"Doug Dotson" wrote in message ...
It is true that the code requirement is part of international treaty.
There is no such thing as a Novice license anymore. That was
done when the reorganization took place a few years back.
Licenses a Technician (no code), General (5WPM code) and
Extra (5 WPM code).

General and Extra only have a 5wpm code requirement now? jeez.
It used to be 13wpm and 20 wpm I think for those licenses.

Incidentally, there are still people who have the novice license,
so there still is one, but the FCC doesn't issue them anymore.
The Tech(no code) is the entry license now. But if you were
a Novice and you upgrade to the Tech, then you become a
Tech(code), which is basically Tech voice frequencies + the
novice code frequencies. right?

So if you already have your code from Novice at 5wpm, do you
have to re-take the code test to upgrade to General or do you
just take a written test?

-mike

Most folks can get past the 5WPM code
test with some effort. Last I heard, the issues of eliminating the
code is on the agenda for the next ITU meeting, but not sure
when that is. They only meet every ten years or something like
that. SOmebody else was asking me about this recently. They
thought they had heard that the code was now eliminated. I'll
check it out.


Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista

"Stan Winikoff" wrote in message
om...
I have been told that the Morse Code requirement for a Ham license is
required by international treaty. Others have said the requirement
will soon go by the wayside. I find the written and theory parts of
the Ham exam easy but code is an insurmountable obsticle for me. Any
chance that code will be dropped soon as a requirement for anything
more than a Novice license.