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The Future of Ham Radio By Douglas Jones djones@ncn.net. I read your editorial on the future of Amatuer Radio with a great deal of interest. Although I have had an interest in ham radio since the late 1950's I did not receive my tech plus license until 1993. I would hate to see Ham radio dry up and blow away just as I am becoming active. But the truth is I'm a busy man with a wife and kids, a computer with internet access, a cell phone and DDS tv dish. Yes I have an old 286 computer hooked up to run on packet, but with the internet it begs the question why bother? I haven't used packet for six months. I made a major effort to pass the 5 wpm code to get on ten meters about the time everybody, (I know not everybody) gave it up because of the sun spot cycle. Locally the police and emergency personal are not as needy for our asisstance as their own communication equipment has improved. We used to have a group of hams that met on Saturday morning for coffee, but they could never seem to get along for any extended period and that fell apart. Now the moment you have been waiting for, what do I as a new comer think! First, I'm going to be candid here, Most of the old timers I know were former Navy radio men, (who got paid to learn the code) and many are members of AA. I mention this not to suggest that either is good or bad but rather that I sensed an inner circle of people with shared experiences and bonds outside of, but tied to ham radio. I never felt like I quite belonged. Almost drove me to drink or enlist in the Navy. The only thing that stopped me :-) was that the miltary dropped the code. Which brings me to my major point, the only way to save Amateur Radio is to get rid of the code and the sooner the ARRL figures that out the better. Why, first it is an out dated unneeded requirement that old men cling to like some kind of phallic symbol of their superior ability (remember that most those folks got paid room and board and a nice stipend to learn it) and second because just as the old guy wants it keeping the number of hams who have access to HF down, there in lies the crunch, there is no way that we will keep our allocated frequencies in the next century unless there are a lot more hams and the bands are all being used. I think that the real allure to the future of ham radio still lies in the HF range, but the catch 22 is the code. If you keep it, you lose the number of hams and the frequencies, if you get rid of it you crowd the bands. I submit that if the bands are crowded our chances of keeping them are much better. As a physics teacher of 26 years I would like to see a new testing system used. Throw out the code and then make sure that the new ham knows (really knows, not just memorized to pass a test) theory and application. That will be the ham of the next century. I would appreciate your thoughts on my somewhat off the cuff comments. Sincerely, Douglas Jones N0UYI

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