[Elecraft] OT: Some "No Code" background

[Ken G Kopp]

I got one of the 1st Novice licenses issued ... in September, 1951.  Took
the exam in Oklahoma City, where the FCC came only once per year.  My
"Elmer" was a retired Navy CW op and I was taught well.  Long ago I was a
commercial shipboard RO on a NOAA vessel.

I'm one of the six people who created the "no code" license.  In what I
consider one of the greatest honors in my Amateur Radio ... I -detest- the
name "ham" ... career the ARRL appointed me as one of the six members of
their No Code Study Committee.  BTW, each of us were / are die-hard CW
operators.

We we --told-- by the FCC that we would be getting some form of codeless
licensing and we should come up with something that most could live with.
Lots of "details" were covered over a year and a half of meetings,
conference calls, etc.

I still have a large box of pro and con correspondence in the attic.  The
number of letters is about equally divided.

An example of the results ... yesterday I had a KE0 proudly tell me he'd
just passed his "expert" license, and, his radio emitted a multi-tone CB
"roger beep" each time he unkeyed his microphone.

Without the "no code" license we most likely wouldn't have Amateur Radio
with the record 750K licenses we have today, and there's political "safety
in numbers".

Please, let's not start a thread on the subject.  I just thought some
"first person" input would be of interest.

73

Ken Kopp - K0PP