From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT December 16, 2006
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB030
ARLB030 FCC to Drop Morse Testing for All Amateur License Classes

In an historic move, the FCC has acted to drop the Morse code
requirement for all Amateur Radio license classes. The Commission
today adopted a Report and Order (R&O) in WT Docket 05-235. In a
break from typical practice, the FCC only issued a public notice at
or about the close of business and not the actual Report and Order,
so some details -- including the effective date of the R&O -- remain
uncertain. The public notice is located at,
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_publi...C-269012A1.pdf.

Also today, the FCC also adopted an Order on Reconsideration, in WT
Docket 04-140 -- the "omnibus" proceeding -- agreeing to modify the
Amateur Radio rules in response to an ARRL request to accommodate
automatically controlled narrowband digital stations on 80 meters in
the wake of rule changes that became effective today at 12:01 AM
Eastern Time. The Commission said it will carve out the 3585 to 3600
kHz frequency segment for such operations. Prior to the long-awaited
action on the Morse code issue, Amateur Radio applicants for General
and higher class licenses had to pass a 5 WPM Morse code test to
operate on HF. The Commission said today's R&O eliminates that
requirement for General and Amateur Extra applicants.

"This change eliminates an unnecessary regulatory burden that may
discourage current Amateur Radio operators from advancing their
skills and participating more fully in the benefits of Amateur
Radio," the FCC said. The ARRL had asked the FCC to retain the 5 WPM
for Amateur Extra class applicants only. The FCC proposed earlier to
drop the requirement across the board, however, and it held to that
decision in today's R&O.

Perhaps more important, the FCC's action in WT Docket 05-235 appears
to put all Technician licensees on an equal footing: Once the R&O
goes into effect, holders of Technician class licenses will have
equivalent HF privileges, whether or not they've passed the 5 WPM
Element 1 Morse examination. The FCC said the R&O in the Morse code
docket would eliminate a disparity in the operating privileges for
the Technician and Technician Plus class licensees. Technician
licensees without Element 1 credit (ie, Tech Plus licensees)
currently have operating privileges on all amateur frequencies above
30 MHz.

"With today's elimination of the Morse code exam requirements, the
FCC concluded that the disparity between the operating privileges of
Technician Class licensees and Technician Plus Class licensees
should not be retained," the FCC said in its public notice.
"Therefore, the FCC, in today's action, afforded Technician and
Technician Plus licensees identical operating privileges."

The wholesale elimination of a Morse code requirement for all
license classes ends a longstanding national and international
regulatory tradition in the requirements to gain access to Amateur
Radio frequencies below 30 MHz. The first no-code license in the US
was the Technician ticket, instituted in 1991. The question of
whether or not to drop the Morse requirement altogether has been the
subject of often-heated debate over the past several years, but the
handwriting has been on the wall. A number of countries, including
Canada, no longer require applicants for an Amateur Radio license to
pass a Morse code test to gain HF operating privileges. The list has
been increasing regularly.

The FCC said today's R&O in WT Docket 05-235 comports with revisions
to the international Radio Regulations resulting from the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Radiocommunication
Conference 2003 (WRC-03). At that gathering, delegates agreed to
authorize each country to determine whether or not to require that
applicants demonstrate Morse code proficiency in order to qualify
for an Amateur Radio license with privileges on frequencies below 30
MHz.

Typically, the effective date of an FCC Order is 30 days after it
appears in the Federal Register. That would mean the Morse
requirement and the revised 80-meter segment for automatically
controlled digital stations would likely not go into effect until
late January 2007.

The ARRL will provide any additional information on these important
Part 97 rule revisions as it becomes available.
NNNN
/EX

Finally! The current question pool doesn't expire until June. Wonder if
they will come out with a new pool before then.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Keith" wrote in message
ps.com...
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT December 16, 2006
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB030
ARLB030 FCC to Drop Morse Testing for All Amateur License Classes

In an historic move, the FCC has acted to drop the Morse code
requirement for all Amateur Radio license classes. The Commission
today adopted a Report and Order (R&O) in WT Docket 05-235. In a
break from typical practice, the FCC only issued a public notice at
or about the close of business and not the actual Report and Order,
so some details -- including the effective date of the R&O -- remain
uncertain. The public notice is located at,
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_publi...C-269012A1.pdf.

