The Magnum wrote:

To be proud of yes but jealously guarded? How are you going to guard
it...
by demanding Morse be set at 20-30 WPM in_all_classes of "Hammery"
That would be a good start. At least we'd get rid of a lot of the chaff
that has no intention of progressing up the so-called progressive
licensing scheme (a.k.a. an M3 licensee of more than one year). If
there had been a 20-30wpm Morse test when they got their M3 farce
licence, then they would never have bothered and Amateur Radio would
have been a better place as a result.

Judging by many peoples comments in the newsgroups and a few Amateurs I have
spoken to face to face many feel the hobby would have all but died compared
to what it used to be if the insistence of Morse was upheld especially to
that degree.

But that is simply not true and the statistics on the IARU website prove
it. The total number of Amateurs in the UK was increasing year in, year
out, and that was *before* either the Novice (now Intermediate) or
Foundation licenses were introduced.

However, the number of RSGB members was *reducing* year in, year out,
over the same period so the only reason RSGB Ltd backed these
unnecessary licence schemes so vigorously was to try to get more
members. They did not have the interests of Amateur Radio at heart, all
they were concerned with was keeping their commercial book publishing
company alive!