No more CW requirement in Canada starting today.

[JEAN-FRANCOIS MENARD-3]

**Industry Canada Introduces Alternatives to Morse Requirement for HF**

In July 2003, the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) 2003 held  
by the ITU in Geneva, Switzerland, deleted the mandatory  
international requirement for proficiency in Morse for access to the  
HF bands below 30 MHz. The revised International Radio Regulations  
leave it up to individual administrations to decide whether to retain  
or delete Morse as a national requirement. Since July 2003, more than  
25 administrations have deleted the Morse requirement for HF access.

Immediately following WRC-2003, RAC conducted an Internet survey of  
Canadian amateurs on whether Canada should retain or delete Morse.  
66% of the statistically significant response of more than 1300  
Canadian amateurs either recommended deleting, or would accept  
deleting, the mandatory Morse qualification, but also recommended  
other changes. This resulted in discussions between RAC and Industry  
Canada, following which RAC formally submitted a proposal to the  
Department recommending, among other things, that the mandatory Morse  
Qualification be deleted but also that it be retained as a voluntary  
qualification for reciprocal operations in countries that have not  
deleted the Morse requirement.

  Per Canada Gazette Notice DGRB-003-05 dated 30 July 2005, Industry  
Canada has adopted elements of the RAC "Proposal on Morse Code and  
Related Matters" and has removed the mandatory requirement for the  
Morse Qualification for access to the HF bands below 30 MHz.

  Effective immediately, HF operation on the bands below 30 MHz has  
been authorized by Industry Canada for:

a)                  amateurs who were certified with only the BASIC  
Qualification prior to 2 April 2002;
b)                  amateurs who have been certified with both BASIC  
and ADVANCED Qualifications;
c)                   amateurs with only the BASIC Qualification who  
were certified after 1 April 2002, and who achieved a pass mark of  
80% or greater;

  Those amateurs with only the BASIC Qualification who were certified  
after 1 April 2002, but who achieved less than an 80% pass mark, will  
either have to qualify in Morse, write the Advanced or re-write the  
Basic examination to obtain HF privileges. This latter requirement is  
related to a decision to increase the BASIC examination pass mark to  
ensure that candidates have been tested in all areas of the syllabus.  
Amateurs who need to confirm their examination marks should contact  
their Accredited Examiner. Accredited Examiners are required to  
retain marks for at least three years.

Also effective immediately, the pass mark for the BASIC Qualification  
has been raised from 60% to 70%.

  Amateurs wishing to have their certificates annotated with a Morse  
Qualification may still do so by passing the Morse examination at 5  
Words Per Minute.

  Holders of only the BASIC Qualification may now construct, install  
and operate transmitters from kits that have been commercially  
designed and packaged. BASIC-only holders still are not authorized to  
modify or install and operate modified commercially manufactured  
equipment.

The above changes and others have been incorporated in revised RICs 2  
and 3. All amateurs should review and keep on hand these revised  
documents.

  RIC-2, Issue 5, dated July 2005, Standards for the Operation of  
Radio Stations in the Amateur Radio Service, is available at: http://
strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/insmt-gst.nsf/en/sf05478e.html

RIC-3, Issue 2, dated July 2005, Information on the Amateur Radio  
Service, is available at: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/ 
insmt-gst.nsf/en/sf05478e.html


======

Jean-François Ménard / VA2VYZ

======


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[Ron D'Eau Claire-2]

Dropping the requirement to test for Morse competency is quite different
from dropping Morse as a mode.

As the USA's Federal Communications Commission observed, it didn't make a
lot of sense to test for proficiency in one mode (Morse) and ignore all the
other modes now in use.

It did make sense years ago when Morse was the main mode and, except for
voice, all other modes required the station to identify in Morse. For
example, for many years all Radio Teletype stations had to identify in Morse
to meet the FCC regulations. Anyone qualified to operate an Amateur Station
was then reasonably expected to be proficient in Morse.

That's no longer true.

What happens to Morse Code in the future is up to those of us who enjoy it.

Shoot, I still love throwin' a saddle on a horse and going for a little
ramble, jus' the two of us. How long has it been since that was the only
alternative to wearing our my shoe leather?

Ron AC7AC



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[Craig Rairdin]

I could never understand those Canadian fists anyway, what with the accent
and all. ;-)

Craig
NZ0R
K1 #1966
K2 #4941

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[Bruce Rattray]

Eh? :-) - Bruce.

72/73 - Bruce ve5rc/ve5qrp - QRP-C#1, QRP-L#886, A1 Operator
            Enter QRP-Canada's "RUN with RAC" contest -            
            details - http://www.qrp-canada.com 
 



-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Craig Rairdin
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 6:52 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: RE: [Elecraft] No more CW requirement in Canada starting today.


I could never understand those Canadian fists anyway, what with the
accent and all. ;-)

Craig
NZ0R
K1 #1966
K2 #4941


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[Michael E. Dobson]

At 08:13 PM 7/29/2005, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:


>As the USA's Federal Communications Commission observed, it didn't make a
>lot of sense to test for proficiency in one mode (Morse) and ignore all the
>other modes now in use.
>

What the FCC and others who make this argument fail to state is that code
is the only mode in which it is possible to actually administer a
proficiency test that makes any sense as it is the only mode that requires
a learned skill to be able to communicate with another station using that
mode.  Exactly what proficiency would you test for SSTV for example or
PACTOR-III, the ability to boot a computer and click a program icon? Also,
other than speech, it is the only mode that the operator can decode solely
by listening to the sounds emanating from the speaker or headphones.  No
other mode shares these unique characteristics nor requires a learned skill
to use.

However, these are not reasons to require a code test for access to the HF
bands but since the only meaningful test of the code as a mode is a
proficiency test I could see requiring it for the Amateur Extra Class since
there are numerous questions in the pool on various modes of operation.

73,
Mike WA3KYY



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[Douglas Westover]

That's aboot the size of it.

Doug,
W6JD

----- Original Message -----
From: "rattray" <[hidden email]>
To: "'Craig Rairdin'" <[hidden email]>; <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 5:58 PM
Subject: RE: [Elecraft] No more CW requirement in Canada starting today.


Eh? :-) - Bruce.

72/73 - Bruce ve5rc/ve5qrp - QRP-C#1, QRP-L#886, A1 Operator
    Enter QRP-Canada's "RUN with RAC" contest -
details - http://www.qrp-canada.com 




-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Craig Rairdin
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 6:52 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: RE: [Elecraft] No more CW requirement in Canada starting today.


I could never understand those Canadian fists anyway, what with the
accent and all. ;-)

Craig
NZ0R
K1 #1966
K2 #4941


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