[CW] My note to ARRL director, vice director, sec mgr, and vec@arrl.net

[Alan W.]

I am very dismayed by the scope of the NCVEC petition to remove the CW exam
requirement from all licenses.

     1.  Insist that CW remain part of the testing requirements for General
and Extra.

     2.  If a Codeless HF Technician license comes about, do not provide
additional voice HF privileges.  The fact that HF voice is so sought-after
demonstrates its usefulness as an incentive to acquire more skills and
advance to the higher class licenses.

     3.  I support extending the 80, 40, 15, and 10 meter DIGITAL/CW
frequencies for Technician to include those fo rthe General on those four
bands, but at 200 watts maximum output.

     4.  If the existing Novice Bands are refarmed - they should REMAIN for
DIGITAL modes, as experimentation with narrow band (< 1 kHz) digital voice
appears to be the next big development in HF Amateur Radio and we should
support those methods if Amateur Radio is to stay current, but not at the
expense of those already experimenrting with PSK31, MFSK16, and other
recently-invented Amateur modes.

I believe that CW is still very relevant to the Amateur Radio Service
regardless of its use in the commercial sector.  The Amateur Service
functions very differently than other FCC programs.  In fact, part of our
advantage is not only frequency-agility, but also mode-agility.

In time of need,  our value to served agencies is that we *DO NOT* emulate
their communications strategies; many of which rely on less-skilled
communications operators and over-reliance on a complex infrastructure.

Other radio services do not have Amateur Radio's experimental and home-brew
functions.  It is in those functions that CW is still a necessary skill.  CW
usage continues on the Amateur bands as the second-most popular HF mode
because of its role as an adjunct to other HF modes (especially SSB) during
emergencies, because it encourages circuit construction and RF design, and
because of its usefulness in weak signal work, becaon identifications, and
propagation experimentation.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Sincerely,