From: "an old friend" on Fri, Jan 19 2007 10:42 pm

wrote:
From: Mike Coslo on Fri, Jan 19 2007 4:27 pm

I too am a sad to see Morse code testing go away, espcially from a
historical view, but I fear that some of the superior attitudes, and
sometimes outright misrepresentation put forward by some hams regarding
how much better a vetting process the old old system was is going to be
a greater threat to the ARS than any code test elimination ever was.

I really can't understand WHY some "vetting" process
was needed. A hobby is an avocation, NOT an occupation.
Survival of amateur radio never did depend on "how well
anyone sent code" nor was the country in danger if some
sent it badly...neither was it more secure if some
could send it "perfectly."

realy Len as I understand It was ONCE vital to the ARS in 1908
certainly but somewhere betwen that date and 1950 that ended

Yes, it very definitely ended - insofar as REALITY of
the times is concerned.

I can't speak with life experience about 1908 but, in
1950 I was a Junior in High School and had already
fooled around with "radio" in various forms, some WW2
surplus conversions, some homebuilt. 1950 is 56
years ago. :-)

By 1950 many things in "radio" had happened. The
military networks had converted to teleprinter for
the vast bulk of long-distance communications on HF
during WW2 and, with US military now all over the
globe, a definite "Cold War" needed quicker comms.
The public had gotten a taste of "on the scene" radio
in 1940 with Edward R. Murrow's broadcasts from
London DURING the "Blitz." Television broadcasting
was exploding in scope and availability of TV receivers
all over the nation. The US Army had already proved
the viability of using the moon as a reflector of
radio waves ("Project Diana" in 1946). US Public
Safety radio services were busy converting to VHF FM
voice for police, fire departments, ambulances,
state patrols. AT&T was busy with the first trials
of long-distance microwave relay of television and
hundreds of voice circuits on a single microwave link.
Single-channel SSB had come into reality courtesy of
the new Strategic Air Command's need for reliable
long-distance voice communications for their
bombers...a different version of multi-voice-
channel "SSB" in worldwide use since the 1930s.
Metallurgists and physicists were busy trying to
produce a new gadget called a "transistor" in
quantity, having to invent all sorts of things
needed to make them economically feasible. The
experimenters in crystal growth were beginning to be
successful in making large, pure, man-made crystals
of quartz and those methods would also be used in
making germanium and silicon ultra-pure later. FM
audio broadcasting was expanding under new
regulations and a US realignment of allocations
above 30 MHz. Standardization of FM stereo broad-
casts was still being worked out and the NTSC was
being called together again to work out color TV
broadcasting standards; the "fight" between CBS and
RCA methods had come to an impasse (industry didn't
really like either one). Radar was, of course,
already proven and was expanding in civilian
applications. Raytheon, in some lab trials with
old S-Band magnetrons, discovered that one could
heat foods with controlled microwave energy and
the first of the "Radaranges" had been born (they
would - foolishly? - sell that concept and brand
name to Amana). Civil airways communications were
close to standardizing worldwide on the US military
pioneering of VHF communications and radionavigation
systems...already given a baptism of fire with the
Berlin Blockade of 1948 and the intense Allied air
cargo supply effort to keep that city alive. Air
to ground radiotelemetry was already being used
during tests of new aircraft and was being adapted
for missle testing and guidance (using mostly
captured German V2 rockets). The old IFF
(Identification Friend or Foe) L-band transponder
system for aircraft of later WW2 was being improved
and standardization for civilian applications being
done by a newly-re-formed ARINC. The USN was busy
pioneering TACAN at L-band and was having success
with that (especially for carrier-based aircraft);
TACAN would eventually be adopted for the military
and a civilian form, DME (Distance Measuring
Equipment) was being tested. Civilian radio-
navigation testing of VOR (Very high frequency
Omnidirectional Range) was successful, an easy-
to-use directional navigation aid that would work
in small general aviation aircraft. The maritime
world wasn't happy with LORAN so some other systems
were being tried out such as DECCA. The USN would
eventually prove out the prototype that would
become GPSS for the whole world. Up-and-coming
UK science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke (an
engineer on RAF work with radar-assisted landing
in WW2) had already written up a three-satellite
worldwide radio communications relay system in
Wireless World magazine and lots of folks were
beginning to have deep thoughts about that...no
worries about "MUF" or other HF propagation quirks
since it wouldn't depend on ionospheric bounce.

