On Thu, 31 Jul 2003, N2EY wrote:
Amateur radio operators, however, use it extensively. On the HF/MF amateur
bands, it is the second most popular mode of communications, only slightly
behind SSB in popularity.

1) Just because it won't be tested for doesn't mean that it can't be used!
2) In this petition, they made NO adjustment to the "CW protected bands."

It is undoubted that someone will come along with a follow-up petition to
decrease or eliminate the CW bands. I would be in favor of reducing their size
to between 1/3 and 1/4 of each band (in many places, it's 1/2 of the band),
but not complete elimination. Along with CW in many places come some of the
digital operating modes (at least on HF) - and those too need protection from
voice.

PS: I haven't significantly used code since I passed it on the exam for my
license, nor do I plan to. (If you look me up, you'll know that I have at
least 13wpm because I held an Advanced as my prior license class from 10
years ago.)

There is no requirement that any radio amateur actually use Morse code. Radio
amateurs use it by choice.

Justification for it NOT to be a requirement.
(Do we all know what requirement means? :-) )

Written tests are a burden to the applicants, too.

Are you advocating no license testing at all? How about no licenses? Having
to fill out the paperwork is a burden too!

(I am not advocating dropping the license requirement; just showing that his
argument can be taken ad absurdium.)

However, it should be noted that most of the Commission's enforcement actions
for poor and illegal operating practices such as jamming, obscenity/profanity,
failure to identify, operation outside of license privileges and failure to
heed bandplans are against amateurs using voice modes, not Morse code or
digital modes.

Profanity, by itself, is illegal? The FCC has never said that. There may be
limits and conditions where it's inappropriate, but there have been findings
that in some very limited contexts that profanity by itself does NOT cause a
violation to have occurred.

Following this logic, the written exams should be stripped of anything a
licensee does not have an interest in.

Does that include having to answer ANY question? :-)

This proposal simply drops Element 1 without making any other changes. Oddly
enough, if it were adopted, Technicians would gain a bit of 10 meter SSB. Most
of the privileges Technicians would gain would be slices of 80, 40, 15 and 10
meter CW.

I don't see a problem with that. What's your problem with it?

This petition is meant to address the change in international agreement
dropping the code requirement as a license prerequisite and NOTHING MORE.
They're not out to overhaul the entire service; just this one part. At least
they're doing it in a way that has no impact on the rest of it.

If you want to mess with the mandated bandplans, file your own petition.