The ARRL has proposed getting rid of the morse code requirement for HF
access.

http://www.arrl.org/
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Attention All Amateurs...

ARRL to Propose New Entry-Level License, Code-Free HF Access (Jan 19,
2004) -- The ARRL will ask the FCC to create a new entry-level Amateur
Radio license that would include HF phone privileges without requiring
a Morse code test. The League also will propose consolidating all
current licensees into three classes, retaining the Element 1 Morse
requirement--now 5 WPM--only for the highest class. The ARRL Board of
Directors overwhelmingly approved the plan January 16 during its
Annual Meeting in Windsor, Connecticut. The proposals--developed by
the ARRL Executive Committee following a Board instruction last
July--are in response to changes made in Article 25 of the
international Radio Regulations at World Radiocommunication Conference
2003 (WRC-03). They would continue a process of streamlining the
amateur licensing structure that the FCC began more than five years
ago but left unfinished in the Amateur Service license restructuring
Report and Order (WT 98-143) that went into effect April 15, 2000. The
ARRL has addressed frequently asked questions (FAQs) concerning this
proposal.

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I'm not a fan of morse code, but I learned it enough to pass my
Advanced class license. This "lets make it easy for everyone to get on
the ham band" attitude is going to be the undoing of ham radio. The
purpose of Amateur Radio is to foster a qualified pool of radio
skilled amateurs. It is suppose to be skill before privilege. It is
not suppose to be for every Tom, Dick, and Harry to chit chat on
without proving sufficient technical skill.

The FCC gave 27 MHz to the general public and they ruined it.. Now
only the social outcast of the world use it, and the better members of
society sold out of CB decades ago. The Internet was opened up to the
general public, and it has been in a downward spiral ever since.

Please write the FCC and the ARRL to stop the "access for all" mistake
in progress. Anytime the general public is given access to anything in
mass numbers the end result is mayhem.

Michael Rawls
KS4HY