On Mon, 13 Oct 2003 20:27:37 +0000, No-coder wrote:

Even though the testing for code was reduced to the basic 5 WPM over
three years ago, it's obvious that the debate still rages on.

The insistance that a person know Morse Code at a resonable speed in
order to be "real ham" is similar to religious fanatics, particualrly
Christian fundamentalists, who think that a person has to believe in god
in order to be a good and moral person. They cannot prove that their god
even exists. So with the PCTA, they cannot prove that code is useful in
light of communications advancements that have been made over the past
several decades.

Just as certain fundamentalists would like to turn the country into a
Judeo-Christian theocracy, so would certain hams go back to an outdated
communications scheme, simply because they think that Morse code is
their "god."

To expect prospective hams to believe in the fairy tale of morse code is
the the same as expecting people to believe in the fairy tales of the
holy bible.

It'll be very difficult to address your "analogy" with any degree of
fairness or objectivity, as you have, in your comments, already made
yourself out to be an antagonist; in more than just one area.

Suffice it to say, then that, while there are legitimate arguments from
both camps, yours is not one of them. What this argument represents is, in
fact, one of the reasons people with real "code problems" now find it
impossible to move out of the arena of the "glorified CBers", in the minds
of most old timers.

There's nothing "antiquated" about CW. It doesn't require a computer to
send or receive it. It can be received under the most horrible of
communications conditions. There's nothing "religious" about those
statements. Simple statements of fact. Arguments against them come from
those uneducated in the history of radio; Those who have never constructed
an vacuum-tube oscillator out of junk-box components. People who think
"BFO" is a reference to a group of rappers.

Nevertheless, I'm one of those individuals who, thanks to the nonsense
ideas represented by the posting I am responding to, have a very
difficult, if not impossible task ahead of themselves where license
upgrading is concerned.

I suffer from Tinnitus, which makes listening to CW for any length of time
impossible. The tones, in my case, cause migraine headaches, which are
accompained all manner of unpleasent side-effects. As it is, I have to use
several notch filters to even listen to most HF traffic, because of all
the "digital" nonsense on the air these days. At one time I could send CW
at speeds close to 20WPM, according to those who listened beneath the
'phones. Unfortunately, that skill, without the ability to "listen" is
next to useless.

When I was a kid, there were special licenses (Conditional Class) and
medical exemptions for people who suffer with real problems, but now,
thanks to the ilk who have adopted the attitude that every desire should
be sataified without exerting even the least amount of effort, and abused
those special considerations, they have been done away with; no
exceptions. The baby got tossed out with the bathwater. Now, I get to try
and learn CW all over again, using a bloody blinking light, of all things,
which will be a skill even more usless than my present sending skill.

So, the whole point of this response is to say "Thank-you" to you, Mr.
No-coder, and all your friends who, with all your "analogies" and other
hairbrained ideas, arguments, and excuse-making, have made the license
upgrade process for folks like me, all that more difficult.

CW must remain as a testable qualifier, There's no other way to prevent
ham radio from becoming a kilowatt-wasteland of room-tempreture IQs,
trying to out-shout each other with bogus Southern accents and reverb.

So all you anti-code folks out there, thanks; thanks a lot; thanks for
nothing!