"Dick Carroll" wrote in message
...


Mike Coslo wrote:

Bill Sohl wrote:

Do you really think the FCC has or will have a change of opinion...
especially in light of the entire international community endorsing
the end of mandatory code testing as an ITU requirement?

Well, I wouldn't condider it a lock. The FCC was recently
spanked by
both the Supremes and the Senate. They may be reluctant to send anything
new along for a while.

In addition, the US has shown a reluctance to go along with what the
rest of the world is thinking.


actually, only the executive (presidential) branch has shown real resistance
to world pressures. MANY other levels of government, including special
interest groups, work to have the country damn near lay down and let
the world use us as a doormat.... such as Earth First! pushing to have
tighter environmental restrictions placed on american industry, as per
the request of the united nations which WE fund about a FOURTH of
it's treasury.


Finally, we haven't ratified all that many treaties lately have we?

this wouldn't exactly be a "treaty"... all the nations that are chosing to
drop CW testing haven't done so in a huge gathering with a document
with signatures on it, all in agreement.... they are doing it individually
on a case-by-case basis.


So while it might happen, I'm not going to do any betting on it.


that's what a lot of people said to the proposition that higher speed CW
testing being dropped... but it did. It's gone, and will not ever return, to
the
chagrin of many.

Then when the retired head of the Amateur and Citizen's Division of the
FCC
states in his comments to the NCVAEC petition, the writing of which he was
a
party, that it simply is an oxymoron that an Extra Class ham should
be allowed to *not* be proficient in Morse when he is considered an expert
at
ham radio, you might take that as some sort of a clue to thinking in high
places...


the definition of oxymoron is a statement or word that contridicts itself.
it is only
an OPINION but not a FACT that an extra class ham includes within itself the
requirement to be proficient in morse code.

the law is what counts, and currently the only proficiency required is 5wpm
(for any
class for that matter)... and soon, that will be dropped. Then, by law, just
not
to YOUR liking, will be that an extra class ham will not have to show
profeciency
in archaic, outdated communication modes.

Clint
KB5ZHT