Well, your friend's only been a ham for 12-15 years, so it could still
be dumbing down. After all, he is a product of the V.E. licensing system
and never had to take a test in front of an F.C.C. examiner and could
just memorize the question pool to get his ticket. Unless, of course,
your friend is just a jerk. In that case licensing requirements have
nothing to do with his problem.
Almost everybody works hard all day and most don't behave as you friend
did. The real problem is that we don't have any respect for each other
anyone. Part of that problem is the feeling by some people that because
someone has been licensed for a certain length of time or upgraded at a
certain time, that person has less "worth" than someone licensed before
that point. It could be April 15, 2000 or it could be before 1984, when
the V.E. system started. Or it could be a myriad of other points in time
where some mythical standard was changed, like when the Dick Dash books
became available or when the period of time you had to wait before
retaking an exam was shortened. It really doesn't matter, because the
real problem is the belief that we don't need to respect someone because
of how, what kind or when they took a test. The reason we ought to
respect someone should be based on what kind of ham they are, not when
they got their ticket.
As much as it might bother some people, a lot of hams who were licensed
or upgraded after 2000 are pretty good hams, despite the fact that they
didn't have to pass a 20 WPM CW test. Some are ignorant, but ignorance
can be corrected pretty easily- lack of character and maliciousness are
more difficult to deal with.
73,
Scott, N9AA
WC7N wrote:
Today I have been setting here in the Ham Shack, reading a book,
because I couldn't hear any of the DX but did check frequencies.
(Easy to do whey you are retired and an old F...) I was really amazed
at the language I was hearing and first put it on the dumbing down of
the ham radio license requirements but then remembered recently I was
visiting a friend who has been a ham for probably 12-15 years, he was
calling a dx station on CW and some body came up on freq and he went
critical with the UP UP UP FU FU FU etc. I asked "what are you
doing." His answer "I work hard all day and when I come home and have
time to ham I don't have to put up with that s..." Well maybe that is
the problem now, not the dumbing down of the license but working hard
to support a family, taking too much sh.. from the boss and just no
patience when you get home.
Rod WC7N
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