Also today, the FCC also adopted an Order on Reconsideration, in WT
Docket 04-140 -- the "omnibus" proceeding -- agreeing to modify the
Amateur Radio rules in response to an ARRL request to accommodate
automatically controlled narrowband digital stations on 80 meters in
the wake of rule changes that became effective today at 12:01 AM
Eastern Time. The Commission said it will carve out the 3585 to 3600
kHz frequency segment for such operations. Prior to the long-awaited
action on the Morse code issue, Amateur Radio applicants for General
and higher class licenses had to pass a 5 WPM Morse code test to
operate on HF. The Commission said today's R&O eliminates that
requirement for General and Amateur Extra applicants.

"This change eliminates an unnecessary regulatory burden that may
discourage current Amateur Radio operators from advancing their
skills and participating more fully in the benefits of Amateur
Radio," the FCC said. The ARRL had asked the FCC to retain the 5 WPM
for Amateur Extra class applicants only. The FCC proposed earlier to
drop the requirement across the board, however, and it held to that
decision in today's R&O.

Perhaps more important, the FCC's action in WT Docket 05-235 appears
to put all Technician licensees on an equal footing: Once the R&O
goes into effect, holders of Technician class licenses will have
equivalent HF privileges, whether or not they've passed the 5 WPM
Element 1 Morse examination. The FCC said the R&O in the Morse code
docket would eliminate a disparity in the operating privileges for
the Technician and Technician Plus class licensees. Technician
licensees without Element 1 credit (ie, Tech Plus licensees)
currently have operating privileges on all amateur frequencies above
30 MHz.

"With today's elimination of the Morse code exam requirements, the
FCC concluded that the disparity between the operating privileges of
Technician Class licensees and Technician Plus Class licensees
should not be retained," the FCC said in its public notice.
"Therefore, the FCC, in today's action, afforded Technician and
Technician Plus licensees identical operating privileges."

The wholesale elimination of a Morse code requirement for all
license classes ends a longstanding national and international
regulatory tradition in the requirements to gain access to Amateur
Radio frequencies below 30 MHz. The first no-code license in the US
was the Technician ticket, instituted in 1991. The question of
whether or not to drop the Morse requirement altogether has been the
subject of often-heated debate over the past several years, but the
handwriting has been on the wall. A number of countries, including
Canada, no longer require applicants for an Amateur Radio license to
pass a Morse code test to gain HF operating privileges. The list has
been increasing regularly.

The FCC said today's R&O in WT Docket 05-235 comports with revisions
to the international Radio Regulations resulting from the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Radiocommunication
Conference 2003 (WRC-03). At that gathering, delegates agreed to
authorize each country to determine whether or not to require that
applicants demonstrate Morse code proficiency in order to qualify
for an Amateur Radio license with privileges on frequencies below 30
MHz.

Typically, the effective date of an FCC Order is 30 days after it
appears in the Federal Register. That would mean the Morse
requirement and the revised 80-meter segment for automatically
controlled digital stations would likely not go into effect until
late January 2007.

The ARRL will provide any additional information on these important
Part 97 rule revisions as it becomes available.
NNNN
/EX

Well, well, well...

When the last of the old-time brass-pounders is gone, Morse code will
disappear from everything but the history books.

RIP

Tom Dacon
AD7AE


"Keith" wrote in message
ps.com...
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT December 16, 2006
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB030
ARLB030 FCC to Drop Morse Testing for All Amateur License Classes

In an historic move, the FCC has acted to drop the Morse code
requirement for all Amateur Radio license classes. The Commission
today adopted a Report and Order (R&O) in WT Docket 05-235. In a
break from typical practice, the FCC only issued a public notice at
or about the close of business and not the actual Report and Order,
so some details -- including the effective date of the R&O -- remain
uncertain. The public notice is located at,
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_publi...C-269012A1.pdf.

Also today, the FCC also adopted an Order on Reconsideration, in WT
Docket 04-140 -- the "omnibus" proceeding -- agreeing to modify the
Amateur Radio rules in response to an ARRL request to accommodate
automatically controlled narrowband digital stations on 80 meters in
the wake of rule changes that became effective today at 12:01 AM
Eastern Time. The Commission said it will carve out the 3585 to 3600
kHz frequency segment for such operations. Prior to the long-awaited
action on the Morse code issue, Amateur Radio applicants for General
and higher class licenses had to pass a 5 WPM Morse code test to
operate on HF. The Commission said today's R&O eliminates that
requirement for General and Amateur Extra applicants.

"This change eliminates an unnecessary regulatory burden that may
discourage current Amateur Radio operators from advancing their
skills and participating more fully in the benefits of Amateur
Radio," the FCC said. The ARRL had asked the FCC to retain the 5 WPM
for Amateur Extra class applicants only. The FCC proposed earlier to
drop the requirement across the board, however, and it held to that
decision in today's R&O.

