On 15 Dec 2006 17:34:45 -0800, wrote:

FCC announced today that Element 1, the 5 wpm Morse Code test, will no
longer be required for
any class of US amateur license. Technicians will get Technician Plus
privileges.

See news item on

www.fcc.gov

The effective date of this change isn't clear but should be soon.

As I'm sure many of us are already aware, the procedure with these
things is that the rule changes take effect 30 days after they have
been publisheds in the Federal Register. Once the R&O shows up in the
Federal Register, the 30-day countdown begins.

On Day 31, presumably, those who hold a Technician Class license
without Element 1 credit gain some operating privileges on HF, and the
rest of us have the opportunity to add some new callsigns to our logs.

John D. Kasupski, KC2HMZ
Tonawanda, New York
http://kc2hmz.net