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It's Ham Vs.Ham As Radio Amateurs Are In Conflict At ARRL (perens.com)
Bruce Perens co-founded the Open Source Initiative with Eric Raymond -- and he's also Slashdot reader #3872. But this week he wrote in with some news from the world of amateur (or "ham") radio:
ARRL has been the USA's representative organization for Amateur Radio for over a century. More recently, the organization has replaced transparency and democratic representation of its membership with confidentiality, policies to stifle dissent, and punishment of their own leadership when they get out of line. A vote happening this month offers members a chance to get back in control.
The open letter at that link -- signed by several AARL life members (including Perens), argues that "The members are not currently represented as they should be, due to the continued application of a policy meant for a for-profit corporate board," adding that "The only whistle-blower on the board was publicly castigated for informing us."
"The currently-suspended rules that go against the member's interest are temporarily suspended, and could be restored."
The open letter at that link -- signed by several AARL life members (including Perens), argues that "The members are not currently represented as they should be, due to the continued application of a policy meant for a for-profit corporate board," adding that "The only whistle-blower on the board was publicly castigated for informing us."
"The currently-suspended rules that go against the member's interest are temporarily suspended, and could be restored."
Not far off most of the ones I have met are in their 70s and 80s.
The truth is morse code was rarely used anymore.
I haven't looked at the data for 2017, but in the 2016 CQ Worldwide CW contest -- a Morse-only contest held at the end of November annually -- about 2.4 million distinct contacts were made over the course of two days. That doesn't seem to be compatible with the quoted assertion. I also note that that number is roughly 400,000 higher than the number of contacts made over the equivalent weekend dedicated to voice operation.
Barriers to entry are a good thing.
Barriers to entry are good if they involve a relevant and useful skill.
For instance, handling emergency braking in a turn would be a useful skill to require of car drivers. Requiring them to calculate a square root is not, since that has nothing to do with driving.
Morse code is useless. How do I know? Because I know Morse code. Haven't used it in decades.