"Jack Erbes" wrote in message
...
Doug Dotson wrote:

I guess I'm a little behind as well. If I recall correctly, when the
last rule change happened that made 5WPM the speed for
General and Advanced, it was stated that the ITU requirement
was the reason that it could not be dropped entirely. Once the
ITU dropped the requirement, the FCC would iniate action
to follow suit. Personally, I think the code should stay.

Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista

I agree with keeping the 5 WPM requirement. Being able to read an SOS,
read a repeater ID, etc., etc., is a good thing. And it does not hurt
anyone at 5 WPM. At that speed you can take a cheat sheet with you and
look the longer, harder to remember ones as they are sent. Of course, I
suppose there is someone that will have trouble as soon as they got to
those really tough ones with both dits and dahs... :)

5WPM serves no purpose. Any operator in an emergency using Morse will be
doing so because they know Morse very well, everyone else will be talking to
get the largest possible target audience. If Morse is being sent, they will
be sending much faster than 5WPM, so all these people who learnt 5WPM for
their licence (and then promptly forgot it) will be no better off.

Even the people whose lives regularly depend on good commmunications have
dropped or are dropping the requirement for Morse. None of the recent
"Amateur Saves Somebody" stories seem to have used Morse either.

Morse is like RTTY. Something, for anyone who wants to do it, that should be
encouraged. However, if others don't care to do it, there is no big deal.

Mark