[ARC5] OT - FCC Will Soon Consolidate Commercial Radiotelegraph Certificates

[Mike Morrow]

> It's "bad", but not quite that bad.
>
> The Amateur Extra code credit requires that the Amateur Extra Class 
> license had been granted before April 15, 2000 which I believe is
> the cutoff date for the 20wpm cw test. (Ref 47CFR 13.9)

Steve,

Please re-examine my post.  I wrote:

> In the early 1990s the FCC began allowing credit for the Radiotelegraph Second
> Class Morse exam if one held an Amateur Extra Class license.
>
> Thus, the requirements for over 60 years that one must satisfy:
>
> 20-wpm plain language one-minute perfect send and receive in a five minute test
>                plus
> 16-wpm random 5-character code groups one-minute perfect send and receive in a
> five minute test.
>
> became for those claiming Amateur Extra Morse credit:
>
> Receive only, 10 multiple choice questions about a five minute 20-wpm plain text,
> each question requiring knowledge of two parts from the text...80 percent score
> required.
>
> That represented a significant reduction of commercial Morse requirements.

I wasn't taking about anything becoming bad **after** 20-wpm was dropped from the ham
Extra.  I was addressing how the ham Extra ***20-wpm*** test was far less comprehensive
than the traditional Second Class Morse test, and how the FCC acceptance of the
lesser Extra Morse exam in the **early 1990s** as credit to the commercial telegraph
Morse exam constituted a rather significant reduction in Morse testing standards for
the commercial license.  In fact, even the old one-minute perfect copy receive and
send 20-wpm ham Extra tests that existed before the late 1970s were not close to the
commercial requirements...most find that the 16-wpm random 5-character code group
test to be much more challenging than the 20-wpm plain language test as far
as getting the 80 required consecutive random characters perfectly correct out of
400 sent.

So...yes...it was a bad change to allow credit for ham Extra Morse to apply to the
commercial testing.  I suspect the motivation was to reduce FCC workload, and to
provide some easy access to the second class license at a time when there was a
temporary need for US-flag ship radio operators that occurred after the first
Gulf War's re-activation of some older vessels.  I myself received a solicitation
from a radio officer's union during that time.  The FCC had provided certificate
holder addresses to the union.

73,
Mike / KK5F