Morse Code Eliminated by FCC

Cheer up, I'll be happy to take it off your hands. $650 is my best offer.

 

Whatever happened to friendship through radio? Always bashing the NCT's. That really makes you look good. I remember when the Elmers would try to help people advance in this hobby. Just remember this....when you get too old to climb the tower I bet a NCT will not help you out.
73 OM

 

Around here CB sounds a lot better then the dribling above 3.800 I hear comming in from the usa.
Good thing hams like you are rare, I rather have a qso with a normal thinking CB operater (most are also SWL) then with hatefull people like yourself.

You sir are a disgrace to Radio Amatuer operators around the world.

The FCC has decided, now move on and get with the times, you´ll have more fun if you don´t worry about who has taken a CW test and who hasen´t.

Happy Winter soltice are whatever holiday you celibrate around this time.

 

I learned to work CW at 24wpm in about one month with the SuperMorse and MorseMan programs. Despite my CW ability, the survival of our hobby ultimately depends on abilities of the majority to bring into the hobby the basics of the "radio art" which goes well beyond CW.

Dr Ed AE4TM

 

Well one good thing about this. We don't have to listen any more to all the morons with their excuses as to why they can't hear the code, can't hear the tones, I'm tone deaf, I'm dyslexic, I'm this and I'm that! I can't do this and I can't do that. Can't never did anything! I've heard it all, I've got hemorrhoids and can't sit for the code exam, every time I sit for the exam it pinches my optic nerve and I can't see to write because my head is in my anal cavity! And we don't have to worry about the code exams being compromised at the VEC session anymore, because we just threw the baby out with the bath water!

I've listened to and heard every excuse in the book for over 35+ years and I'm sick and tired of all the excuses as to why people can't get a license. Now everyone will have to find some new excuses for not getting a ticket. Hey here's a real classic they can try on for size "I'm just to damned lazy and stupid to memorize a hand full of questions to get that license."

Every road block and wall has been knocked down to this endeavor and THERE ARE NO MORE EXCUSES LEFT.
The old excuse that amateur radio is too expensive has long gone by the way side as every CB'er and trucker is running the latest and greatest Yaesu or Kenwood SSB rig on 27.6 MHz and 28 MHz.

I've been licensed 36 years, like anyone really gives a S**t. But you know there is one thing I've learned and it's an easy to do. Each and every one of these rigs has an ON / OFF switch and it's likely it will remain in the O~F~F position a little more. As the bands become more crowded and the Super Bowl gang on Channel 6 make their play for the 75 meter yard line the game will get a little more exciting. HELL, Riley can't enforce the problems he has to deal with now!

So lets just let everyone play ball as it would be politically incorrect to leave anyone out!
We have already given our jobs away overseas and we are giving the country away to Mexico. So why not license illegal aliens while we are at it too so they can buy radios and talk home! Everyone may as well join in, just slap $25 on the table guys for an amateur operators PERMIT. May as well just pay for the license! Technician and General are all the same, there is nothing advanced about an advanced class license and you didn't have to do any Extra works to get an Extra class ticket.

Yeah you guys are right, maybe the sky hasn't fallen, but it's a pretty damned dark day outside for amateur radio as a whole. Being an amateur radio operator with its once respected license, looked upon by outsiders with envy and respect as an honorable endeavor is not what it was only a few short years ago. Amateur radio and incentive licensing is now much like the commercial telephone and radio telegraph exams, they are all a joke. But I'm afraid the joke is on us as a community, while the quantity of so called licensed amateurs will likely increase, the knowledge base will be inversely proportional to the increasing license numbers.

Even at that, someone will still manage to be left out and find some reason to bitch to their liberal senator as to why they can't get a amateur permit, until even the written exams are more watered down then what they already are today until they follow that of the broadcast industry and marine radio that of signing nothing more the a signature line for an operators permit. (Hey here's a novel idea ~ I need a doctors permit for the written exam!)

No the sky has not fallen my friends, but it's a damned shame that the amateur radio permit has no pride in ownership.

73s
Carol Maher W4CLM

 

Seriously now.....
I do need a Keyer be it a straight key or paddles so if any one of you Hams out there are SOOOO PO'd over this dropping of the code I can use a set.
I still intend to learn & hopefully I can pass before it's gone. Drop me a line. (written test already done, just need the 5 wpm)

 

I have to say I am pleased that Code is no longer a requirement. I also have to say, I really want to learn it as well as I can. I am a No Code Tech and STILL proud of my license and what it affords me to do. It took a LOT of study for me to earn my license...and yes I EARNED it, Code or no Code. To insinuate otherwise because there was no Code test attached is an insult to every HAM who has gotten his or her license since the No Code Test began!

