A PREDICTION FOR HAM RADIO.

[DROLLTROLL]

Well played AE4TR!
Your insighteful observations and keen wit have have left me no more room to maneuver. I'm now forced to make a full confession. I am, in actuallity.... part of "The Establishment". We really ARE here to voice print you and your friends. We DO have designs to wring every last penny out of you. We WANT to deny you your benefits and medications.

I'm really an agent for a little known entity called "OLDFARTS". An acronym that stands for " Operation Legally Deny Fragile Ailing Retirees Their Savings". It all started back in the 60's, when you and your kind were so intolerant, nasty and mean spirited to kids with long hair and their Rock'nRoll music. Well, we're in charge now!
Bwaa-Hahahahahahaha!!

P.S. We're having your last name changed to "DOVER".
Get used to your new name Ben..... Mr. Ben Dover.

[AE4TR]

This could go on forever, however, I refuse to lower my standards to be equal with yours.

[N3ZKP]

Yep!! Lon was right and you have proven it beyond a doubt.

Sir, I was referring to YOU, not DrollTroll.

[K1CJS]

Ben,

I really can't see that happening.....What about homemade rigs, low power rigs, older rigs.....the list goes on.  I might agree with you that somebody in the government may think of a hare-brained scheme like that, but I also think saner heads would prevail and say just get the $$$ when the license is issued/renewed.

The racket going on right now with the vanity calls is a case in point.  When that system was started up, a fee was imposed for the work necessary to check on the callsign requested and issue it.  Fair enough--it took somebodys time and effort to do so, an administrative fee.  But, the renewal of that call is just as effortless as the renewal of any other sequentially issued call--yet the FCC still charges the same fee to renew a vanity call, but no fee to renew a sequential call.  AND, the fee is going up every year.

It is just a short step to go to imposing that fee to everyone who renews a ham ticket, whether it is a vanity or sequential call.  As a matter of fact, I would predict that there will soon be a fee to issue any ham ticket, probably doubled for a vanity call sign AND a fee for renewal every year.  Even the Freaky Friday Club has the smarts enough to recognize that is the most efficient way of getting us to pay any fee.

[KG6AMW]

If you kids don't stop fighting, I'm going to pull the car over and let you walk.

[K2JM]

AE4TR wrote: "There was talk going around that Bush and some of the rest of his Clique wanted to tax the use of email. That may be a dead issue now, but could be revived in the near future."

Actually, the "email tax" is a long-running and well-exposed internet hoax.  

Here is but one of the dozens of sites that expose this myth:
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBUrbanMyths.shtml#emailtax

Do a quick Google on "email tax hoax."

But I'm all for starting a rumor about a "radio wave tax".  We can even have a contest to see how many gullible suckers we can tag.

[KD5FJE]

AE4TR:

To those who ostracize you, I call them ignorant. Anyone who thinks Echelon is not real is the ignorant one. And anyone who thinks we need MORE fees or a yearly "tax" on our license for "enforement" [which the arrl no doubt will support] can use their own money to pay mine.

Where do you tax tax tax folks want to draw the line with your liberties?
Ignorance is no excuse for stupidity.

Yeah I voted Constitution Party if you couldn't tell. I'm no RRat or DRat who both want to tax us to death and give away our sovereignty and liberty a little at a time.