Dumbing Down?

[k4kyv]

I happened upon this on QRZ.com. Reportedly, it is a posting on Craigs List in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Be a HAM RADIO OPERATOR

Date: 2009-02-22, 11:25AM EST


Have you ever wanted to get a Ham Radio License? Well now is your chance.

Did you know that you don't need to know Morris Code any longer? There are many licenses classes that don't require code.

Did you know that Ham Radio Operators use their radios to talk around the world but the also have radios for talking locally. They use base station radios along with mobile radios and hand held radios and talk all over the county using a series of repeater sites.

Did you know that the local Ham Radio Operators provide all of the communications for the Pittsburgh Marathon and the Vintage Gran Prix?

Did you know that local Ham Radio Operators provide Emergency communications during storms and floods and other disasters all over the county?

You can be part of this wonderful hobby.

Now its easier than ever. New classes are starting soon.

The only cost involved is the $15.00 examination fee at the time of your test and maybe a study guide. Most of the study material is available on the internet for free.

If you are interested in joining us on the air then just send an email.
Please include your name and a contact phone number.

Did you know that you too can be a Ham in only 6 weeks? New classes are starting soon at the Salvation Army Building in Greentree.

I hope the person who wrote that did better on his amateur radio exam than he did in Freshman English. 

You don't get a second shot at a first impression.

Just whom should we be aiming for in the general population as we look for new hams to replace us old buzzards as we die off?

Click here to view the entire thread

[KA1ZGC]

I hate to tell you, but radios is gramatically correct. I sincerely hope you didn't think there was supposed to be an apostrophe there. Also, Gran Prix is correct. It's not a "Grand Prix".

Otherwise, he only half-changed "licenses" to "license classes", mis-spelled "Morse" and dropped an apostrophe.

I've seen far worse abuse of the English language on this very board, usually by people claiming that nobody has their level of understanding about life.

[Tom WA3KLR]

radios

I guess Dan Quayle would spell it radioes.

[ka3zlr]

He's from Picksburgh what do yuuns expect....LOL.....

I was much more involved with NHRA ... All Power, One direction, Get-r-Done...

Left turns, Not an Option...

73
Jack.

[k4kyv]

I hate to tell you, but radios is gramatically correct. I sincerely hope you didn't think there was supposed to be an apostrophe there. Also, Gran Prix is correct. It's not a "Grand Prix".

Otherwise, he only half-changed "licenses" to "license classes", mis-spelled "Morse" and dropped an apostrophe.

I've seen far worse abuse of the English language on this very board, usually by people claiming that nobody has their level of understanding about life.

No, the point about "radio" was the multiple repetition of the word.  He's using grade 4 level English.  It would have sounded much more pleasing to the ear and to the intellect as "They use base stations, along with mobile and hand held radios to talk all over the county using a series of repeater sites."

You're right about Gran Prix.  But I wonder why it's spelt that way.  I always assumed it was taken from French because of the way it is pronounced, and the only forms of the word are grand, grande, grands, grandes, although I have seen grand-chose (never grande-chose), written as gran'chose and grand-père as gran'pere.

Something that really grates like a fingernail scratching a blackboard is the improper use of it's.  You  see it all the time, even in what passes for scholarly and professional writing, for example "the station lost it's tower in a storm".  It's is used when and only when meant to be a contraction of it is.

[Ed/KB1HYS]

He's from Picksburgh what do yuuns expect....LOL.....
I was much more involved with NHRA ... All Power, One direction, Get-r-Done...
Left turns, Not an Option...
73
Jack.

But NO one makes fun of a guy with a gun 

[W1UJR]

I couldn't help but post on a thread entitled "Dumbing Down", have a reputation to keep up. 

Ok, now I posted. 

[nq5t]

I guess Dan Quayle would spell it radioes.

And pronounce it R-ah-dioes.

It is a problem, though.  There's a guy on another reflector, got his first license 3-4 months ago, bought a relatively expensive high performance R-ah-dioe, passed the Extra class exam this month, and is still confused about what AGC is all about.

