Dits and Dahs a Thing of the Past?

It has been a long while since I spoke about another hobby of mine…yeah one of those that does not get to be practiced too often because of other commitments, like my wife, son and 12 months of training for my job. I post on July 31, 2006 my intent to learn and start to become proficient in CW or what you might know as Morse code. Well, my CSCE for my General ticket expired before I was able to fully learn and pass the 5 WPM exam.

The news today out of Newington, CT is that, “The League had asked the FCC to retain the 5 WPM for Amateur Extra class applicants, but the Commission held to its decision to eliminate the requirement across the board.” What does that mean? Well, the answer is two fold, depending on the school of thought you subscribe too. Old time hams feel that the new non-code amateurs are at a disadvantage by not learning CW. This leads to applicants with full use of all HF bands, without even touching a paddle or straight key in order to learn Morse code…better yet, not even getting an ear accustom to the dits and dahs.

The other “new” school hams think this is a great opportunity, compare it to be thrown into the deep end of a pool and told to swim. You can stay afloat and it might take some work, but with some practice and luck you could get the hang of it. Some of these amateurs do not want to even use Morse code, but it was a requirement until the notice today released by the ARRL.

I am excited, not like I really have the time to “ham it up” but I now have the chance to become an Extra class amateur, with unlimited privileges to all bands. I have already begun studying, or brushing up on the Element 3, for the General exam. I figure I can knock this out on my 2 weeks of OJT for work, since I am not doing a helluvalot. This will hopefully be followed up by Element 4, Extra exam before the year is up.

So it is rather an exciting time for ham radio! Hopefully many of those Techs and Tech Plus operators who have been stuck mainly on 2-meters will now upgrade and go HF. I am looking forward to communicating with many over the world. Strange, but I do that now on IRC and other text or voice based applications of the non-ham type. Still there is something magical about the world of radio.