I'm working on a monthly column I write for an Oregon club's newsletter, and think fellow ODV members might find the humor and irony in this:
"A friend of mine loaned me a March, 1947 issue of QST magazine to read. In that issue was an interesting editorial and article related to whether or not the ARRL Board should consider petitioning the FCC for a new class of license. This new license, “Class D” (at the time there were Class A, B and C licenses), was to be VHF/UHF only, and minus a CW requirement, (perish the thought!).
There are some interesting comments and views posed in the article, but this one really stood out: “The fear has been expressed that the Class D men would be so numerous that they would dominate the affairs of the league, and not being CW men themselves, would succeed in shaping ARRL policies to the eventual elimination of CW everywhere, the gradual liquidation of CW, and the opening of lower frequency ‘phone bands to persons without code knowledge, thus ruining amateur radio”. The ARRL’s response to the "get off my lawn crowd" was that the Board was considering a proposal that these new licensees would not be allowed to be full ARRL members, and as such would have no voting power, nor the ability to run for ARRL offices.
Of course, this “Class D” license eventually became the new Technician Class license in 1951, albeit still with a minimal 5 WPM code requirement. A full 57years later, in 2004, CW was eliminated entirely as a requirement for all licenses. And, I cannot find where Technicians were not allowed to become full ARRL members once the new class was established, which I believe to be the right move.
Has the elimination of the CW requirement “ruined amateur radio” as predicted? Every amateur has their opinion on this matter to this day. That said, based on how many CW signals from around the world were on the air for the WPX CW contest last weekend, I find it hard to argue that it has."
73;
Mike
W7VO