So it goes ... won't ever be the same.  Too many guys with 2-letter calls still trying to figure out how to compute the length of a dipole, much less anything a bit more serious.

Grant/NQ5T

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

LOL. It never was the same.

[k4kyv]

It is a problem, though.  There's a guy on another reflector, got his first license 3-4 months ago, bought a relatively expensive high performance R-ah-dioe, passed the Extra class exam this month, and is still confused about what AGC is all about.

So it goes ... won't ever be the same.  Too many guys with 2-letter calls still trying to figure out how to compute the length of a dipole, much less anything a bit more serious.

The names of the licence classes are way out of date, and none of them any longer reflect the essence of the classes they represent.

There is no real "Extra" class any more.  Per Dictionary.com:
ex⋅tra 
–adjective
1.    beyond or more than what is usual, expected, or necessary; additional: an extra copy of a newspaper; an extra charge.
2.    larger or better than what is usual: an extra binding.

That realistically described the top grade of licence back when it was essentially a trophy  licence, a stroke of the ego; when there was a two-year tenure requirement, a high speed code requirement, and it carried no additional operating privileges, and even after incentive licensing, when it carried only a minuscule 25 kHz exclusive CW segment on each band and a minuscule 25 kHz phone segment in some bands.  Following incentive licensing, the Advanced  became the workhorse ticket that carried a majority of the useful privileges.

Now, that the Advanced class has been retired and Extra Class is mandatory to shed the severe restrictions imposed on the General class, while the tenure requirement and high speed code test are long gone from the Extra, and 50 questions have been whacked off the written test, the so-called "Extra" has become the workhorse ticket, no longer primarily a trophy, but mandatory in order to not miss out on a large portion of the privileges available to amateurs. It no longer fits the category of something "beyond or more than what is usual, expected, or necessary" or "larger or better than what is usual". It is  no longer "unusual" because new licensees must acquire it in order to fully enjoy amateur radio.

In reality, the Extra is the new General class.  It should be renamed something  like "Full Licence".

Now, let's look at the General.  Per Dictionary.com:

gen⋅er⋅al  –adjective
1.    of or pertaining to all persons or things belonging to a group or category: a general meeting of the employees.
2.    of, pertaining to, or true of such persons or things in the main, with possible exceptions; common to most; prevalent; usual: the general mood of the people.
3.    not limited to one class, field, product, service, etc.; miscellaneous.
4.    considering or dealing with overall characteristics, universal aspects, or important elements, esp. without considering all details or specific aspects: general instructions; a general description; a general resemblance one to another.

That used to accurately describe the General Class ticket.  It carried the overall,  prevalent, usual, universal, important privileges.  But to-day, it carries very limited operating privileges, and licence holders are extremely restricted, able to enjoy only a fraction of the overall amateur privileges.  A more accurate name would be "Restricted Licence".

The Technician class was originally designed to promote experimentation with the upper VHF, UHF and above frequencies.  It was designed for the technically minded person with little or no interest in two-way communications beyond experimentation with the apparatus.  The Tech would not be passing traffic, working contests or ragchewing, unless the ragchewing involved technical discussions with hams of like interests, about breaking new technical barriers at UHF and microwave.

To-day's Technician class is about everything but the above.  It has become the new Novice, or entry level class.  Techs are not expected to know a tremendous lot about what is inside the radio.  The class has long been criticised because a large number of licensees simply buy a radio and work the repeaters or ragchew nightly on 2m. simplex with the local yokels.  Techs are not even allowed to operate AM in their limited 10m band space because is assumed that building an AM transmitter or converting an old CB rig to the amateur frequencies would be beyond their capability, and it is expected that they will simply buy a ready-made SSB radio in order to communicate.

Therefore, a more appropriate name that would more accurately describe the present-day the Technician class ticket would be the "Communicator Class Licence".

This is not to say that there was anything wrong with the FCC's decision to simplify the licensing structure; all those licence classes we used to have (extra, advanced, general, novice, technician-plus and no-code technician) was unwieldy, burdensome to the FCC, and served no useful purpose.  It needed to be streamlined. 

