[PPRAANet] RE: PPARES: End of CW for HF in Great Britain, Switzerland

[Kit Haskins]

Could the real hurdle here be that people are getting a license without
having gone thru the pain and suffering of learning the Morse code?  Granted
the CW methods are efficient in modulation ... blah blah blah ...  But I
really think the major heartburn is that people now are getting a license
without the same efforts that where put forth by those that studied the
"code".  It is not the code itself that is the heartburn.  It's more like
the lack of "earning" the license.  In many cases like myself the "code" was
and still is a hurdle.  But the reward of more operating privileges on the
HF bands made it more of the incentive to learn the skills required.

Having a "codeless" license might be easier to swallow, if the testing had
something to place back into the void where the code requirement was.  It
would be like having a teenager getting a driver's license without having to
take the "road test" and parallel parking, but then again they might already
be doing that with the sloppy parking and lack of courtesy I've seen on the
roadways recently.

There was a time when you had to keep a class of license for a year prior to
upgrading.  You held a "General" class ticket for a year prior to becoming
eligible for upgrade to "Advanced" or "Extra".

Just my $0.02 worth ...


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