"Tebojockey" wrote

/snip
somewhat outmoded means of communication. Even for seafarers, GMDSS
is taking over and code is used less and less.
/snip

Somewhat outmoded? Used less and less? Here's an update:

Even at sea, where code died a slow death as far back as the 1960's (some
hangers-on who liked it persisted through the 80's) there was no need for
any radio operator to have memorized more than two letters of code after
that point. Except for an outdated concept of licensing. That is also long
gone from the maritime world, with no radio officer aboard any longer. Why?
Simple economics. In concert with great advances in safety of life at sea,
the need for either code or the radioman who knew it faded away completely a
long time ago.

I agree with you that anyone who experiments or legitimately repairs or
modifies radio transmitting equipment should be licensed, and for the good
reasons you explained. But the fact is that neither aircraft nor marine
vessels in private or commercial or military use whose lives depend on
communication, have any such requirements for the operators. It is in fact
quite "plug-n-play" and this is the major reason the MF and HF bands are
still in use at all. When that equipment is no longer competitive with
modern satellite systems, we will see it disappear entirely from commercial
use. By that time new technologies will have other uses for the spectrum,
and its hard to imagine how far some of that will go. But it is no longer
relevant to continue to drag old habits (CW) along, unless you are forming
an "old habit we do for fun" club. If Amateur Radio allows itself to be
relegated to that category, as the legal team proposing new BPL rules argued
in open court last Fall (which they won by the way, in spite of heroic
efforts by the ARRL and others), it has nobody to thank but itself.

73,
Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Virginia