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FCC Proposes Abolishing Morse Code Requirement
TaxSlave writes "According to this ARRL article, the Federal Communications Commission has finally decided which path it wants to take with the Morse Code requirement for an amateur radio license. International requirements for Morse Code were done away with some time back, and several countries quickly abolished the requirement. Now, the FCC has proposed doing the same thing. Next step, months of comments, discussion, and navel-gazing."
But if nobody learns morse code, how are the people trapped underground going to tap out a morse code message to ask for help? What about those people in deep space who cannot communicate due to interference and need to revert to morse code? Won't somebody please think of Hollywood!
Morse code can be transmitted even in high-noise situations - as you're not trying to hear someone yelling CQ! THIS IS QC! OVER!!
Clicks, beeps, bloops, etc -- easy to hear over static.
= Grow a brain...
Morse code will go the way of the dinosaur perhaps as it should have long ago, yet not without many noting its departure with a particular reverence for the past. Morse, however, is still a viable means of communication. For example, it is certainly faster than SMS. At any rate, perhaps the FCC should instead focus upon more pressing matters: cleaning out the clutter in the increasingly crowded radio spectrum and speeding along the many pending standards that would make communication on the whole an easier matter.
I guess you must be much smarter than I am, and most of the hams I've been talking to. I'm having a terrible time learning morse. I set a goal of having it down by a hamfest in Sepember, and I hope I can make it. I think it stinks that I can get all the theory, build circuits, program PCs, and fix just about anything, but I can't transmit below 50MHz because I can't seem to learn a 150 year old communications method.
Most hams seem to take the attitude of "I had to learn it, I'm glad I did, but I don't use it" when it comes to code. If my current difficulty learning code continues, I really doubt I'll use it, unless my life depends on it (which, since no one else will be able to understand, will be a useless excercise). Too many bad memories.
Of course, the pro-code group will start slamming the FCC with form letters DEMANDING they keep the morse code requirement (and getting rid of all the fornecation and cussin' on the broadcast stations while they're at it). Since most of the people who don't want the code requirement aren't all that militant, the FCC will cave. As usual the ARRL will editorialize in QST about how great it was to learn morse as a boy at the feet of Edwin Armstrong, and how all those POWs were able to keep their spirits up by banging code out on the pipes, etc. This will generate a new round of debade in usenet and eham.net.
Meanwhile, more kids will miss out on learning about electronics, thinking a radical case mod makes them an engineer. More spectrum will be sold off to private parties, or rendered useless due to broken technology that has no practical use.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
"What is the point of amateur radio when the Internet has connected most of the globe?"
Indeed. But there are many remote places that the Internet has not reached and may never reach. Also, amateur radio has far better mobile operating abilities (i.e., when your cell phone is not in range of a tower, you can still use ham radio to make contact). The Internet (and, incidentally, cell phones) also tends to become unavailable when natural disaster (such as hurricanes or tsunamis) strike.
Ham radio is becoming overshadowed by the Internet, but Ham still has a few tricks up it's sleeve. It will still be relevant -- if not as popular -- for decades to come.
DRM 'manages access' in the same way that a prison 'manages freedom'
A more profound question is the following. What is the point of amateur radio when the Internet has connected most of the globe?
Can you do it without infrastructure? Didn't think so.
For me the point is the electronics. I really enjoy building something from scratch than can communicate around the globe and only spending a couple of dollars to do it. Radio propagation is also quite amazing.
You are right though, the draw is not to be able to talk to people around the globe, the internet serves that purpose just fine. It is the hobby aspect that I enjoy.
Well, and the civic service part too. Providing communications in cases of emergency is a noble goal. As a past commander of a search and rescue team I have seen amateur radio used in this capacity as well.
What I don't understand is how some computer geeks seem to have this major hatred toward amateur radio (and vice versa, but not as much). If you don't like it, don't do it.
Finkployd
"Indeed. But there are many remote places that the Internet has not reached and may never reach."
No, there aren't. If you can see the sky, you can get the internet. Services like Iridium and Globalstar have made that possible.
Now, Iridum and Globalstar are low-bitrate (2400/9600 baud, respectively), but that's fine for email and IM. Even that limitation will some day be a thing of the past.
I get this question from non-ham friends a lot. They also like to answer a similar question, which is, "Why don't you just use a cell phone to talk to people?" My response is usually something like, why do people go fishing when you can buy fish at the grocery store?
Ham radio is a hobby. People don't do it entirely because it's a practical means of communicating (although it can be that in many situations), they do it because it's enjoyable. It presents challenges which take thought and skill to overcome. There's something about talking to someone on the other side of the world with a few watts into a homemade antenna when the band is noisy. Many people (myself included) love the technical aspects of the hobby. It can be a lot of fun to build a radio from parts, or experiment with different antenna designs. There's a lot more to ham radio than simply utilitarian communication between two people.
