Code Proficiency Used to Control Number of Amateurs

The origin of the 13 word-per-minute Code Speed

By: Fred Maia, W5YI

Is the Morse Code licensing requirement being used as a filter to keep the number of Amateur Radio Operators low. The answer is, "Yes!" And this has been true since almost the very beginning of licensed ham radio.

In Clinton B. DeSoto’s classic book, Two Hundred Meters and Down, The Story of Amateur Radio (Published by the American Radio Relay League in 1936) is the following passage on page 179. DeSoto was a highly placed ARRL official at the time his book was written and published, so we assume it represents League thinking.

"The growth of amateur radio and the total number of amateurs will doubtless be controlled in the future. The present condition of the amateur bands, while not intolerable, approaches saturation." [The number of amateurs at the time was approximately 46,000]

DeSoto goes on:

"Obviously no competent person can be denied the right to become an amateur. The only justifiable restrictive procedure is to raise the standards of competency. This has already been done to the point where it is many times more difficult to secure an amateur operator’s license than it was ten years ago. Increasing the code speed requirement is one step in this direction. ..."

DeSoto goes on to say that additional restrictions are not needed since,

"The total number of licensed amateur operators has remained relatively constant during the past two years. A slight stiffening of the basic examination, together with the increased code-speed requirement, would accomplish the desired result."

At the 1936 annual ARRL Board Meeting held in West Hartford, CT) the Board "...voted to ask [the] FCC to raise the code speed requirement on license exams to 12.5 wpm.. [From Official Broadcast 671, May 10, 1936]

A letter was then sent by Mr. K. B. Warner, ARRL General Manager, to the FCC requesting a code speed increase from 10 to 12_ words per minute. Here are some quotes from Warner’s letter:

"It has become desirable to raise the general standard of qualification for an amateur operator license. Observations show that too many licensed amateurs do not possess the qualifications presupposed by the regulations. Considering that the written part of the examination may be mastered with relative ease, the chief opportunity for a better selective process resides with the code examination. ..." [That is pretty clear!]

"A general raising of the standards could help to confine the obviously limited facilities of amateur radio to those who have at least nominal aptitude for the same. It seems indicated that this situation could be best treated by an increase in the code speed. Consequently the League now requests the Commission to increase the code speed required in the amateur examination from ten words per minute to twelve and one-half words per minute."

The FCC’s Assistant Chief Engineer, E. K. Jett responded to the ARRL request on May 28, 1936:

"For a number of years it has been the practice to require all applicants for amateur radio operator licenses to prove their ability to transmit and receive texts in the International Morse Code at a minimum rate of 10 words per minute. The International Regulations do not specify any rate of speed but states that any person operating the apparatus must have proved that he is able to transmit and receive texts so transmitted.

An operator whose top speed is not more than 12 words per minute would be classed as a poor operator. A good operator is one who can transmit and receive at the rate of 25 or 30 words per minute. Therefore it would appear that the request is not unreasonable and that it would be in the best interest of amateur radio to increase the speed slightly. However, it is believed that it would be awkward to conduct tests where there is a fraction of a word and for this reason, it is recommended that the speed be rounded off to 13 words per minute." [Remember this is 1936.]

"RECOMMENDATION: It is recommended that paragraph "a" of Rule 404 be modified to read as follows:

On June 3, 1936, the Commission approved the increase of the 10 wpm code speed to 13.

In that same letter, the ARRL complained (as it has for more than fifty years) that the Amateur Radio Service required more effective FCC monitoring of Amateur Radio. E. K. Jett’s response:

"The same request has been submitted to the Commission after each annual meeting of the Board of Directors and action has been taken by the Commission resulting in some improvement in amateur transmissions. ... It is believed that the amateurs themselves should do a certain amount of policing of the amateur bands and should report one another in order to improve operating conditions within their bands. The work cannot be efficiently performed by the Field Force unless additional inspectors are employed. It is not believed, however, that the Commission’s appropriations will permit an expansion of our present force, or of the schedule of work in the field during the next fiscal year." [The League’s Official Observer program actually began 10 years before E. K. Jett made the suggestion. E. K. Jett later went on to become an FCC Commissioner.]

The letters that are mentioned abone were researched by (and obtained from) a Civilian Records Archivist at the National Archives, Washington, DC.

The above article is from the W5YI Report of March 15, 1998