Amateur Radio: FCC Morse Code Decision Would Not Affect CW Subbands, Privileges

Any FCC decision to eliminate the 5 WPM Morse code requirement for HF access would have no impact on either the current HF CW subbands or on the CW privileges of Amateur Radio licensees.

"There seems to be a lot of confusion on these points, judging by the questions I've been getting," said John Hennessee, N1KB, of the ARRL Regulatory Information Branch. He emphasizes that the proceeding does not put forward or recommend any changes in CW allocations or privileges.

The FCC is currently accepting comments on its Notice of Proposed Rule Making and Order (NPRM&O) in WT Docket 05-235, released July 19, which proposes to do away with the 5 WPM Morse code requirement for all license classes.

Hennessee further notes that the FCC also has not proposed to extend HF privileges to current Technician licensees who have not passed a Morse code examination. The Commission's NPRM&O suggests that in a no-Morse-requirement regime, such Technician licensees would be able to gain HF access by taking the Element 3 General class written examination.

To file on-line comments on the FCC NPRM&O in WT Docket 05-235 or to view others' comments in the proceeding, visit the ECFS site and click on "Submit a Filing" or "Search for Filed Comments."

In either case, type "05-235" in the "Proceeding" field, being careful to include the hyphen but not the quotation marks. Directions for filing comments, which can be in the form of an attached document, are on the ECFS site. Click on "Getting Started" to learn more.

As of week's end, more than 1700 comments had already been filed. The FCC has not yet established a closing date for comments in this proceeding, and it's not likely to release a Report and Order in WT Docket 05-235 until early next year.

In a separate--and unrelated--Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in WT Docket 04-140, the FCC agreed with an ARRL proposal to reallocate the current Novice/Tech Plus CW subbands to create additional room on certain 'phone subbands. If the FCC goes ahead with that proposal, Novice and Tech Plus licensees would have CW privileges in the current General class CW bands.

Source: The ARRL Letter Vol. 24, No. 32