Colin, I'm afraid the eventual effect of all this relaxation of rules on the ham
bands is just going to make another citizen's band mess out of it much as is
already the case on the 2m and 70cm band in some places.

As to computers, if I want to be in a chat room I can do that without a ham
license.  The whole idea of things like Echo Link simply destroy a lot of what
ham radio is all about.  I agree that computers are chaning what communications
are all about but there should definitely be license differences between
computer users and radio users and there should be both earned responsibilities
as well as advantages to license upgrades.  Just because I think it isn't going
to make it so but I think we're seeing the beginning of the downfall of amateur
radio as we know it at the very least and perhaps of the end of the amateur
radio service with many who will get on to rag chew and not promote the amateur
service.  The only reason I got my Extra was to get some additional frequencies
but in reality it was also the only exam that amounted to anything.  If that
little 35 question multiple guess test for Techs is going to get people on hf as
seems to be where we are headed, its not far above cb and you get a lot more
than you ever did with a cb license.  I already dropped my ARRL membership over
this kind of thing and I suspect that it will not be long before I leave the
air.

There will, of course, be exceptions to my above statements but unfortunately
they will very likely be only the exceptions.

Tom


Tom Brennan  KD5VIJ, CCC-A/SLP
web page http://titan.sfasu.edu/~g_brennantg/sonicpage.html