I believe those who think the General/Extra tests are 'gimmes' are so far off base. Let's not kid ourselves, we are not just memorizing a few questions for a test here. The question pools for these exams are in the hundreds. You never know which questions will be on the test, so you actually have to try and memorize ALL of them.

Much of these exams is based on electronics theory. (I know this as I am studying for my General Class exam now.) I am almost 30 years old, waaaay after when it was common place to learn electronics in school *in high school shop classes for example*. I am disabled, so getting into a car engine or under a car have never been an option for learning electronics that way. This is not true for many in generations before me. For me, and others without the aforementioned opportunities, these tests are every bit as hard as any previous written exams. The idea that these exams are easy or 'gimmes' in any generalized sense is ridiculous.

Let me also say that earning our licenses didn't stop at the test...whichever one we passed. It is a daily process in the way we conduct ourselves. It is HOW we use the privileges we have earned. This includes the casual hobbyist...and those of us who serve in Public Service and Emergency Service work.

 

I find it funny, how so many on this board think that amateur radio will suddenly turn into CB now that the code has been dropped. "The bands will now be jammed with lawlessness?" You're kidding, right? If people want to transmit on bands that they aren't licensed for, do you really think that a cw requirement is going to stop them? I've heard this for years, and it is a joke. If people are going to break the rules, a rule isn't going to stop them.

True, more people will enter the hobby now that the requirements have changed. That in it's self isn't necessarily a bad thing. Time to step up to the plate and elmer the newcomers. Lead by example. Currently, operating practices on 75 meters are disgraceful. Lets worry about what we have now.

 

I took the general written in June 2006.
I have been studying cw for quite some time and will still learn and use it.
I am an ARES member and stopped studying cw for a while while I was doing me EM level 1 course for the last 8 weeks.
I will still try to make the cw test by the time the change takes effect.
If I don't make it in time, I will still learn cw and use it.

I wish they would have at least left the cw requirement for extra. To me extra is "special" and should be respected and worked a little harder for.

When I first got my ticket, I bought a 746pro so I could go on HF in the future after my upgrades.

73's

Chris
KC2OBN

 

W4CLM is another NCT basher here's a quote,"Hey here's a real classic they can try on for size "I'm just to damned lazy and stupid to memorize a hand full of questions to get that license."
Sell your equipment and use the cash to buy a life

 

Naw, just sell it to me - cheap!

 

Glad you can use a computer for CW. Hate to ask, can you use the radio in CW mode without a computer?

Or better still, did you write the DSP software for it?

This, too me, is the problem today with so many people relying on technology while using the radio. Amateur radio is nothing if you rely on the high tech gizmos without taking into consideration what happens when you have a power budget in a devastated disaster area. Think about it.

Worse, many licensed operators (yes I mean all licenses) can't even build a simple power supply, CW transmitter or even a basic receiver.

Don't get me wrong, technology is great. Being depended on it isn't.

Everyone should know the basics of radio communications and what is involved in it. CW was a part of those basics.

Even with the current written test structure, it fails to provide the basics.

Like I said, I'll take a wait and see attitude...

...-.-

 

Nope ya got me, I didn't write the dsp software. But I did build a UHF repeater, secure a commercial site for it, and get it on the air by myself (cept with a little grunt help with lugging the cabinet up the stairs). And yes it is a open repeater, I don't belive in closed repeaters. I've also built several power supplies, converted some mastr II's to repeater service and even built a 2 meter repeater for a nearby ham club that wanted a repeater but didn't know where to start. We are doing a great dis-service to our hobby by saying CW is the filter. I've had severe dyslexia for years and never could master the code, so even though I know my way around electronics and radio's better than allot of extra's I know, I'm not qualified or worthy of HF privileges because I cannot master CW?


Eric Kc5Fog

 

It is true many *particularly in my generation* HAMs do not know how to build power supplies and receivers...That should change, but we live in a time crunched world so many do not have the time. I am also in favor of Radio Clubs taking an active role in, of all things, TEACHING/ELMERING these kinds of things. That is what clubs are for, not just a social hour. I know many complain about people not knowing the 'basics' as they are called...but how many of those complainers are taking the time to FIX that problem? Who among them is doing the educating, instead of simply telling people to get educated?

 

"How's it be a lookin' over your donkey now good buddie?"