On Mon, 14 Jul 2003 22:38:20 GMT, Dee D. Flint wrote:

Actually the fact that other services don't use it very much is a strong
argument to require hams to learn it. This is the place to preserve the
skill in case of need and to prevent this capability from becoming a lost
art. Plus of course the fact that quite a few hams do use it.

The original reason for requiring CW/Morse proficiency of amateur
operators was to ensure that they would be able to read signals
directed at their station by government stations who came up on the
amateur's frequency to tell them to leave the air because they were
interfering with the governemnt (usually Navy) communications - WW-I
era stuff.

Everything else was superfluous - the need for "trained operators"
for CW/Morse circuits went away after WW-II. Civil aviation CW went
away right after that war, too. Marine CW persisted another 60
years or so, but amateur radio operators were never trained nor
recruited to be the "reserve force" for the merchant marine'd Radio
Officers.

The only others who need Morse qualification at present are military
intelligence intercept operators and their civilian counterparts in
the FCC and certain other spook agencies - and those service techs
who want to be able to read and understand what their clients' Morse
IDers are saying when they go haywire.

We hams may be the "keeper of the flame" because we want to do it,
but there is no need to require it.

--
73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane

From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon