat Flannery wrote:

Speaking of which, digital cameras have pretty much replaced Polaroids
to the point where I couldn't even sell my old Spectra camera, so I tore
it apart last night to have a peek at the innards.

Did you take pictures?

/dps

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wrote:

says...

I would have just taken out the commie rabbit with a Holy Hand
Grenade. May it rest in peas.

I'm sorry, Rusty -- I'm having a hard time visualizing whirled peas.


Certainly haven't been too many examples to learn from, even with the
League of Nations and the UN.

It's bean swell, guys, but if there is no hops, er hope, then I get dibs
on the escape pod!

/dps

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Dale wrote:

OK, my memory failed me. The code requirement wasn't dropped - just
reduced
to the 5 wpm level. Same thing. Seems like the FCC agreed to drop it
entirely
years ago, but the rest of the world wouldn't agree to that.

In the US, the "Technician" class has been no-code for around 12 years.
Most HF bands require Tech-Plus (equivalent to old Novice and Technician
exams) for the 5 WPM, and I think they've lowered the WPM for General.
Extra and Advanced classes have unsplit back together, IIRC, and there's
still a high WPM involved, but then you're supposed to show you are
special to get those tickets.

/dps

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