But the three remaining grades of licensing should have titles that accurately reflect their purpose and the privileges they carry.

[WB2YGF]

It is a problem, though.  There's a guy on another reflector, got his first license 3-4 months ago, bought a relatively expensive high performance R-ah-dioe, passed the Extra class exam this month, and is still confused about what AGC is all about.

Well, we have a choice, don't we.  We can try to bring him up to speed, or decide he is not "worthy", and make fun of him.  The former might help, the latter surely won't.

[WA1GFZ]

No kids, no lids.....

[WB2YGF]

I think the "Morris" guy was recruiting new hams in the best way he could, despite his minor gramatical errors.  I would cut him some slack and pat him on the back, myself ...

T

Amen.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

If you keep listening to that Steve guy, you'll ALWAYS be a radio moron. 

[K9ACT]

I love the Morris code but "it's" is one of my favorite blunders also.

Thanks for saving me the trouble of looking it up.

I tend to use the ' for the usual possessive but I guess it's just one of those quirks of our wonderful language.  Just when you think you know the rules, here comes the exception.

Another one is putting "anymore" at the front of a sentence.  I hear this all the time, it makes perfect sense but sounds totally illiterate but I can't think of any rule that it violates.  I know, too many buts.

js

[ka3zlr]

I like Katoes...Morris wudda made a good AMer...

It's the attitude menzes..

73
Jack.

[KA1ZGC]

One of my personal faves is when someone being interviewed is asked a question, and the first two words out of their mouth are "I mean...".

Huh? You haven't made a single noise until this point, what portion of your silence is it that needs to be clarified?

It's just another one of those stupid things we do as a society as though they made sense.

[k4kyv]

Or when someone sprinkles their conversation with "you know".  No, I don't know. That's why I want you to tell me. 

I once watched Tony Blair in an interview while he was still prime minister, and even he sprinkled his discourse full of "you know's".

[NE4AM]

If you have a chance, watch the movie 'Idiocracy'.  It's a satirical look at the future of the US if current trends are any indication.  The idea is that well-educated people are having the fewest children, so the reverse-Darwinian 'natural' selection will push the national IQ down. (The XYL and I have 5 kids, so draw your own conclusions.)
The America of 2100 is depicted as being full of strippers, monster trucks, and professional wrestlers.  And misplaced apostrophe's.

[KA1ZGC]

And misplaced apostrophe's.

 

[k4kyv]

French speakers can be worse than English speakers about spelling.  Written French is much more phonetic than written English, but their spelling system is very complicated, and nearly any pronounced syllable has more than one possible spelling.

When you study French in school, you have the proper spelling of the words pounded into your head, and you are expected to get all the accent marks correct, etc.  But if you ever look at an example of Geo Bleau's writing, you may find a tremendous number of spelling errors even though the words are written so that when read phonetically, the pronunciation comes out perfect.

This is very conspicuous in French language chat rooms and message boards, plus the garbled text is usually mixed in with cyper-abbreviations and acronyms.

French schools constantly drill proper spelling into the kids' heads with frequent, long and difficult dictation exercises, but many still never quite get it.  English has its own spelling difficulties, but I don't think I ever remember having to do dictation exercises in my English or spelling classes in elementary or high school.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

So does the current Prez. And a ton of ughs, when off the teleprompter.

Or when someone sprinkles their conversation with "you know".  No, I don't know. That's why I want you to tell me. 

I once watched Tony Blair in an interview while he was still prime minister, and even he sprinkled his discourse full of "you know's".

[k4kyv]

He does it a little more fluently and more smoothly than his predecessor.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Not sure how fluent one can be considered when every other word is uuuuuh. Smooth? Sheister salemen are smooth.

[K1MVP]

So it goes ... won't ever be the same.  Too many guys with 2-letter calls still trying to figure out how to compute the length of a dipole, much less anything a bit more serious.
Grant/NQ5T

I agree as far "never the same"-- and at least the "novice" of years ago knew how to calculate the
length of a dipole, and knew ohms law, which is more than can be said nowadays with "todays
requirements" or should I say "lack of requirements".

                                                73, K1MVP