Slam the Exam and other Survival Techniques.

Make it easier for the common folk to get into amateur radio. Lets face facts, we are not getting much of an inflow of new blood into our hobby, this is a World Wide trend and if we (as a collective) do not do something about it we have a very good chance of losing our bands.

I have read various amateur radio test exams from a few different countries and they mainly have one thing in common and that is that you need to be an expert to get an amateur license. I suggest that the license should be made easier to get more people on the bands; I also suggest dropping CW altogether, as it has no functional use in testing if one will be a good operator or not.

I do not mean throw CW out the window so to speak but those with a genuine interest can learn CW and use it if they want to.

One thing that should be upgraded is the rules and regulations; operators should know these intimately especially the safety aspects including safe exposure limits, antenna hardware safety issues and even knowledge on interference reduction.

I keep hearing that the Internet has taken people out of the hobby and has stifled the inflow of new amateurs; I think that we should educate the general public about our digital modes including the Internet linking of repeaters (IRLP). This would surely interest the computer communicators. The next cry will be "it will be like CB" what utter hogwash how many amateurs were once on the CB ? I admit that I was on the CB once upon a time; I had to start somewhere, as Amateurs do not grow on trees you know.

The biggest threat to amateur radio at this present time is Broad band over power line internet access (BPL), if this gets passed by the FCC and I should add that if they were doing due diligence it would never ever be allowed, it will totally trash the HF spectrum from 2Mhz to 80Mhz. Some amateurs have seen the video of HF interference on the ARRL site and said "he is directly under the power lines, it will not be a problem at a greater distance" I will say this now that BPL will cover the whole of the United States and as coupled to the power grid will act as one huge antenna array that will most likely cause HF interference in other Countries on the opposite side of the World, you just wait for the next increase in the Solar sunspot cycle and you will see what I mean.

The point that I am trying to make is that we are looking at a very serious threat to our HF bands not just in the U.S but every other country. Governments of other countries use the U.S as a yardstick, "if it is ok for them it is ok for us" is a common saying that is used as an excuse to do the inexcusable.

We really do need more amateurs to join our ranks, there is more political clout with a larger group and Governments everywhere would hate to lose votes but at just .34% of the population amateurs in the U.S.A just do not make for a powerful lobby group.

One way to extol the virtues of our hobby is by the means of Television advertising, I know everyone screams how expensive is that to do. I am sure that an advertisement with some public service overtones could get some free airplay; if you do not try you will never ever know.