Perhaps more important, the FCC's action in WT Docket 05-235 appears
to put all Technician licensees on an equal footing: Once the R&O
goes into effect, holders of Technician class licenses will have
equivalent HF privileges, whether or not they've passed the 5 WPM
Element 1 Morse examination. The FCC said the R&O in the Morse code
docket would eliminate a disparity in the operating privileges for
the Technician and Technician Plus class licensees. Technician
licensees without Element 1 credit (ie, Tech Plus licensees)
currently have operating privileges on all amateur frequencies above
30 MHz.

"With today's elimination of the Morse code exam requirements, the
FCC concluded that the disparity between the operating privileges of
Technician Class licensees and Technician Plus Class licensees
should not be retained," the FCC said in its public notice.
"Therefore, the FCC, in today's action, afforded Technician and
Technician Plus licensees identical operating privileges."

The wholesale elimination of a Morse code requirement for all
license classes ends a longstanding national and international
regulatory tradition in the requirements to gain access to Amateur
Radio frequencies below 30 MHz. The first no-code license in the US
was the Technician ticket, instituted in 1991. The question of
whether or not to drop the Morse requirement altogether has been the
subject of often-heated debate over the past several years, but the
handwriting has been on the wall. A number of countries, including
Canada, no longer require applicants for an Amateur Radio license to
pass a Morse code test to gain HF operating privileges. The list has
been increasing regularly.

The FCC said today's R&O in WT Docket 05-235 comports with revisions
to the international Radio Regulations resulting from the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Radiocommunication
Conference 2003 (WRC-03). At that gathering, delegates agreed to
authorize each country to determine whether or not to require that
applicants demonstrate Morse code proficiency in order to qualify
for an Amateur Radio license with privileges on frequencies below 30
MHz.

Typically, the effective date of an FCC Order is 30 days after it
appears in the Federal Register. That would mean the Morse
requirement and the revised 80-meter segment for automatically
controlled digital stations would likely not go into effect until
late January 2007.

The ARRL will provide any additional information on these important
Part 97 rule revisions as it becomes available.
NNNN
/EX

Correct me if I am wrong but I hear (2006) on the Science TV channel that
the Canadian Icebreakers operating in the Arctic are keeping the Morse code
communication system as a back up.

"Tom Dacon" wrote in message
...
Well, well, well...

When the last of the old-time brass-pounders is gone, Morse code will
disappear from everything but the history books.

RIP

Tom Dacon
AD7AE


"Keith" wrote in message
ps.com...
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT December 16, 2006
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB030
ARLB030 FCC to Drop Morse Testing for All Amateur License Classes

In an historic move, the FCC has acted to drop the Morse code
requirement for all Amateur Radio license classes. The Commission
today adopted a Report and Order (R&O) in WT Docket 05-235. In a
break from typical practice, the FCC only issued a public notice at
or about the close of business and not the actual Report and Order,
so some details -- including the effective date of the R&O -- remain
uncertain. The public notice is located at,
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_publi...C-269012A1.pdf.

Also today, the FCC also adopted an Order on Reconsideration, in WT
Docket 04-140 -- the "omnibus" proceeding -- agreeing to modify the
Amateur Radio rules in response to an ARRL request to accommodate
automatically controlled narrowband digital stations on 80 meters in
the wake of rule changes that became effective today at 12:01 AM
Eastern Time. The Commission said it will carve out the 3585 to 3600
kHz frequency segment for such operations. Prior to the long-awaited
action on the Morse code issue, Amateur Radio applicants for General
and higher class licenses had to pass a 5 WPM Morse code test to
operate on HF. The Commission said today's R&O eliminates that
requirement for General and Amateur Extra applicants.

"This change eliminates an unnecessary regulatory burden that may
discourage current Amateur Radio operators from advancing their
skills and participating more fully in the benefits of Amateur
Radio," the FCC said. The ARRL had asked the FCC to retain the 5 WPM
for Amateur Extra class applicants only. The FCC proposed earlier to
drop the requirement across the board, however, and it held to that
decision in today's R&O.

Perhaps more important, the FCC's action in WT Docket 05-235 appears
to put all Technician licensees on an equal footing: Once the R&O
goes into effect, holders of Technician class licenses will have
equivalent HF privileges, whether or not they've passed the 5 WPM
Element 1 Morse examination. The FCC said the R&O in the Morse code
docket would eliminate a disparity in the operating privileges for
the Technician and Technician Plus class licensees. Technician
licensees without Element 1 credit (ie, Tech Plus licensees)
currently have operating privileges on all amateur frequencies above
30 MHz.

