Back in the day, when I had the blue paper (FCC First Phone) and the white
paper (FCC Second CW) and the blue and white paper (Amateur Extra acquired
before the days of incentive licensing) I considered that any compromise on
the code requirement would lead directly to the demise of Western
Civilization. (Side note: In those days, passing the 20 WPM code test was
no big deal. You had to be a General for two years before you could even
apply for an Extra. Any active CW operator who starts at 13 WPM will be
well over 20 WPM after two years. The big bugaboo on the Extra was the
written exam. I had the First Phone and Second CW for several years before
I took a crack at Extra.) By the early 80s when the no-code topic first
came up in a serious way (and CBers were getting ham licenses in droves), I
was very energetic in the effort to nip the no-code thing in the bud.
However, I now see that, after quite a few years of no-code licensing on
VHF, we're not really closer to perdition than we were back then. As an
exclusively CW operator, I find that CW is still thriving. Also, I do find
no-code VHF licensees who want to learn the code, and 5 WPM Extras who want
to get good at CW. Dropping the code requirement does not prevent the
members of either group from doing so.
I do sympathize with Thom LaCosta's point. Isn't the gradual relaxation of
the Morse requirement part of an overall relaxation in standards that seems
to be bedeviling all levels of contemporary society? Certainly, I used to
think so. However, I once ran across a translation of a 4000 year old
Egyptian hieroglyphic text that essentially said, "I don't know how we're
going to make it. The youth of the land don't have to achieve what we did,
and they have no sense of responsibility." This seems to be literally an
ages-old concern.
I expect that the real situation is that each generation needs to be good
at different things. When we see the rising generation not placing value on
skills we value, we forget that they are also mastering other skills which
are indispensable to them, but on which we do not place high value.
There is one other thing that should not be forgotten. Passing a code test
is not an assurance of either moral or intellectual virtue. It is not even
an assurance that the passee will be a good CW operator. There seems to be
a little enclave between 7035 and 7050 kHz where the quality of the sending
is absolutely abysmal. Nevertheless, every one of those operators passed a
code test, and probably well above 5 WPM.
Should the new generation of hams, especially the new Extras, by expected
to pay the dues to get the privilege? Absolutely! Must they pay them in the
same coin that we did? This seems unnecessarily arbitrary.
73,
Steve Kercel
AA4AK
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