"Bert Craig" wrote:

Nobody's forcing anybody to use it,
just learn it...and only for HF privies.


Given another statement in your reply ("unique skill...decoded by the
human brain"), that statement is rather illogical, isn't it? If the "skill"
tested is the ability to decode code with the human brain, it would seem one
would have to "use" that ability at some level just to pass the test.


At 5-wpm, it's more a demonstration of
discipline than proficiency. That is where
the true crux lies.


The FCC doesn't have a mandate to test discipline. And, beyond the rules
and good operating practices, we shouldn't expect it either. After all,
we're not the military or a karate school.


They've already reduced the emphasis by
creating the no-code Technician ticket and
further by reducing the required code
speed for the General and Extra tickets.


As I told Dee, the reasons quoted in my earlier message for reducing
code (changes over last 50 years, no system dependant on code in many years,
and so on) could just as easily be used to argue against a code test of any
kind. In other words, how are those facts changed by a 5 wpm test instead of
a 13 wpm test?


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/