Re: [amsat-bb] AMSAT's next LEO satellite

[Bob Bruninga <bruninga@xxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 25 Apr 2002, Richard Amirault wrote:

> Sorry, Bob, get real ... it takes more than a weekend to learn the code, if
> it can be learned at all.

Driving down the road on a trip to Florida the kids got bored.  In only
about 3 hours (spread over a day), the kids learned most of the alphabet,
by me taping out CW on the dash board with a pencil.
The disinterested wife (trapped in the car) also picked up most of it...

> I've been a (no-code) Tech for over 10 years now, and I'm not the only
> one. To say that "no one is being excluded..." just because there is a
> higher licence class is absurd....

Please understand that I am not a CW forever person at all. I never work
HF, and I never work CW.  But until the rules change, it is  simply a
requirement that is not that big a deal to do if someone wants to do it.
And the FCC does allow for special cases for some handicaps...

I have always been in favor of the no-code tech license from the
beginning, but since it used to be only step 2 in a 5 step license
structure, I didnt expect it to become the be-all-end-all in amateur
radio...

There are almost two dozen working satellites for the no-code techs.  I
don't  think it is being exclusionary to suggest a satellite that has
significant technical advantages but those techincal advantages just
happen to be in a band that is not aviailable to an entry class license.

I hope we don't bog down progress in a we-versus-them argument when
everyone is welcome to cross into the other camp...

Bob, WB4APR.

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