Greg, You have it correct. There were so many real or perceived abuses of the waiver that no one was happy with the old system. The 5 wpm speed made that all go away. I had a chance to read the FISTS proposal yesterday. It's pure fantasy! As Greg points out they, the FCC, said no before so "increasing" the code speed for the Extra is just not going to happen. There was a great deal of bad logic, fuzzy logic and illogic in that proposal. But I think the worst thing had nothing to do with the code issue. The most frightening part of the proposal was the request to increase the difficulty level of the test. Boy, that's the old stake in the heart for Amateur Radio if I ever saw one. I thought that by now everyone, even those who live in MI, would have realized that the fear of a great unwashed horde dragging their CB rigs into our ranks was just so much "urban myth." But I guess not. Also what is not explained in the intro to the proposal is how does Nancy gets to be the spokesperson for the group. Who put the proposal together? It's a credibility issue. As we continue to discuss this issue I think we have to keep on doing a reality check to make sure we realize what the FCC will do or accept with any proposal. As a matter of public policy I believe that the FCC will want to adopt a policy that they can defend as all inclusive rather than something like the FISTS proposal which appears to be very exclusive. Frank....N2FF..... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Greg Milnes" <w7oz@comcast.net> To: "arrl-odv" <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2003 4:24 AM Subject: [ARRL-ODV:9349] Re: FISTS on Morse code

Kay As I remember, the FCC said no, no, no, a thousands times no to going over 5 wpm. Apparently 5 wpm does not support a physician waiver (why, I don't know). I recall that there were lots of FCC staff people who were upset with our move to tighten up the waiver standards. 5 wpm was a way to side step the issue all together. Am I wrong? I've telling lots of folks that the chances of going above 5 wpm are somewhere between zero and none (because of what I remember before). 73/Greg W7OZ PS I assume you are a member...I can't tell from our member look up file.