"With today's elimination of the Morse code exam requirements, the
FCC concluded that the disparity between the operating privileges of
Technician Class licensees and Technician Plus Class licensees
should not be retained," the FCC said in its public notice.
"Therefore, the FCC, in today's action, afforded Technician and
Technician Plus licensees identical operating privileges."

The wholesale elimination of a Morse code requirement for all
license classes ends a longstanding national and international
regulatory tradition in the requirements to gain access to Amateur
Radio frequencies below 30 MHz. The first no-code license in the US
was the Technician ticket, instituted in 1991. The question of
whether or not to drop the Morse requirement altogether has been the
subject of often-heated debate over the past several years, but the
handwriting has been on the wall. A number of countries, including
Canada, no longer require applicants for an Amateur Radio license to
pass a Morse code test to gain HF operating privileges. The list has
been increasing regularly.

The FCC said today's R&O in WT Docket 05-235 comports with revisions
to the international Radio Regulations resulting from the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Radiocommunication
Conference 2003 (WRC-03). At that gathering, delegates agreed to
authorize each country to determine whether or not to require that
applicants demonstrate Morse code proficiency in order to qualify
for an Amateur Radio license with privileges on frequencies below 30
MHz.

Typically, the effective date of an FCC Order is 30 days after it
appears in the Federal Register. That would mean the Morse
requirement and the revised 80-meter segment for automatically
controlled digital stations would likely not go into effect until
late January 2007.

The ARRL will provide any additional information on these important
Part 97 rule revisions as it becomes available.
NNNN
/EX

No, we will sill have it on our buoy lights.

....
Yeah. I'm still bummed that commercial truck drivers are no longer required to
show proficiency driving a team of horses. I'm surprised horses haven't become
extinct as a result.
....

I was involved in a situation where a boat with a broken HF radio was
able to make contact with a maritime net using code. For us cruisers,
knowing Morse is a good thing. Still, I'm okay with dropping the
requirement since I think most of us lose our code proficiency pretty
fast after passing the test (well I did anyway).

-- Tom.

"Keith" wrote in
ps.com:

From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT December 16, 2006


After obstructing joining the rest of the planet in bringing ham radio
into the 20th (not 21st) century, always trying to roll back the clock to
1929 by staunchly opposing every type of modulation scheme ever invented
(AM, SSB, RTTY, ASCII, Packet, AMTOR/SITOR, Pactor, PSK31, etc.), the
magazine bureaucrats at ARRL must be having some kind of funeral wake for
their idea of what they tried, quite successfully for many, many years,
to block.

I've been a ham since 1957. I was 11 and not into its politics for many
years. I do remember W2NSD/1, Wayne Green fighting ARRL bureaucrats and
getting Radio Teletype (RTTY) approved. I remember them telling us SSB
would be the end of ham radio when I was a teenager.

I'm very proud to say I was the first full ASCII teletype station to
transmit it in the 4th Call District, having been calling CQ for 15
seconds before midnight with a bunch of other ASCII nut cases the day it
became legal. We were already on the air, daring to cross over the line
above 14.100 Mhz into the precious "Canadian Phone Band" the ARRL and
CRRL didn't want us to use by restricting phone priviledges of US
amateurs above 14.200. Code and RTTY were legal but ARRL told us all
never to stray into Canada's private ham band, a stupid gentlemen's
agreement. You can still hear the results of our daring foray into
Jammerland by listening to the Packet ASCII stations above 14.100 that
are still on the air, today. Our frequency was 14.110 Mhz for the
initial QSOs on simplex ASCII at 110 baud, as fast as they'd let us go
for a time before raising it to 300 baud once FCC determined the sky
wouldn't fall at such breakneck speeds....and FCC finally got more than
ASCII teletype machines so they could copy us at faster rates...(c;

I've waited just a hair under 50 years for this day.....a proud day for
ham radio and the thousands of code victims whos dyslexia kept really
nice people off ham radio, just because a bunch of old ARRL fogies tried
to keep the bands for themselves.

Congratulations, ham radio. I hope it isn't too little - too late.

It's been a helluva ride!

Larry W4CSC aka KN4IM aka WB4THE aka WN2IWH....God I'm OLD! How awful.
No, I don't wanna join QCWA. I'm not THAT old!

wrote:
Correct me if I am wrong but I hear (2006) on the Science TV channel that
the Canadian Icebreakers operating in the Arctic are keeping the Morse code
communication system as a back up.

Uhhhmmmm...different country? :-)

wrote in
:

Correct me if I am wrong but I hear (2006) on the Science TV channel
that the Canadian Icebreakers operating in the Arctic are keeping the
Morse code communication system as a back up.



