Rick, But you can't change history. Amateur Radio was around long before emcomms was considered an important item, and the rules and regulations have been developed throughout the 20th century. Just because you feel that at the current time, emcomms have become most important doesn't change all that has gone into the rules and regulations.
Public Service at that point in time, i.e. 1960's was a LOT more than just emcomms, just as it is today. Giving talks to schools, setting up portable stations at public events, handling non-emcomms type traffic, etc. It is sad that emcomms has become the be all and end all of amateur radio in todays world. Jim WA0LYK --- In digitalradio@yahoogroups.com, KV9U <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Jim, > > Although you are about 5 years younger than me, we were probably > licensed not too far apart (my original calls were WN9HXP/WA9HXP). > Things have changed over the years. In my view, it is not reasonable to > value all of the five principles equally. I do think it is reasonable > that the items listed first may be considered the most important. I > consider international goodwill a very minor aspect of amateur radio, > and it is listed last, but every bit helps. > > Back in the 1960's when I was first licensed, we were very much involved > with emergency communications. In fact, it was 1965 when I was involved > in an extended emergency situation in Wisconsin due to severe flooding > of the Mississippi River that took out most communications between > portions of the city where I went to college. We used 2 meter AM voice > for most of the traffic and also some HF mobile with phone patching to > the Mayor, etc. > > If you go back to QST articles in that time frame, you will see that > "Public Service" was a column in the magazine even then. So this is > nothing new. Unless you consider 40 years ago to be "new." > > In the early days, the ability of the government to have a ready pool of > trained operators (especially CW operators) was of national security > importance. That is no longer the case in today's world. > > 73, > > Rick, KV9U > Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
