South Africa!
 

Yes, South Africa has abolished the code test! One more domino has fallen.

Alun L. Palmer wrote:
Yes, South Africa has abolished the code test! One more domino has
fallen.

How many countries does that make now, compared to those who still have
it?

73 de Jim, N2EY

"Alun L. Palmer" wrote in
:

wrote in news:1108578593.250795.201100
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:


Alun L. Palmer wrote:
Yes, South Africa has abolished the code test! One more domino has
fallen.

How many countries does that make now, compared to those who still
have it?

73 de Jim, N2EY



It's getting a little difficult to keep track. However, I think at
least the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands,
Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Singapore, Australia,
New Zealand, Papua Niugini, Hong Kong and South Africa have abolished
the code test so far. I think that of these only Austria and the
Netherlands even retain an entry level licence that doesn't give HF
privileges.

That's only 17 countries, but I expect I may have missed some out. I
make the combined ham population of the above something over 260,000
(possibly more than half of them no-coders), so probably a little less
than half the number of hams in the US. However, there are well over
50,000 hams in Canada, which is also likely to abolish the code test
very soon.

Don't forget that Japan, with a ham population of 1.2 Million (twice
that of the US, out of maybe a fifth of your general population), has
long had a no-code HF licence, albeit limited to 10 Watts. I'm not sure
how many Japanese hams have a no-code HF licence, but they may even
rival all the new ones so far put together, although the new guys can
use more than 10 Watts! It's probably only a matter of time before
Japan lets all of their hams use HF anyway.

Even without the low power Japanese stations, the number of no-coders
who have full HF privileges right now is probably about the same as the
number of no-code Techs in the US.

73 de Alun, N3KIP


That's 18, I didn't count both Austria and Australia!

Alun L. Palmer wrote:

Yes, South Africa has abolished the code test! One more domino has fallen.


Wouldn't it make a country proud to emulate South Africa?

- Mike KB3EIA -

Mike Coslo wrote:
Alun L. Palmer wrote:

Yes, South Africa has abolished the code test! One more domino has
fallen.


Wouldn't it make a country proud to emulate South Africa?

- Mike KB3EIA -

Don't go getting ethnocentric on us, Mike. Not very liberal-like. Or
maybe it is. They're the ones always counting how many blacks,
hispanics, american eskimos, cajuns, etc there are.

Beside, in addition to South Africa, don't forget the UK, Ireland,
France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway,
Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Papua
Niugini, Hong Kong and Japan.

Mike Coslo wrote in
:

Alun L. Palmer wrote:

Yes, South Africa has abolished the code test! One more domino has
fallen.


Wouldn't it make a country proud to emulate South Africa?

- Mike KB3EIA -



I rather think that S Africa is emulating 17 other countries

"Alun L. Palmer" wrote:

wrote in news:1108606123.450223.319640
@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:

wrote:
Alun L. Palmer wrote:
Yes, South Africa has abolished the code test! One more domino has
fallen.

How many countries does that make now, compared to those who still
have it?

A tiny fraction of the number of countries which are members of the UN
and/or the ITU.

About 10% as a matter of fact. A minority, but not quite my idea of a
'tiny' fraction.

Ten percent is a tiny fraction when compared to 100%.

The point is, of course, that we are far from done yet.
Canada may be next.

There's little doubt. The Canadian government is pro-gay marriage too.

Note that most of the countries on Alun's list are
chunks of Old Europe and their syncophants where socialist gummint
giveaways are rampant compared with the rest of the world.


So you prefer totalitarian regimes instead?

Who wrote anything like that?

Nor does it include heavy hitters like the countries of the former
Soviet bloc, Brazil, India and China.


Those countries have large populations, but they don't they have the
highest numbers of hams per head.

South Africa has a population which is a little over 47 million. It has
about 4300 radio amateurs. Finland has that many radio amateurs with a
population of under 5 million. Russia has just under 144 million people
and has about 15,000 amateur licenses. It would seem that Russia isn't
keeping up with the per capita licensing of South Africa. Little Finland
can coast for a few decades.

Gonna be a LOOONG time before the last code test disappears . .

I'm sure it will be a great comfort to you if the Russian Federation is the
last to keep a code test. They are not my idea of anyone I would want to
emulate, however.

I gather that you prefer life in Maryland to life in the U.K., too,
Alun.

As for me, the crime rates in either Russia or South Africa would keep
me from wanting to become a resident of either. Then again, we were
talking about whether they decided to keep a morse test for amateur
radio.

Dave K8MN