"Vito" wrote in message
...
"Doug Dotson" wrote in message
...
Just a cop-out. I suspect that folks learn alot more useless
(and incorrect) things in school than having to learn the code.
The requirement is there, deal with it! Whining isn't going
to make the requirement go away nor will it get a license.

Oh yes it will - just like it made the 13 & 21 wpm requirements go away.

When was there ever a 21 WPM requirement? It was 20 WPM when I
tried it. Incidently I was never able to pass the 20 WPM. Not because
I was learning disabled but rather because I didn't really give a damn
enough to keep studying. I got my Extra class when the requirements
changed. 5 WPM is hardly a substantial barrier, just a psychological
one. A good teacher can get folks past it. I have done it dozens of time.

There will be no Morse requirement in five years.

I trust this will be the case. So you want cruising sailors to
be deprived of the utility and safety of a ham license for
5 years? Most cruisers don't cruise that long.

Nor can I imagine anything more useless than Morse code.

You have a poor imagination. I communicate quite efficiently
using CW. Very good for DX in poor conditions. Clearly not useless.

Those who want to keep the requirement are
usually selfish snivelers who think everybody should suffer the same
hardships as they did.

That's a different issue. On one hand you claim it should be abolished
because it is obsolete, on the other you are saying that hard core CW
buffs want to keep it because other should suffer the agony (which is
a myth) of learning it. Which is it? Obsolete or or a Rite Of Passage?

Unable to justify their position on technical, moral
or logical grounds they perforce resort to name calling and referring to
facts they cannot refute as whining.

Technically, CW is a sound means of communications. More so than some
others. Morally, I fail to see any moral aspects to this. Logically, I also
see no issue. The problem is international law which has lagged behind
the technology. Hopefully that will sort itself out soon.

I participate in my wife's VE team. I recommend that people learn code
too -
for now. But if they wait a year or two, they won't have to.

Good advise based upon the realities now in place. That is where you need
to be. Stick to the reality rather than the politics. Or tell her
perspective
examinees to keep their desires of becoming a ham on hold until a simple
code test goes away.

73, K3DWW