I'm a "lowly" no-code tech ticket holder. As my more 'estemed' HF brothern might call me, a 'tech-lite' operator.
Still, who is it these 'extra class' operators go to when their windows 98 PCs can no longer retrieve their email over their dial up AOL connections due to SAM ware infestation.
Who do they call when they decide to try DSL but can't figure out where on their PC to connect the ethernet cable.
Who do they go to when they receive some e-mail attachement and can't open it (often because their pirated copy of MS Office gorked) - or do manage to get it opened and gomer their system with the worm de jour.
Who is it they go to when they *finaly* decide to try and do something other than whine about hemeroids and the good old days on 20m SSB and connect something like a TNC to their radios, but just can't seem to figure out the lines of an RS-232 link - let alone the pins of a DB-9 (don't ever show 'em a DB-25, they'll stroke out!).
Who is it they call up when they need someone to climb their tower, install a new rotor, replace cable or other maintenance.
(I've got dozens more, but I'm trying to be reasonable here)
And yet - who is it that's not allowed to use HF simply because I refuse to learn an out-dated mode championed by these same 'Technical Leaders'.
I've passed the General written 3 times waiting for this stupid rule to be changed. FINALLY some sense!!
If you love CW, cool - keep on using it. There's NOTHING that says or will say it can't be used. And there'll be many that choose to learn it and continue to operate CW, if for nothing else, the novilty. Enjoy it. But for crying out loud - increase the difficulty of the question pool, tighten the passing score, up the number of questions, make the questions more technical, don't make the question pool public - something applicable to today. Don't rely on a CW test to be your LID filter! Checked 20m lately? It didn't work.
Using CW as a 'barrier' to HF access is about like saying you can't use email unless you can hand code a TCP/IP frame. Or you can't drive a car unless you can cast and machine your own piston rings.
Some of these guys were the gurus of the hollow state erra. But dammit - if you're going to be in a technical hobby, at least TRY and stay current to the last decade's tech! It's about time the license exams became pertinant.
You know - what's worse is what I anticipate happening when the first batch of codeless Generals hit the air. These old hams will use the same tricks of the CBers to try and discourage their new neighbors from using *their* spectrum. Insults, language, over driven amplifiers, intentional interfearance, dare I say - echo mikes...
Instead of a CW exam, every hf operator should be forced to pass an operational review - every freak'n year! Where're the OOs? Where's the log review? Where's the 'self policing' of the hobby? Oh - that's right - you've had a CW exam to take care of that.....
Yea, I posted Anonymously - if some of these HF rag-chewers ever found out who I was, they'd never call for help next time they get phished, gorked a drive, accidentaly deleted their system directory, tried to make a wireless keyboard work, had to install a VOX chip into their new rig, couldn't remember how to program their HT, wanted to update the club's web site.....
I believe that the Morse Code should not be a requirement just to to operate on the HF bands. At one time it made sense, but with today's digital encoding methods, you can have reliable low bandwidth communication on the HF band. Even the ARRL plans to file a petition with the FCC seeking the regulation of amateur subbands by bandwidth rather than by mode of emission. http://www.arrl.org/announce/bandwidth.html
And for all you old timer hams, eliminating element 1 as a requirement for General and Extra Classes does not mean that they are abolishing Morse code. It will still probably be used for decades to come, it just will not be a requirement for those who just want to do SSB or digital contacts.
76 KH2YF
The only difference between 1995 and 2005 is that access is more pervasive. In '95 you could get internet from the same places as today. It's just faster today, nothing more. Those redundant backbone networks are nice, but they don't exist in the last mile. That's where damage is most likely to occur.
Were you anywhere near there? The telephone networks were completely unusable. Cellular was gone. As far out as 75 miles, telephone communications weren't working properly. This covered the entire tri-state area. Now they've improved things since then, but the point is that this sort of thing happens, and that telephone and cellular were found to be unreliable in an emergency. For what it's worth, 911 *did* go down in some areas. This was a result of a total collapse of the telephone system in parts of lower Manhattan, and the eventual draining of backup power. 911 has reserve capacity in the telephone system, and dedicated circuits. It does not have infinity circuits.
Internet service was just out in many areas, as in completely non-functional. When you have no telephone line and no power, you have no internet. Those on dial-up were SOL, since you couldn't make any calls across the whole region. DSL had issues because of the huge amount of interference. In areas that still had power, cable internet was generally working.
Large chunks of rescue and relief coordination was done by hams. That information is available with hardly five seconds of research. The rest was done by government workers with radios, and quite a bit of assistance by UPS (as in the shipping company).
IOW, ham radio was found to be absolutely essential during 9/11. Radio was a total and absolute necessity, as there was *no* other way to communicate.
