The following letter was sent via e-mail on Saturday , January 27, 2001 to ARRL Directors, Vice-Directors, and Officers in response to the ARRL Board of Directors' recent adoption of a resolution moderating the ARRL's official policy position on maintaining Morse code test requirement as a requirement in the ITU Radio Regulations.

Dear ARRL Directors, Vice-Directors, and Officers,

I am writing to you on behalf of the Board of Directors of No Code International and our membership in response to your recent adoption of a resolution moderating the ARRL's policy position with respect to mandatory Morse code testing requirements in the ITU Radio Regulations.

We are encouraged to see that "... the ARRL Board of Directors recognizes and accepts that suppression of the Morse code requirement in Article S25 is likely to occur at WRC 2003; ...".

We view this as a modest, yet significant move in the right direction for the ARRL and we commend the ARRL Board, recognizing that this position will be difficult for some of your members to accept. However, we believe that this is a necessary step for the ARRL in terms of recognizing and accepting the realities of the world we as amateurs live in today and what is in the best interest of the future of amateur radio.

We are given to understand, and sincerely hope, that this means that the ARRL's representatives to future IARU conferences will no longer vote against an IARU position in favor of removing the Morse test requirements of S25.5 from the ITU Radio Regulations (as was the case at the recent IARU conference in Darwin, Australia), but will instead vote in favor of such a position, which appears to be in alignment with the majority of IARU societies' views on the matter.

We are deeply disappointed, however by the ARRL's current continued resolve that " ... Morse code should be retained as a testing element in the U.S.; ...".

We firmly believe that there is no legitimate regulatory justification for the continuation of Morse proficiency testing other than the current obligations under the ITU Radio Regulations. In fact, in its Report and Order in WT 98-143, those obligations under the ITU Radio Regulations were the ONLY reason which the FCC cited for maintaining ANY required Morse proficiency testing at this time.

We believe that once the ITU Radio Regulations no longer obligate administrations to require Morse proficiency testing such testing should be abandoned expeditiously in the interest of removing unnecessary barriers to full participation in amateur radio by otherwise qualified individuals.

The FCC's rules (and we believe the rules of other administrations as well) should not be stretched beyond government's legitimate regulatory interests in an effort to maintain and preserve, through what amounts to force or coercion, "traditions," status quo," or simple matters of personal operating preference ... those matters are simply not legitimate government regulatory concerns.

I should hasten to emphasize, however, that we are NOT, as some detractors have attempted to assert, "No Test International." We have NO intention of seeking to eliminate the written examinations on rules, radio/electronics theory, operating practices, etc. which serve to establish basic, reasonable qualifications of an applicant for an amateur license.

Neither do we seek, nor do we have ANY intention of seeking in the future, any ban on the use of Morse code by those amateurs who voluntarily choose to learn and use it.

Since the FCC has made it perfectly clear in its Report and Order in WT 98-143 that complete elimination of, or additional reduction in, Morse testing requirements are highly unlikely to occur until the ITU Radio Regulations are modified, we sincerely hope that in the intervening time between now and the outcome of WRC2003 the ARRL Board of Directors will reconsider its policy with respect to retaining Morse testing as a requirement for any class of amateur license in the U.S.

73,

Carl R. Stevenson - wa6vse
wa6vse@fast/net
http://www.users.fast.net/~wa6vse
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NCI-1052
Executive Director, No Code International
Fellow, The Radio Club of America
Senior Member, IEEE
Member, TAPR
Member, ARRL
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