CANADA REPORTS AGREEMENT TO DROP MORSE

Quote:

i passed my uk rae in 1991 but never applied for my callsign until 2004 - back then i was never really interested in vhf - just hf dx and no interest in cw whatsoever (i trained to be a marine radio officer in 90-92 and did morse at 10wpm - my college experiences of morse training put me off the mode completely). I took the decision to apply for my callsign after the morse restriction was lifted here in the uk.

Unquote:

I find the above evry odd. Unless you mean you went up to 10WPM and gave up. I trained and became a Marine Radio Officer in 1980. The requirement was 22WPM and I don't know of ANY who gave up the course because of CW. In my class, I had retired old people who wanted to become R/Os because back then there was"big money" in it! Several 50-60 year olds did pass the MRGC and go to sea and made fine operators.

NOBODY I know ever dropped out of the Marine School because they found CW was hard to do. It was fun and easy for every student I knew.

When its a job, people do it without grumbling, but when its Ham Radio, everyone wants a ticket on a platter! I am happy to hear that you now want to learn CW again!

My XYL who was a Medical Student in the 90s, did her 12WPM and went on to become a fine CW op. She has not been on air for a few years now, but can still copy in excess of 25WPM.

73 de Ron

 

Thats right, its a mode, just like fm..ssb...rtty and others...IMHO I think amateur radio is slowly dying...I hear hams all the time talking about how hamfests and repeater usage is dropping...and I've seen it too...ten years ago, our local hamfests were full of tables and people and every year the amount of people attending is less and less...and same goes for people actually talking on the radio, I've seen and heard with my own eyes and ears that the amount of people actually talking is less.
I think it would actually be exciting to see a whole new wave of people to hit the airwaves and bring back some excitement to amateur radio. We as hams will have to show this new generation of hams how fun amateur radio actually is.

One more thing, with the dropping of the code, amateur radio will be alot better on the expense side of things, radio manufactuers will be able to lower prices and innovate better equipment because there will actually be a demand for it once again.

The last time I was in AES the guys there looked like they were being waited down by dust

 

What character is "dit dah dit dah" in CW? None as far as I know.


Tom kcØw

 

Really? Hardly. It is (was) a hobby for those who are interested in ham radio, and who were willing to learn what it was, and respect its traditions. CB is a 'hobby for everyone.'

Really? Many hams can barely figure out what "channel" they are on, let alone know what is happening inside the radio. Our so-called experts (the Extra Class) can't even measure a resistor, or read a voltage. They sure can't teach anyone else, so the Elmering is over. A very large percentage (and, yes, I admit there are exceptions) of hams seek to simply "plug in the box and talk."

Ed

 

Well maybe now we have more leverage to request more bandwidth for amateur radio.

 

Arghhh someone left the Troll cage door open again....

What is a Troll?

 

I am a tech I think every ham operater should know the code I have studied long and hard and I think it should be a requirement everywhere. People are lazy if they want to be ham operater must be true to the core 100% javascript:emoticon('')
smilie

 

When you became a ham they required code To get on HF or if you have been around a while you had to have code before you could operate period? Whats the big deal? You went in knowing you would have to learn it and know ya want to bitch about it! If you invested the time you spend bitching you would already be on the hf bands. 5 wpm is no code!!!

 

I agree

 

Whoa... There's a lot of irony here that's just too delicous to pass up. Forgive me.

Its kinda ironic especially in the context of this "discussion" but the telephone was invented by a Canadian named Alexander Graham Bell.

Also the very first trans-atlantic radio telegraph message was recieved in St. Johns Newfoundland.

Also the first walkie talkie was invented by a Canadian > Al Gross.

Also Reginald Fessenden (also a Canadian) invented what we know as AM voice radio. It was him and his equipment that made the first trans-atlantic voice transmission (which led to the invention of SSB nearly 40 years later).

If nothing good came from Canada please turn your license into the FCC at your earliest convience (or even better turn it in to Industry Canada).

 

Sure lots of Americans worried about what's going on up north. Lots of guys worried that no code operators will be like CB'ers. Hmmm... Most of the terrible operating I've heard was done by bitter, angry old men who passed a tough tech exam AND passed a tough CW test.
I passed the CW test, turned out I was good for 12wpm but only needed 5. I'm no genius. I worked hard for about 45 minutes an evening for about two weeks. I did it with a two year old tugging at me and a wife talking at me. I did it, anyone can do it. I never use CW, and I may never use it again, but I support it being a qualification to get HF priviledges. Anyone who can't get it together enough to learn a measly 5wpm doesn't want it bad enough. There's plenty of internet chat rooms for those who can't learn CW. Those of us that can have HF.
Garth VE8NSD

 

OK here's my deal.

I am from Canada and have family living there that I visit occasionally.

According to IC I must operate my Amateur Radio equipment when visiting Canada authorized under the reciprocal operating agreement between Can/US.

It also indicates that I must operate according to the same privileges as the "basic qualification."

Am, I to conclude that I will be able to operate HF while in Canada but not while I am operating in the US ?

73

Charles - KC8VWM /VE3

 

Hi Charles, I just answered this on eHam, but here it is again:

- The reciprocal agreement gives you the privileges of an Advanced licence, not a Basic licence.

- You would probably be entitled to operate HF while in Canada should the code requirement be removed. However, the RAC proposal recommends more than just dropping the code. Among other things, they have proposed adding an Intermediate licence to the current Basic and Advanced. The Intermediate would be required for HF privileges. If this happens, then it remains to be seen what equivalencies the reciprocal agreement will offer. You may very well be in the same situation you are in now - or not, who knows?

- If you were to pass a code test, you could operate HF in both the US and Canada now.

- This is still a good deal for you. Our code test requires 3 consecutive minutes each of sending and receiving, with a 100% pass mark. No "fill in the blanks". So you would get HF privileges in Canada more easily than the holder of a Canadian licence.

- CW is fun!

 

Now that I took my morse code test, and passed it.. I would care less if the code goes away or stays. I certainly don't care what happens with it in Canada. Thats their business..

Yeah I know, I am a general light.. and soon to be an extra light.. but I love ham radio, and I stay active.. and will be using ham radio for the rest of my life (because I believe it will be around till the end of time)..

For those that have problems with the hobby.. and want to complain about it dying.. get on your radio.. and enjoy! No reason to complain.. the hobby is doing fine..

 

That is so funny.

Mark WL7LZ