[BCVHFA] CANADA DROPS MORSE REQUIREMENT

[K8CM]

 From The ARRL Letter, Vol 24, No 29

CANADA DROPS MORSE REQUIREMENT AS SOLE ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENT FOR HF
ACCESS

Industry Canada (IC) has adopted elements of the Radio Amateurs of Canada 
(RAC) "Proposal on Morse Code and Related Matters" and has essentially 
removed the requirement for Amateur Radio applicants in that country to 
obtain a "Morse Qualification" for access to bands below 30 MHz.

"Morse code will no longer be the sole additional requirement by which 
Canadian radio amateurs will gain access to the HF bands, but it will 
remain as one valid criterion," Industry Canada said in its Notice 
announcing the regulatory change. Industry Canada said it will continue to 
include Morse code as a consideration in granting access to the HF bands. 
"However, this is only one criterion and the measure of HF operator 
abilities should not be limited to this one facet of operator skills," IC 
added.

Effective immediately, amateurs certified with the Basic Qualification 
prior to April 2, 2002, and amateurs certified with both Basic and Advanced 
Qualifications may operate on the HF amateur bands. Licensees holding only 
the Basic Qualification who were certified after April 1, 2002, and who 
achieved a passing grade of at least 80 percent also are allowed to operate 
on HF.

Amateurs certified with the Basic Qualification after April 1, 2002, who 
did not achieve a score of at least an 80 on the examination will either 
have to attain the Morse Qualification, write the Advanced test or rewrite 
the Basic examination and obtain at least an 80 percent grade to obtain HF 
privileges.

This last requirement is related to a decision to increase the passing 
grade for the Basic examination to ensure that candidates have been tested 
in all areas of the syllabus. Details of the Industry Canada decision are 
in the Canada Gazette Notice 
<http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/insmt-gst.nsf/en/sf08435e.html> 
and on the Latest News page of the RAC Web site <http://www.rac.ca>.

FCC Amateur Service rules in §97.107(b) grant Canadian control operators 
"the operating terms and conditions of the amateur service license issued 
by the Government of Canada" but, in any case, not to exceed the control 
operator privileges of an FCC-licensed Amateur Extra class operator. 
§97.107 does not apply to US citizens who may hold Canadian amateur 
licenses, however.