In 1950 the ARRL was busy promoting the glory and
majesty of the "epitome" of radio communications,
on-off keying CW as "vital" to maintain a "pool of
trained radio operators" in the USA via ham radio.
Oh, and a very few smart amateur radio hobbyists
(who were also engineers and educators at their
day jobs) were trying to explain SSB theory in
the pages of QST. There was great resistance to
this new-fangled SSB in the rank and file of
amateur brass pounders then, and apparently there
still is... :-)

Okay, so it is 57 years later. What do we have in
the world of "radio?" Communication satellites
are busy working 24/7, their equatorial orbit spaces
already FILLED, supplying us with speed-of-light
comms over carriers of TV, voice, data, and the
part of the international backbone of the Internet.
Land-based microwave radio relay is being replaced
by fiber optic cable handling digitized anything
at GigaHertz rates...under the oceans too. One in
three Americans now has a cell phone, a little two-
way radio tied into the telephone system, something
never really envisioned in 1950 despite the early
"walkie-talkies." Cell phones can now contain
digital cameras and little calculators, play hours
of digitally-recorded sound. All of that enabled
by the enormous technology explosion of the solid-
state ear beginning about 1960. Digital TV is now
a reality, both broadcast as well as cable. We
have stereo FM broadcast, even multi-channel audio
with "storecast." "Shortwave" broadcasters are
transmitting digital audio on HF, something pooh-
poohed as "impossible" by certain "radio experts."
The old 500 KHz worldwide maritime emergency
frequency is all but dead, replaced by Inmarsat-
relayed GMDSS...a system conceived and approved by
the maritime community. No more dramatic morse
messages from stricken ships, now its a quick,
almost-anyone-can-use-it data message that will be
picked up worldwide. GPS is, of course, a proven
reality and many different models of receivers
can be purchased at consumer electronics stores.
The aviation community is considering replacing
the 1955-standardized-worldwide civil airways
radionavigation with GPS, possibly a hybrid using
microwaves for the approach guidance. RFID is now
a reality, able to track everything at store
portals and, with implants, animals and people.
Private boat owners can add HF SSB to their harbor
and inland VHF radio equipment, many models, even
some made entirely in the USA (SGC in Puget Sound),
no big "test" needed. Almost every long-distance
truck operator has at least one CB radio on board
and that has been so for decades. Police and fire
department personnel can carry VHF or UHF two-way
radios on their person for instant communications.
In some police departments their VHF and UHF
radios have two-way data transmission capability
via "computer" terminal equipment in patrol cars.
WLANs (Wireless Local Area Networks) have been a
reality for a decade, used in large offices and
businesses spread over a large area, even in
factories (with all their inherent RFI from
motors, etc.). Homes can be networked wirelessly.
Cordless telephones, once operating solely on
49 MHz, have expanded to the 5 GHz ISM band (once
a seeming impossibility a half century prior)
and with security through on-line digital
encryption. Anyone watching team sports on TV
can see the ubiquitous Motorola logo on headsets
of coaches, little wireless two-way radios that
are similar to the $50 per pair FRS and GMRS
handie-talkies sold in consumer electronics stores.
The US military has highly secure digital radios
(low VHF range up through mid-UHF, almost jam-
proof) for small-unit land comms (voice and/or
data) and in relay with air and sea support;
they've had that since 1989. The military has
long had the 225-400 MHz band for AM airborne
voice comms and has peripheral equipment to adapt
it for secure digital voice and data. Of course,
the military has had precision GPS since 1980
(they pioneered and paid for it). NASA has
radio equipment for tracking and receiving data
(including imagery) from very distant space
probes and, in the late 1960s, enabled us to see
the first humans set foot on the moon in real
time, audio and video. Radio even relayed real-
time biometric data from astronauts on their way
to and from the moon. US submarines still use
VLF radio to communicate while submerged, all
using encrypted data (not morse code)...very slow
speed data but also very secure and automatically
recorded at the ship.

In early 2007 the FCC will finally END the "need"
to test for morse code skill to get any amateur
radio license. They did this despite the
insistence of olde-tymers that one "HAD" to test
for morse in order to "qualify" to enter the
"service" of US amateur radio. I'm not sure
where and what these olde-tymers imagine US ham
radio is, but they just don't realize the entire
rest of the radio world has long since dropped
morse code as any requirement for communications.
Amateur radio has always been a HOBBY, nothing
more, nothing less.

Morsemanship "vital" to the nation? No way.
Morsemanship "necessary" for emergency work? No
way. Morsemanship "needed to provide a pool of
trained radio operator for national defence?"
No way. Morsemanship "necessary" for government
licensing purposes? No way, even back in 1990.
Morsemanship an absolute must for ham radio? No,
that was always a figment of the old morsemen's
imagination, implanted there by ancient tales of
emotional glory of the distant PAST.

It is excellent that the FCC is finally getting around
to modernizing the US amateur radio regulations.