>I think it stinks that I can get all the theory,
>build circuits, program PCs, and fix just about
>anything, but I can't transmit below 50MHz because
>I can't seem to learn a 150 year old communications
>method.
As someone who passed the 20 wpm a decade ago and who actually does use cw more than any other mode when on the radio, I couldn't agree with you more.
Sure, there are instances where cw is really important - say, passing emergency traffic when conditions are poor - but it's absurd to suggest that such a thing happens often enough in the average ham's experience to justify hundreds of hours of study.
For half a century the code test has served primarily as an artificial barrier to licenses.
One could argue that's a worthwhile purpose in itself; adding a challenge to entering any field, however meaningless, can serve to weed out a lot of people who aren't serious about the hobby. An ear full of most CB conversation is enough to convince me that some barrier to entry is probably a good thing. (Although I'm all in favor of having more free-for-all unregulated spectrum out there which anyone can play with than we currently allow.) Our world is full of hurdles put in place solely for the purpose of turning away those who aren't serious about pursuing something. The subject specific GREs are an obvious example from academia. It's never ideal, but it sometimes can serve a worthwhile purpose.
None the less, there are some very good reasons that a code requirement is a bad idea.
First of all, it places an unequal burden on people. I had a pretty easy time with the code - a few tens of hours to get to 5wpm, and an easy couple hours a week after that on the air to get up past 20. But a lot of people have much more difficulty with it. The guy who taught me everything I know about electronics was unable to get a license until the no-code techs came out because dyslexia made learning the code impossible. He's not only an awesome person to chat with and a friend and advisor to many, but has spent countless hours volunteering for emergency communications groups. By any standard, Amateur Radio lost out by keeping him away for so long.
Even among those without learning disabilities, there are many for whom code is really hard. It's unfair to force them to jump what turns out to be an outrageously large hurdle in order to attain something for which actually knowing code isn't necessary.
Second, if we're going to force people to spend hours studying something in order to get a license, there are a lot of more useful things they could study. At least 90% of the hams I meet on phone study code, pass their tests, and then never use it again. What a waste of effort! Instead, why not beef up the technical tests (or get rid of the pre-printed "suggested" multiple choice answers that every VE uses).
Or - if you really want to do something useful - how about requiring something like first aid certification instead? If every ham who spent a hundred hours learning code and then never used it again spent their time learning CPR, just think about how many extra first responders we'd have walking around our streets!
The only remaining question is, what will become of CW when no one is forced to learn it? It's true that I might not have ever learned code if it weren't required, and it's true that I'm glad I did learn it. But there's got to be some other way to provide an incentive to keep at least a few people out there on the bands.
Perhaps you reserve some choice CW-only spectrum for those who've passed code tests. And, so long as there's a strong and active community of code lovers, we can always work to create other incentives with cw-only special event DX stations, extra cw points and freeby stations in contests, and so on. Is that enough to keep the hobby alive? I'm not sure. But if it isn't, then perhaps keeping cw alive isn't worth the cost.
If you pay, as another posternoted.
The important thing about ametueur radio jockies is that is that the network is extremely robust, free, and everywhere. It works for long distance communciation, especially when overoptimized pay services fail. Iridium -- sorry, I have to giggle just a bit there. Ham is a (very modest) reserved spectrum for a network of people that communicate when everything else fails. There's already talk about how to handle jamming; not a solved problem, but in general, it is distributed enough to pose attackers serious issues.
The great power of terrorist attack is uncertainty, followed closely by communication. I find it heartening that as much as the US government might fuck up, at least we are left with a good emergency response channel, made of people who don't attach to the government. That's a really positive feature.
Way back on topic, but I have mixed feelings about dropping the Morse requirements. They've been loosening the rules for a while, but at some point, we're loosing the idea that one can actually assemble kit. We probably already have lost that. Morse is rather important - listening to a fuzzy transmission bounced off clouds from somewhere else in a language you don'nt know is great for learning. And learning is vital for ami radio folks.
OK, I've probably placed, and dated myself. Time to shut up.
I forget what 8 was for.
I'm having a terrible time learning morse.
And I learned morse code three times. First time was when I got a pair of Radio Shack walkie-talkies when I was six. They had the code right on the radio and had a beeper. My friends and I got fairly proficient. Then, twice agian, a few years apart in Boy Scouts. At that time, I never used it beyond the specific functions I learned it for, so I forgot it after the first function and have since forgotten it again.
Some things stick really well in my long-term memory but Morse code isn't one of them. I'm the same with Palm Graffiti.
I have no doubt I could learn it again in a couple days to take a Ham test, and probably do darn well on it, but then I'd just never use it and forget it again. So I'm a different kind of example of why the test isn't such a wonderful idea.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)