View Single Post
  #86   Report Post  
Old January 22nd 04, 09:36 PM
Robert Casey
 
Posts: n/a
Default

KØHB wrote:

Unfortunately, I overestimated the amount of balls carried by the BoD.
Not only didin't they have the balls to recommend complete elimination
of the Morse exam, but in recommending that Morse testing be continued
for "EXTRA", the speed they recommended was the same count-the-dots 5WPM
which Novices have been passing for over a half-century.



IIRC, most VEs give the code test using farnsworth method. That is, 13
wpm characters
spaced at 5 wpm rate. Harder to count the dahs dots. Idea is that one
can get faster
at code quicker, as you learn the sounds of letters instead of counting
the dots.

Way back when, I had to receive and *send* with an FCC provided straight
key 5wpm.
I think that the FCC found that nobody ever failed sending if they could
receive, so they
dropped the send test.