FCC to Drop Morse Testing for All Amateur License Classes

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ARLB030 Morse Testing for AFCC to Drop ll Amateur  License Classes

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ARRL Bulletin 30   ARLB030
>From ARRL Headquarters 
Newington CT  December 16,  2006
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB030
ARLB030 FCC to Drop  Morse Testing for All Amateur License Classes

In an historic move, the  FCC has acted to drop the Morse code
requirement for all Amateur Radio  license classes. The Commission
today adopted a Report and Order (R&O) in  WT Docket 05-235. In a
break from typical practice, the FCC only issued a  public notice at
or about the close of business and not the actual Report and  Order,
so some details -- including the effective date of the R&O --  remain
uncertain.  The public notice is located  at,
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-269012A1.pdf.

Also  today, the FCC also adopted an Order on Reconsideration, in WT
Docket 04-140  -- the "omnibus" proceeding -- agreeing to modify the
Amateur Radio rules in  response to an ARRL request to accommodate
automatically controlled  narrowband digital stations on 80 meters in
the wake of rule changes that  became effective today at 12:01 AM
Eastern Time. The Commission said it will  carve out the 3585 to 3600
kHz frequency segment for such operations. Prior  to the long-awaited
action on the Morse code issue, Amateur Radio applicants  for General
and higher class licenses had to pass a 5 WPM Morse code test  to
operate on HF. The Commission said today's R&O eliminates  that
requirement for General and Amateur Extra applicants.

"This  change eliminates an unnecessary regulatory burden that may
discourage  current Amateur Radio operators from advancing their
skills and participating  more fully in the benefits of Amateur
Radio," the FCC said. The ARRL had  asked the FCC to retain the 5 WPM
for Amateur Extra class applicants only.  The FCC proposed earlier to
drop the requirement across the board, however,  and it held to that
decision in today's R&O.

Perhaps more  important, the FCC's action in WT Docket 05-235 appears
to put all Technician  licensees on an equal footing: Once the R&O
goes into effect, holders of  Technician class licenses will have
equivalent HF privileges, whether or not  they've passed the 5 WPM
Element 1 Morse examination. The FCC said the  R&O in the Morse code
docket would eliminate a disparity in the operating  privileges for
the Technician and Technician Plus class licensees.  Technician
licensees without Element 1 credit (ie, Tech Plus  licensees)
currently have operating privileges on all amateur frequencies  above
30 MHz.

"With today's elimination of the Morse code exam  requirements, the
FCC concluded that the disparity between the operating  privileges of
Technician Class licensees and Technician Plus Class  licensees
should not be retained," the FCC said in its public  notice.
"Therefore, the FCC, in today's action, afforded Technician  and
Technician Plus licensees identical operating privileges."

The  wholesale elimination of a Morse code requirement for all
license classes  ends a longstanding national and international
regulatory tradition in the  requirements to gain access to Amateur
Radio frequencies below 30 MHz. The  first no-code license in the US
was the Technician ticket, instituted in  1991. The question of
whether or not to drop the Morse requirement altogether  has been the
subject of often-heated debate over the past several years, but  the
handwriting has been on the wall. A number of countries,  including
Canada, no longer require applicants for an Amateur Radio license  to
pass a Morse code test to gain HF operating privileges. The list  has
been increasing regularly.

The FCC said today's R&O in WT  Docket 05-235 comports with revisions
to the international Radio Regulations  resulting from the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World  Radiocommunication
Conference 2003 (WRC-03). At that gathering, delegates  agreed to
authorize each country to determine whether or not to require  that
applicants demonstrate Morse code proficiency in order to qualify
for  an Amateur Radio license with privileges on frequencies below  30
MHz.

Typically, the effective date of an FCC Order is 30 days after  it
appears in the Federal Register. That would mean the Morse
requirement  and the revised 80-meter segment for automatically
controlled digital  stations would likely not go into effect until
late January 2007.

The  ARRL will provide any additional information on these important
Part 97 rule  revisions as it becomes  available.
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