What's going on here ... the talk of restructuring to remove morse code
requirements has been going on for over 18 months. Many, many countries
have already removed the morse code requirement to gain access to HF. Sure
there's been a lot of backlash from those who still want to keep code alive.
I know this is the government, but, what is taking so long? Can't they come
to some decision quickly. Anyone have a proposed timeline of when this will
be settled.

"Joe Guthart" wrote in
:

What's going on here ... the talk of restructuring to remove morse code
requirements has been going on for over 18 months. Many, many
countries have already removed the morse code requirement to gain
access to HF. Sure there's been a lot of backlash from those who still
want to keep code alive. I know this is the government, but, what is
taking so long? Can't they come to some decision quickly. Anyone have
a proposed timeline of when this will be settled.




I did, but it was last year!!

Maybe someone in the FCC is a pro code test ham who is delaying the
process? The FCC in general has been in favour of removing the requirement
for a long time.

The US may be the last country to abolish the code test, the way things are
going. Mind you, AFAIK the code test has still not been abolished in Spain
or Italy(?), although I don't think there's a code test anywhere else much
in Europe anymore.

"Joe Guthart" wrote in message
...
What's going on here ... the talk of restructuring to remove morse code
requirements has been going on for over 18 months. Many, many countries
have already removed the morse code requirement to gain access to HF.
Sure
there's been a lot of backlash from those who still want to keep code
alive.
I know this is the government, but, what is taking so long? Can't they
come
to some decision quickly. Anyone have a proposed timeline of when this
will
be settled.



I think the hams shot themselves in the foot on this one. There have been
at least 18 petitions regarding code/no-code and restructuring submitted to
the FCC. Each one of these had to be opened to comments. The FCC will have
to rule on each petition and then take time to digest them and consolidate
into a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking should they choose to proceed. Then
this NPR will have to be open to comments for awhile. On top of that keep
in mind that the FCC is drastically understaffed. Finally, the FCC
implemented a major restructuring in the year 2000. They may simply not
want to make any changes this soon.

Besides, how often (except in times of war) have you seen the government do
anything quickly.

I estimated July of 2005 and am beginning to think that even that was not a
conservative enough guess.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE

In article , Alun
writes:

"Joe Guthart" wrote in
:

What's going on here ... the talk of restructuring to remove morse code
requirements has been going on for over 18 months. Many, many
countries have already removed the morse code requirement to gain
access to HF. Sure there's been a lot of backlash from those who still
want to keep code alive. I know this is the government, but, what is
taking so long? Can't they come to some decision quickly. Anyone have
a proposed timeline of when this will be settled.

I did, but it was last year!!

Maybe someone in the FCC is a pro code test ham who is delaying the
process? The FCC in general has been in favour of removing the requirement
for a long time.

Alun, despite the protestations of the olde-tyme hammes, the FCC isn't
much interested in favoring a hobby activity. Never has been despite
what the league has said in their own self-serving propaganda.

Apparently some of the movers and shakers in the FCC's higher
echelons want a "consensus of the community" or some such
idealistic blatherphrase. If "enough agree" one way or the other, they
might decide. Or might not. Ham radio (a hobby) isn't high on their
things-to-do-today ranking.

The ARRL isn't helping matters any. They insist and insist on having
some form of code testing there. But, the ARRL is a minority
group in U.S. amateur radio and can't possibly get a valid ranking as
a majority opinion maker. [they shot themselves in the foot on that
membership thing long ago but aren't able to sense the pain...]

The US may be the last country to abolish the code test, the way things are
going. Mind you, AFAIK the code test has still not been abolished in Spain
or Italy(?), although I don't think there's a code test anywhere else much
in Europe anymore.

The olde-tyme hammes of yesteryear sound their protest to the
judges! They demand a recount! [slowly they begin their chant to
the accompanyment of balalaikas...]

The Archaic Radiotelegraphy Society stumbles on...

In article , Alun
writes:

Maybe someone in the FCC is a pro code test ham who is delaying the
process?

Maybe. Or maybe it's just not a high priority to FCC.

The FCC in general has been in favour of removing the requirement
for a long time.

That's what I thought, based on the Report and Order to 98-143. But maybe
that's changedsince 1999.

The US may be the last country to abolish the code test, the way things are
going. Mind you, AFAIK the code test has still not been abolished in Spain
or Italy(?), although I don't think there's a code test anywhere else much
in Europe anymore.

What about the former "Soviet Bloc" countries? Scandinavia? How about New
Zealand, Asia, Africa, South America?

Canada is only now proposing to change the code test rules. And Japan, long the
poster country for no-codetest-HF ham licenses, hasn't changed anything.

Is the 5 wpm test really such a big deal?

73 de Jim, N2EY

In article , "Joe Guthart"
writes:

What's going on here ... the talk of restructuring to remove morse code
requirements has been going on for over 18 months.

No, it's only 14 months. WRC-2003 changed the treaty in July 2003

Many, many countries
have already removed the morse code requirement to gain access to HF.

Not really. Count 'em up - they are but a small fraction of the countries who
have retained the requirement.

