🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:16:55 -0500, in
<slrni52s9n.3sf.dcferguson@akit-ferguson.com>, Dennis Ferguson
<dcferguson@pacbell.net> wrote:

>On 2010-07-29, David Kaye <sfdavidkaye2@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Larry <noone@home.com> wrote:
>>>Amateur Radio Relay League, our national ham radio organization that 
>>>coordinates and lobbies and kisses the bureaucrats' asses to keep us on 
>>>the air and keep commercial interests, like sellphone companies, from 
>>>stealing our frequency bands we've had since 1900, with only partial 
>>>success, [....]
>>
>> It is *right* that the FCC should take away some ham bands.  Ham radio is 
>> experimental radio.  There isn't much to experiment with any longer, and the 
>> remaining bands provide plenty of space for experimentation.  Most hams don't 
>> experiment at all.  They buy lots of equipment and work QSO's halfway around 
>> the world to talk about their rigs.  They collect wallpaper.  They don't 
>> provide much of a community service, except in those very rare instances of 
>> disasters, and then I don't see that they do that much that can't otherwise be 
>> done by local disaster folks using conventional VHF and UHF 2-way.  
>
>So in summary, you don't want hams to have the spectrum, but you also
>don't want commercial guys put up antennas in your neighbourhood so
>that they can use it.

Speaking for myself, what I want is for less precious spectrum to be
dedicated to the personal hobbies of hams, and for reasonably attractive
siting of commercial radio towers.  Left entirely to their own devices,
commercial radio operators will put up the cheapest ugly crap they can,
so it's up to government to strike an appropriate balance with
reasonable rules.  And this is a kinda sorta democracy, if the majority
would rather have less towers and poorer wireless coverage, then that's
what they should be able to get -- there's no right of the few to impose
their will on the many in this regard, and it's up to carriers to sell
the public on the benefits of the towers.

-- 
John

"We have met the enemy and he is us" -Pogo