Hi Carolyn and All,
I know that there will always be those who feel that getting rid of the CW Requirement was very unfortunate to say the least.
I think one of the reasons this was done was to get more people to become Amateur Radios Operators and to use the Spectrum Allocations for Acateur Radio.
The other thing which might have contributed to this decision is the fact that CB-ERS were modifying rigs to encroach on Amateur Radio Spectrum. Maybe the idea was that people would have to follow more regulations when they became Hams.
I know that this does not always work.
Let me say that not all of us who have been licensed without CW are bad operators or are just too lazy to learn CW.
I feel personally that my lack of CW does not impede my contribution to Amateur Radio in any way.
I am Net Manager for an Area Traffic Net.
I frequently call up the District Skywarn Net for District 1 in Northwest Ohio.
I am also a Net Control for Navy Mars Traffic Nets and am a Net Control for the Ohio Single Sideband Net.
Colleen Roth, N8TNV;



----- Original Message -----
From: carolyn johnson <[log in to unmask]>
To:  [log in to unmask]
Date: Saturday, Apr 26, 2014 09:14:34 AM
Subject: Re: Happy Ham's Day

>
>
> Amen to that one. I think them dumming down the liscence program is a crying 
> shame. I still think the novice and code should be still enforced. I can see 
> why they got rid of the advanced class, but not all the other things. I to 
> had to do the code for my extra in 1988.
> 
> Carolyn Kj4vt
> 
> 
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Tom Behler" <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2014 7:19 AM
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Happy Ham's Day
> 
> > Very interesting, Phil.
> >
> > I got my Extra back in 1996, when you still had to do the 20 WPM CW, and 
> > am
> > proud of that to this day. ...  CW has always been my favorite operating
> > mode.
> >
> > I'd say that now, I'm comfortable with a cruising speed of around 26 to 28
> > WPM, but in contesting, I can go considerably faster since the exchanges 
> > are
> > usually relatively short.
> >
> > People often suggest that CW is dying, but I disagree.  It's always very
> > easy to find any time of the day or night, and on contest week-ends, it's
> > usually wall-to-wall on all of the involved bands.
> >
> > 73 from Tom Behler: KB8TYJ
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > On Behalf Of Phil Scovell
> > Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2014 1:15 AM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: Happy Ham's Day
> >
> > Tom,
> >
> > I saw my first ham stations, a DX60 and the HQ129X receiver over at a
> > friend's house whose older brother repaired televisions and was into ham
> > radio when I was age ten.  No, actually, I was about 7 the first station I
> > saw but I didn't understand what it was for even though the guys there 
> > tried
> > explaining it to me.  At age ten, I wanted to go into electronics after my
> > friend's brother let me watch him in his work room and took me on house
> > calls to repair televisions.  But a few months later, my father died
> > unexpectedly and six months after that, my retinas began shredding into 
> > tiny
> > pieces.  I've had about 30 operations and medical procedures in my 62 
> > years
> > and about 15 of those were on my eyes and almost all of those were before 
> > I
> > turned 12.  It was at the school for the blind I discovered they had a ham
> > stations and wouldn't you know it, another DX60 transmitter.  I dove head
> > first into learning the code and in less than a week, had all the numbers,
> > letters, and punctuation memorized and began practicing with others trying
> > to study for their test.  My Elmer told me I was copying 10 WPM when I
> > passed the novice code test and 20 WPM when I passed the general 7 months
> > after passing the novice.  I didn't take my advanced class until something
> > like 1977 or so so I lost half my phone bands due to incentive  licensing
> > which I'm still mad about to this day, haha.  I took my extra in the fall 
> > of
> > 1978 and that was, of course, when you still had to send and receive 20 
> > WPM.
> >
> > I lost some time during college and early married life but I always had a
> > receiver somewhere and a friend's house which I could go and operate all 
> > day
> > so I've never been far from those dits and daws.  I worked a lot of phone
> > back in 1980 to 1982 on 20 meters and one year on SSB on 20, I worked 295
> > countries in that one year.  The wood pecker was alive and loud back then 
> > on
> > 20 meters, too; some mornings during long path it completely blanked out 
> > 20
> > meters both phone and CW parts of the band.  I don't miss that Russian 
> > wood
> > pecker either but who knows what those HARP installations around the world
> > are doing to us now, smile.
> >
> > Phil.
> > K0NX
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Tom Behler" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 6:59 PM
> > Subject: Re: Happy Ham's Day
> >
> >
> >ar Congrats, Phil, and happy ham anniversary!!
> >ar
> >ar I got my first novice ticket in June of 1969, so I was just a few years
> >ar behind you.
> >ar
> >ar Of course, I had a significant gap in my ham career after that novice
> >ar license expired, due to college, graduate school, starting a family,
> >ar getting
> >ar settled in my career, etc.
> >ar
> >ar But, in the early 1990's, I got my ticket back, upgraded to Extra, and I
> >ar guess the rest of the story is still be written to this day.
> >ar
> >ar 73 from Tom Behler: KB8TYJ
> >ar
> >ar
> >ar -----Original Message-----
> >ar From: For blind ham radio operators 
> >ar [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> >ar On Behalf Of Phil Scovell
> >ar Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 3:32 PM
> >ar To: [log in to unmask]
> >ar Subject: Happy Ham's Day
> >ar
> >ar It was 48 years ago today I made my first contact as a novice.  I was at
> >ar the
> >ar school for the blind when my mom called from home on a Monday afternoon
> >ar and
> >ar told me my ticket came.  I had her repeat the call sign a dozen times to
> >ar be
> >ar sure.  I had been walking to our regular Monday after school student
> >ar council
> >ar meeting.  I was representing the 9th grade, and the office secretary
> >ar called
> >ar out the office door as I passed by going to the library for the meeting.
> >ar She said, "Phil.  You have a phone call."  The only person who called me
> >ar at
> >ar school was generally my uncle in Kansas but this time it was my mom with
> >ar the
> >ar good news.  I hunt up the phone, and spun around and took a step to the
> >ar open
> >ar office door.  Our superintendent was a nice guy and although he was not a
> >ar ham, he made sure we always had good equipment, unless one of our radios
> >ar was
> >ar down for repair, but he called out and said, "Hey, Phil.  You got your
> >ar license."  It wasn't a question.  I was so out of it, I just grunted a
> >ar yes,
> >ar and ran down the hall to the radio room.  A couple of friends were 
> >ar already
> >ar in the ham shack and one was a novice of about 3 months.  I told him to
> >ar move
> >ar over, I was getting on the air.  It took them a few seconds to believe me
> >ar but when I threatened to dump him off the king's chair in front of the
> >ar radio, he got the picture.  At this time, our DX60 was off the air so I
> >ar used
> >ar an A T 1 on 80 meters to make my first contact.  I was WN0ORO and my 
> >ar first
> >ar countact with another guy in Nebraska and his call was WN0OHO.  We kept 
> >ar in
> >ar touch for years after that.  After supper that night, I was back in the
> >ar ham
> >ar shack pounding out CQ again and having the time of my life.  To this day,
> >ar although I only had my novice license 6 months before I took the general
> >ar class, it was still the most fun I had as a ham.  The guy I almost dump
> >ar out
> >ar of the chair lived at home where the school for the blind was so we 
> >ar worked
> >ar each other, building up our code speed, in the evenings and then when
> >ar school
> >ar was out for the summer.  We had a lot of the same crystals so we ended up
> >ar working each other hundreds of times that summer.  We even started a
> >ar midnight schedule which we carried on for years after getting our 
> >ar generals
> >ar and could work side band.
> >ar
> >ar Phil.
> >ar K0NX
> >ar