Sure
there's been a lot of backlash from those who still want to keep code alive.
I know this is the government, but, what is taking so long? Can't they come
to some decision quickly.

I think that FCC had the authority to just drop Element 1 back in July 2003.
But they decided to go through the entire regulatory process, which takes time.
And it's just not a high priority to FCC.

In the 14 months since last July, there have been well over a dozen different
restructuring proposals to FCC from various groups and individuals. They range
from as simple as "drop the code test and leave everything else alone" to
major renovations including new license classes, subband changes, etc. Each and
every proposal I know of has been assigned an RM number, put on the public
record, opened for public comment, etc. Eventually the FCC will generate an
NPRM from all that info, there will be more comments and reply comments and
eventually the rules may change. Or not.

73 de Jim, N2EY


Anyone have a proposed timeline of when this will
be settled.

"Joe Guthart" wrote in message ...
What's going on here ... the talk of restructuring to remove morse code
requirements has been going on for over 18 months. Many, many countries
have already removed the morse code requirement to gain access to HF.

Kindly note that "other countries" don't generally lead the U.S.
around by it's nose. The U.S. seldom blindly buys into "many many
foreign goverments'"internal policies. We ain't EU/UN sheep. Take your
pick.

Sure
there's been a lot of backlash from those who still want to keep code alive.

It's not a "backlash", a very large precentage of the U.S. ham
population favors the retention of the code test. The FCC is quite
aware of this divide within the hobby and as a result continues to let
the matter cook on one of their sub-basement back burners until they
manage to get back to the matter. Typical bush-league bureaucratic
work and aggravation avoidance ploy. Keeps their inbox flak & spam
levels down.

I know this is the government, but, what is taking so long?

Because the public has no vested interest at all in whether the ham
code test goes away or not. The FCC has *much* bigger fish to fry with
it's scarce resources. For instance the public needs the FCC to focus
it's assets on dramatically reshuffling the whole upper RF spectrum to
accomodate wireless broadband access to the Internet far more than the
public needs the FCC to diddle with rules changes which allow more
codeless hobbyists access to the HF ham bands.

Can't they come
to some decision quickly.

Joesph did you just get off the boat at Ellis Island Joe??

Anyone have a proposed timeline of when this will
be settled.

Nice troll Joe. At least in on-topic for once.

w3rv

(Brian Kelly) wrote in
om:

"Joe Guthart" wrote in message
...
What's going on here ... the talk of restructuring to remove morse
code requirements has been going on for over 18 months. Many, many
countries have already removed the morse code requirement to gain
access to HF.

Kindly note that "other countries" don't generally lead the U.S.
around by it's nose. The U.S. seldom blindly buys into "many many
foreign goverments'"internal policies. We ain't EU/UN sheep. Take your
pick.

Sure
there's been a lot of backlash from those who still want to keep code
alive.

It's not a "backlash", a very large precentage of the U.S. ham
population favors the retention of the code test. The FCC is quite
aware of this divide within the hobby and as a result continues to let
the matter cook on one of their sub-basement back burners until they
manage to get back to the matter. Typical bush-league bureaucratic
work and aggravation avoidance ploy. Keeps their inbox flak & spam
levels down.

I know this is the government, but, what is taking so long?

Because the public has no vested interest at all in whether the ham
code test goes away or not. The FCC has *much* bigger fish to fry with
it's scarce resources. For instance the public needs the FCC to focus
it's assets on dramatically reshuffling the whole upper RF spectrum to
accomodate wireless broadband access to the Internet far more than the
public needs the FCC to diddle with rules changes which allow more
codeless hobbyists access to the HF ham bands.

Can't they come
to some decision quickly.

Joesph did you just get off the boat at Ellis Island Joe??

Anyone have a proposed timeline of when this will be settled.

Nice troll Joe. At least in on-topic for once.

w3rv


That's not a troll

On 21 Sep 2004 00:12:02 GMT, Alun wrote:

The US may be the last country to abolish the code test, the way things are
going. Mind you, AFAIK the code test has still not been abolished in Spain
or Italy(?), although I don't think there's a code test anywhere else much
in Europe anymore.

Most of the countries where the code test has been dropped do not
have the same requirement for rules changes that the US has, such as
consideration of public input and comments, publication of notice of
rulemaking, petitions for reconsideration and court appeals, etc.

They just DO it ..... (usually because someone in the regulatory
Administration thinks that it is a good thing to do without public
input....)

--
73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane

Joe Guthart wrote:
What's going on here ... the talk of restructuring to remove morse code
requirements has been going on for over 18 months. Many, many countries
have already removed the morse code requirement to gain access to HF. Sure
there's been a lot of backlash from those who still want to keep code alive.
I know this is the government, but, what is taking so long? Can't they come
to some decision quickly. Anyone have a proposed timeline of when this will
be settled.



The proposals to keep code for extras but not generals probably
make little sense to the FCC. The main attraction of removing
the code test completely is less regulatory burden on everyone.
And that no other service uses Morse code anymore doesn't
help pro coders much either.