Metra Electronics DAT Combo Manuel d'utilisateur télécharger pdf (Page 44)

It's

Warr

less)

they

could

pass

a rougher

exam

than

they

had

ever before

taken.

(Fact

of

the

matter

is

that many

Hams

couldn't

pass

the

very

exam

they took

to get

their original

license

if

a year

or

so

had

elapsed.)

Their

only

hope

would

be

to

cram

for

the

new

exam

and,

failing

that,

squeeze

onto

the

few

remaining

frequencies

or pack

their

DX gear

in

mothballs

and migrate

to the local-

cover-

age VHF

bands

-where

the FCC was

to

reserve

them

some

"exclusive"

frequencies.

The

regular VHF

operator,

already

plagued

with

split

-up

bands

and

class

distinc-

tion

between

General,

Technician

and Nov-

ice

class operators,

would

then

be faced

with

the

prospect

of

slicing

up

the pie

for yet

another

group.

For

new

immigrants

from

the lower

bands

would

be

now joining

the

VHF

fraternity

by

taking

away

the

regular

VHF

operators'

best

frequencies.

The

idea,

of

course, was

to force

the

Technician

class

VHF

operator

to get

the

incentive

to step

up

his

code

speed

and pass

a General

Class li-

cense which

would

permit

him

to again

operate

on his

old

frequencies.

Not

On Your

Life.

The

grass

roots

reac-

tion

was

instantaneous

and rather

violent.

Enraged

Hams

flooded

both

the

ARRL

and

FCC

offices with

highly

impassioned

mes-

sages,

all

carrying

the

same

theme,

namely,

that

they weren't

buying

even one

little

bit

of this

proposal.

CQ magazine,

an independ-

ent Ham publication,

offered

its own

plan

for upgrading

the American

Ham,

but

the

damage

had

already

been

done.

The

ARRL

plan

had

been

formally

submitted

to

the

FCC.

And Wayne

Green,

Ham

radio's

an-

gry young

man

(and

publisher

of

another

Ham publication,

73, promptly

sailed into

the

ARRL

with

one

of his

famous

tirades

over

that one.

With

cannon

bombarding

it from

all

sides,

the ARRL

found

itself

in a rather

embarrass-

ing

situation,

especially

since

the

FCC un-

expectedly

decided

to

play

it cool

and not

rubber

-stamp

Incentive

Licensing

into

the

law

of

the land.

The

League was

simply

left

to hang

by

its thumbs

while

the folks

in

Washington

pigeon

-holed

the

idea

and

announced

that

they were

"thinking

over"

the

plan's alleged

merits.

The League

landed

out in

the

cold

with

many

Hams,

too. In

fact, when

mid

-1965

48

membership

stood

at 105,000,

the

League

had

confidently

predicted

that

mid -1966

rolls

would

fatten

up

to

about 108,000

to

110,000

members.

In

actuality,

membership

had

shriveled

to less

than

80,000

by

mid

-1966!

Panic

Button.

Not

only

had

Hams

stopped

renewing

their

memberships

in

the

League,

but

the

proposal

had

triggered

one

of

the most

horrendous

business

slumps

Ham

radio

had

ever known.

The

proposal

was

also the

best

explanation

for

one

of the

most

severe

drops

in license

applications

for

years.

The

ARRL

hastily

engaged

a public

rela-

tions

firm

to find out

what

had gone

wrong

and

what

had

happened

to

its membership.

The

poll-

takers

in

turn

announced

that

the

"crux

of

the situation"

was

that "if

the

peo-

ple

are indeed

representative,

then

too many

Hams

just

do not

feel

the

sense

of personal

relationship

with

the League

they want

to

feel."

In other

words,

most

Hams

just

couldn't

understand

why

their good

Ham

buddies

at the

League

would

have

officially

proposed

Incentive

Licensing

without

having

taken the

minor

courtesy

of

asking

members

for their

opinion

beforehand.

Meanwhile,

the

League

itself

explained

causes

of

non -renewal

thisaway:

that

the

League

was

"out

-of-

touch"

with

the oper-

ators' interests;

the operator

simply "had

not

gotten

around

to

renewing;"

and the operator

was

"just

not

active"

any longer.

By

the

fall of

1966,

things

had

gotten

so

desperate

at the

League

that QST

announced

what

appeared

to

many

to

be

an

almost

pathetic

last -gap

measure

to recapture

the

badly

fumbled

ball;

a panacea

for

regaining

its

composure,

lost

prestige,

and members.

The

new

idea,

"Ham

Quest

67,"

had

the

League

pleading

(in

QST), "Strength

through

unity-

that's what

is

needed."

Carefully

skirting

any

mention

of

the

dreaded

Incentive

Licensing

plan,

the ARRL

rehashed

all

of

the

reasons

why

it's

really

pretty wonderful

to have

the

kindly

ARRL

folks

lending

their

prestige

to Ham

radio

and

watching

out

for

the

interests

of

the

operators.

Part

of

"Ham

Quest

67"

in-

cluded

sending

out

"ammunition

to be used

in

convincing

non -members

that

they ought

to join

the League

. . . ,"

offering

prizes

for the

member

or

affiliated

local

club

bring-

ing

in the largest

number

of

new members.

The

FCC?

Yes,

it's

still

thinking

over

the

proposal.

But

it

also

offers

no

inkling

as to when

(if

ever)

a decision will

issue

forth.

RADIO

-TV EXPERIMENTER

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