"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.

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

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

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 guy's retired and no longer a member of any "high places".
See also the latest from IARU.

IARU Says "Remove Code", Excerpted from ARRL Letter

"The focus was on the future when the International Amateur Radio Union
Administrative Council met September 6-7 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

In the aftermath of WRC-03, the council urged IARU member-societies to call
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." In that vein, the IARU governing body
called
for the removal of Morse code as an examination requirement to operate on
HF.
The council reiterated its stance first taken in 2001 that Morse code
proficiency "as a qualifying criterion for an HF amateur license is no
longer
relevant to the healthy future of amateur Radio."

"IARU policy is to support the removal of Morse code testing as a
requirement
for an amateur license to operate on frequencies below 30 MHz," the IARU
Administrative Council resolved. At the same time, the council's resolution
recognized Morse code as "an effective and efficient mode of communication
used
by many thousands of radio amateurs." It also took into account
ITU-Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) Recommendation M.1544, which sets down
the
minimum qualifications of radio amateurs.

Cheers,
Bill K2UNK