On Aug 29, 2006, at 9:58 AM, Walt Smith wrote:

> And the Novice CW requirement used to be 5 words per minute and for  
> General,
> you actually had to work a little and get that up to 13. Then, if  
> you wanted
> to join the rarified atmosphere in the Extra portions of the band....
>

Yes indeedy. And don't forget that there was a time before the  
codeless license. (I got my Novice then, so did Walt, judging by his  
call--he got his right when they changged the callsign issuing  
system!) I skipped right over tech and went to general, except that I  
got to fail both elements at once the month before, because they  
accidentally gave them to me in the wrong order. Of course, had I  
taken the test just a year before (before March 1987 instead of  
after), tech and general would've been exactly the same written test,  
the only difference being the code test and associated frequency  
privileges.

Bear in mind that there's absolutely nothing magic about 5/13/20  
words per minute. In the 1930's, I think the code test was 10 words  
per minute. I forget when it was changed, for general/conditional, to  
13. I reckon it was after WW2, but it might have been before.  
Something tells me the reasoning had to do with the "plateau" many  
people reach at 10 WPM and the next one that they tend to reach  
around 18 WPM. I somehow managed to bypass both plateaus, don't ask  
me how, but I was a 20 WPM Novice for a month, quite by accident.

Theere's a great series of articles written by Bill Continelli,  
W2XOY, called the Ancient Amateur Archives, which gives some really  
interesting ham radio history tidbits. I have all 30-something of  
them. If anyone wants them, I'll send theem along...I have to find  
the URL for them again.

While I certainly would have had no problems if the FCC had decided  
to keep code requirements as they were before restructuring, I'm not  
losing any sleep over the fact that there's only the one 5 WPM test  
anymore. And while I'd prefer they keep a code requirement at least  
for Extra when things change again, I won't be surprised at all if  
they don't. Change is inevitable, even if it's just change for its  
own sake and with no real reason to believe it will improve anything.  
I really like the way that Canada's implemented its rules, with two  
paths, effectively, to hf operations, thus keeeping a code  
requirement while making it possible to get on HF without one so  
everyone's happy, more or less. Especially since I know that the code  
requirement going away is almost inevitable. (Doesn't mean i have to  
like it, but I won't think the hobby's going to hell in a handbasket  
because of it, either...it hasn't happened yet. It's interesting to  
note that the end of ham radio has been predicted by people who don't  
like whatever changes are occurring since, well, probably the  
beginning actually.) Whatever the code requirements, I'll certainly  
be found in the bottom half of the bands!

--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV : Executive In Training! Watkins Manager #361534
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