What's with all the hate for ham radio?

I hear that it's not fair that people have to have a license to use it (other than in an emergency involving life or property. When that happens one can use ANY radio communications.) 

The blubbering is incessant. A lot of whiners that are too lazy or stupid to take a test that 8 year old kids have passed use the usual lame excuses.  (A couple months ago I worked a 12 year old girl. She was a real pro.) They don't want to have their licenses listed on a database.

That only holds water if they don't register to vote, have a Social Security number, drive, hunt, fish or do anything that doesn't require a license of any kind. Then I kind of see their point. Kind of.

"It should be like CB!" they cry. 

Someone said CB is the Haiti of the airwaves. They're spot on. CB is a mess, ham radio is fairly disciplined. It's disciplined because we have something to lose, a license. (and possible fines which are not light.)

CB used to require a license until the FCC gave up on it. CB was the 11 meter band taken from the hams and designated the Citizens Broadcast band in the late 50s. I recall some early 1960s Popular Science articles saying it was a pretty good public utility.

And it was one of those things that easily could have been a useful public utility had the FCC policed it and occasionally thrown out a fine to the abusers. They didn't.

Enter the 70s and any clown with $39.95 burning a hole in their pocket could go down to nearest Western Auto and buy themselves a CB and ratchet jaw all he wanted. It got worse as time went on. CBs are 4 watt rigs and enter the genius that dragged a linear amplifier to up his power. Couple that with a 55 mph federally mandated speed limit and enter the Smokey and the Bandit game. A lot of truckers had CBs powerful enough to service a small city.

That wasn't bad enough. Some rocket scientists started yanking components out to increase power even more which resulted in splattering his signal all over the entire band. I believe it peaked when some Billy-Joe-Bob finally splattered his signal on the aircraft bands. The FAA called the FCC who tracked him down and slapped him with a 5 figure fine. Of course he legally didn't have to pay it. He had the option to fight it in court which he did and the judge promptly doubled the fine. His problem, not mine.

"Freedom of the airwaves!" I hear from time to time.

While I hate too much government intervention as much as the next guy, I'm going to have to hold with basic licensing requirements because nobody want's to have a pilot of an airliner to have his radio jammed when he's trying to land at LAX with 300 souls on board.

The licensing itself serves a purpose. It shows a certain amount of  motivation on the part of the individual and as a result they respect the use of the airwaves. and gives them a little skin in the game.

No license means the individual has nothing in it and therefore will not respect it and like CB, the airwaves will go straight down the toilet.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY