wrote in message
oups.com...
As I understand it, the reason for the requirement to display
proficiency in
CW stemmed from times in the ancient past where CW was the primary
(if not
the only) option for communicating, and there was also the
requirement that
we be proficient so that we could understand emergency traffic and
pass it
on / respond to it.

Those were a couple of reasons - but there are others.

And they are?

There is really no valid reason for the retention of CW as a
mandatory
requirement for HF access

Many people agree - but others disagree. What constitutes a valid
reason depends entirely on personal opinion.

For example, Morse code is widely used in the amateur radio service. On
HF it is secondary only to SSB in popularity, and not by much of a
margin. That popularity alone, IMHO, is a valid reason to keep at least
a basic Morse Code test.

Your are of course free to state your opinion, but please do not feel to bad
if it is ridiculed if it is away from the norm. My HF experience has been
that there are far more operators on SSB than CW - and yes I do listen in
the CW segments as well. I would hesitate to describe CW as being used more
often than or in similar amounts as SSB. 80/90 years ago, most if not all
of the activity would have been CW - now it is used less than SSB. In 20
years how popular will it be?? By forcing CW onto people, yes some will
love it and continue, but almost all of my friends and acquaintances in the
radio arena (excluding one or two) who have done the CW testing, did so
purely for the exams, and then never picked up their key since then - what a
terrible waste of time to do that (even if it gave them HF access), wouldn't
we be far better learning more on other areas that would benefit far more?

- many countries around the world have removed it

How many? Most of the countries have retained the test so far,
including Japan, which has had a QRP nocodetest HF ham license for
decades.

Not terribly up to date these days, but the following link is of interest.
http://www.nocode.org/articles.html


and surprisingly enough, now that it is no longer a requirement,
there is
apparently a resurgence of interest in the mode (here in VK for one).
If
you want to keep on using it, feel free, but please don't force
others to
learn a mode that is no longet essential, and indeed only barely
relevant.

Then delete most of the written test too, because most of it is
arguably less relevant.

How so? The main reason forthe theory testing is to demonstrate that you
have the basic proficiencies
The testing for CW merely shows that you have been able to learn CW and pass
a test - there is no real relevance to it in todays radio world - at least
none that would keep a potential amateur off the radio because he couldn't
display the appropriate proficiencies with CW.

Here in VK we removed the CW requirement for HF access just over a
year ago
and while the bands are only slightly more active, there hasn't been
the
flood of moronic operators that were being forecasted.

So there really hasn't been much change.

Could't quantify the actual increase, but HF has become somewhat more active
since the CW requirements were removed. The only change has been positive -
i.e. removal of an unecessary barrier.

P.S. if I use some of the digital data modes, I can send and receive
100%
copy when CW cannot even be heard - go digital modes.
How popular are those digital modes?

Again, I cannot quantify the popularity of these modes, but many amateurs
that I interact with do use multiple different digital modes depending on
what their interests and abilitiies.




Matt