If you guys want to see something really amazing, go download WinWarbler
for free from:
http://www.dxlabsuite.com/winwarbler/
Simply install it as any other Windows program.

Too bad these Icebreakers aren't allowed to use this mode....which is
BETTER, a LOT BETTER, than Morse in the noise!

Run a plug from the headphone jack on your SSB receiver to the Line In on
your computer soundcard so the computer can hear the tones. Winwarbler
uses the computer to filter and decode. There's no "boxes" to buy that
ham radio simply adores for most modes.

Boot WinWarbler and you'll see the "waterfall" display, a moving audio
spectrum display from 300 to 3000 Hz, the audio frequencies coming out of
your receiver.

Tune your receiver to 14.070 Mhz, USB, and you'll hear some very faint
tones that "warble" in a very narrow (31 Hz or 63 Hz) frequency shift
keying. They'll create little dual "tracks" down the waterfall display.

Click on one of the 3 WinWarbler "channels" 0, 1 or 2 to select it. A
matching color cursor for each of them will show on the waterfall
display. The one selected is the one you'll move to a station. Point
your mouse pointer to the middle of the little track of a transmitting
station. Click the mouse and Winwarbler will move that channel's decoder
to that audio frequency of that station. Notice how that channel starts
decoding immediately what the guy is sending in PSK31 or PSK63. PSK
stands for phase shift keying. Click on another channel and point it at
another different station whos frequency is different across the display.
Do the same to a third. Your computer is now decoding 3 ham radio PSK
conversations at once. PSK stations stay within 3Khz of 14.070 Mhz just
for that reason...the bandwidth of the SSB radios used for PSK
transmitters.

Now, click a channel onto a station you can only faintly make out has
some kind of nearly in-the-noise signal, even if you can't hear it in the
speaker. It will make a faint trace on the waterfall display. Watch
PSK's greatest triumph in action...the ability to copy this mode on a
station you simply cannot hear! PSK stations, by agreement to keep one
station from saturating everyone's SSB receiver AGC, only run about 10-20
watts....on the other side of the Planet!

It is uncanny how well this ham-radio-invented comm mode works for
keyboard to keyboard comms. There are several of our beloved "boxes"
made to "interface" your computer to the transmitter and key it when you
press the TX button to go into transmit mode. Save yourself money. You
don't need a "box" at all. Make a simple attenuator cable to connect
AUDIO OUT of the soundcard to MIC IN or sometimes called DATA IN on the
transceiver. The cable has the computer and radio plugs ground shields
connected together and to one end of a 10K potentiometer (any value from
1K to 50K is fine). Audio from the computer hooks to the other end of
the pot from the shield. Audio to the mic or data jack on the radio
hooks to the center wiper arm of the pot so we can have a "volume
control" to keep the computer audio from distorting the first audio amp
in the radio. Once transmitting the tone from the computer, just turn
the pot up barely enough to make 10-20 watts of RF output from the keyed
radio. If it's a marine radio, put a switch in PTT to ground and key it
manually. If it's a ham radio, it has a VOX for automatic voice
transmit. Set VOX delay to zero and VOX sensitivity high enough so the
attenuated tone your feeding it automatically keys the transmitter when
you click TX on WinWarbler and stops transmitting when you click it back
into receive. No $100 "box" is necessary at all.

PSK is an amazing digital mode on ham radio. It occupies LESS bandwidth
than 10 wpm of Morse Code....always thrown up in our faces as the reason
to keep digital modes off the HF Morse Code bands by ARRL CW lovers.
PSK31 uses only 31 Hz of bandwidth...the reason the computer can sort out
one very faint station out of all those other warbles you hear....(c;

Er, ah, once the novelty wears off, or the wife starts bitching about the
tones, you'll want to turn off the speakers so you can't hear PSK31,
which will drive most humans insane in a couple of hours....(c;

Larry W4CSC and other fine old calls from way back.

Charlie Morgan wrote in
:

On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 09:24:14 -0800, "Tom Dacon"
wrote:

Well, well, well...

When the last of the old-time brass-pounders is gone, Morse code will
disappear from everything but the history books.

RIP

Tom Dacon
AD7AE


Yeah. I'm still bummed that commercial truck drivers are no longer
required to show proficiency driving a team of horses. I'm surprised
horses haven't become extinct as a result.

CWM


Now, we need to change the rules to CONFINE CW transmissions to the bottom
25 Khz of each HF band....to reduce its being used by ****ed off hams as a
JAMMING device for phone and data stations, like it has since the first AM
station came on the air.....

W4CSC