[Top of the Rock] FCC Drops Morse Code Requirement Totally

[LVFLACK at aol.com]

Hello to All!
 
Merry Christmas to all of the Technician Class Ham Radio  Operators!  The FCC 
has given you a Christmas present!  As soon  as the order goes into effect, 
ALL Technicians will have the "Tech Plus"  HF privileges. 
 
Happy Holidays to All!  73, Lee Flack,  KD4HPD
 
 and to all a good night.............


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

ZCZC AG30 QST de W1AW  
ARRL Bulletin 30   ARLB030
>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_public/attachmatch/DOC-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 Radio communication
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



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