"N2EY" wrote in message
...
In article , "Clint"
rattlehead@computronDOTnet writes:

hmmm..
a little sour over your precious CW testing being
discontinued, world-wide?

Not "sour" at all.

But 8 countries (so far) is hardly "world wide".

For what its worth...here's the IARU policy direction:

NEWS RELEASE
International Amateur Radio Union
P.O. Box 310905
Newington, CT 06131-0905 USA
FAX: +1 860 594 0259
E-Mail:
12 September 2003

For immediate release

IARU Council Addresses Strategic Issues
The Administrative Council of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU)
held
its annual meeting on 6-8 September 2003 in Amsterdam. The meeting was to be
held in Taipei in conjunction with the IARU Region 3 Conference but was
moved to
Amsterdam when the Region 3 Conference had to be postponed to next year as a
result of travel restrictions arising from concerns about SARS. The Council
took
the following actions:

1. Four hours of the meeting were devoted to a strategic planning session
with a
planning horizon of the year 2010. Several key issues that are likely to
influence the future of the IARU were identified. A report is to be drafted
and
circulated for further consideration by the Council early in 2004.

2. The results of the 2003 World Radiocommunication Conference concerning
the
amateur and amateur-satellite services were reviewed in detail. The Council
congratulated and thanked all individuals and organizations who contributed
to
the satisfactory outcome. IARU member-societies were urged to bring to the
attention of their administrations the desirability of adopting specific
changes
in their domestic regulations for the amateur and amateur-satellite
services, so
that they will be consistent with the revised Article 25 of the
international
Radio Regulations.

3. The Council revised an existing Resolution concerning the Morse code in
the
light of the WRC-03 decision to leave to each administration the question of
whether or not to require a demonstration of Morse skill to operate below 30
MHz. Under the revised Resolution, IARU policy is to support the removal of
Morse code testing requirements.

(SNIP)

Attending the Amsterdam meeting were IARU President Larry Price, W4RA; Vice
President David Wardlaw, VK3ADW; Secretary David Sumner, K1ZZ; regional
representatives Ole Garpestad, LA2RR, Don Beattie, G3BJ, Hans Blondeel
Timmerman, PB2T, Pedro Seidemann, YV5BPG, Rod Stafford, W6ROD, Tim Ellam,
VE6SH,
Fred Johnson, ZL2AMJ, K. C. Selvadurai, 9V1UV, and Yoshiji Sekido, JJ1OEY;
and
recording secretary Paul Rinaldo, W4RI.