[ETSList] ARRL BOARD MEETING REPORT-N2FF

[Drew_Moore]

* ARRL BOARD MEETING REPORT

It was my pleasure to introduce new Hudson Division Vice Director, Joyce
Birmingham, KA2ANF, to the ARRL Board at the January 2004 meeting. 
Joyce was a real hit with the board from Jim Haynie as well as other
members of the ARRL Board family. 

There were a number of big decisions made at the meeting:

A membership contact campaign to alert senators and congressmen about
BPL starting in March.  You will be asked to contact your congressional
representatives.  Stay tuned.

The ARRL Board of Directors approved the development of a four-level set
of Amateur Radio mentoring programs to help new licensees and those
seeking to expand their horizons and get more out of Amateur Radio.  See
 http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/01/22/2/?nc=1 

ARRL Board of Directors in a historic move overwhelmingly approved a
three class Amateur Radio license plan during its Annual Meeting in
Windsor, Connecticut. The proposals--developed by the ARRL Executive
Committee following a Board instruction last July--are in response to
changes made in Article 25 of the international Radio Regulations at
World Radiocommunication Conference 2003 (WRC-03).  The ARRL plan will
ask the FCC to create a new entry-level Amateur Radio license that would
include HF phone privileges without requiring a Morse code test. The
League also will propose consolidating all current licensees into three
classes, retaining the Element 1 Morse requirement--now 5 WPM--only for
the Extra class license.

See http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/01/19/1/?nc=1  and
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/01/28/100/?nc=1 for details.
  
This is the ARRL Board reaction to deletion of the Morse requirement for
HF operation in the ITU treaty language.  I support the plan as I see it
as the only possible way to continue our Morse code tradition.  It is
widely believed that the FCC wants to eliminate the Morse requirement
entirely for all licenses.  I view this plan as the only hope that there
will be Morse testing at any level.  Some of the other plans already
offered to the FCC have no chance, in my mind, of being adopted as
public policy by the government agency. I feel other plans seeking to
"increase the code speed" have absolutely no chance of acceptance by the
FCC.  

Yes, it was obvious from the survey I sent out last September that the
majority of members in the Hudson Division wanted to continue CW testing
requirements but they also wanted an entrance level license that allowed
HF access with no CW or minimum CW knowledge.  I view the plan developed
by the ARRL EC as the only chance of preserving our Morse testing
tradition at any level.  Looking at what has already happened in Europe
and Australia I can see the handwriting on the wall in the FCC office.


Yes, this is a very emotional, almost religious issue, for many hams. 
The directors realized full well that not all ARRL members were going to
be happy with the decision.  There is no way to keep all our members
happy over this issue.  I have thought long and hard about this issue
for the last seven years and feel we are taking the wrong path in
attempting to continue to force Morse code on those entering our great
hobby.  It has not worked.  While I will continue for many years, God
willing, to work CW DX and enter CW contests, I no longer see any wisdom
in forcing those entering our ranks to take a CW test. It is certainly
not going to help us grow the ranks of Amateur Radio.  I am interested
in doing just that.  

Please note the issue here is CW testing and not CW sub-bands. 

Those who want us to dig our heels in here and fight for higher code
speed testing and CW testing at all levels are failing to take into
consideration what the FCC told us back in 2000, when it lowered the
code speed to 5 WPM.  At that point the FCC said the sole reason they
were keeping the test, at all, was because of international treaty
requirements.  Those requirements were dropped on July 4th 2003 and no
longer exist.  In the FCC's mind there is no longer a reason to give a
Morse test.  We, ARRL, hope to be able to give them a number of reasons
to keep the test for the Extra Class license thus preserving the
tradition.  We hope therefore that the great majority of you will
support the ARRL proposal and let the FCC know that during the comment
period.

When the FCC assigns a number to the petition you will have a chance to
make your feelings known to the FCC.  Both Joyce and I realize that
there are many of you are not happy with the ARRL position.  When the
process is over, probably some time before May 2005, it will be the FCC
that decides the issue for us all.

N2FF