Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 20:07:16 -0800
From: Ian Kluft <ikluft@thunder.sbay.org>
To: "sbay.org board + members + core volunteers" <org@sbay.org>,
	SBAY Social discussion <social@sbay.org>
Subject: [SBAY Org] Morse Code exams eliminated, sudden momentum for RadioExam.Org

We knew the day was coming eventually.  Now we know it's December 15, 2006.
The FCC announced today that Morse Code exams are no longer required for
US Amateur Radio licenses.  Technician, General or Extra licenses with HF
(below 30MHz) privileges are now available just for passing the written exams.
   http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/12/15/104/?nc=1

One by one, each country is modifying its rules to remove the Morse code
requirement after the treaty which required it was amended to eliminate
it several years ago.  Back in 1991, the US started the "no-code Technician"
class of Amateur Radio license, with privileges only above 30MHz.  For most
modern mobile and digital uses, that's all you needed.  That 15-year period
of radio history ended today.

We already had some discussion that I might contribute my RadioExam.Org
web site and amateur radio exam practice software to the corporation.
The idea was to clean up and release the code, and create an Open Source
software project of it.  This was already on the list as a topic of
discussion for tomorrow's SBAY Pizza.  Now seems like an excellent time
to move forward with that.

Anyone who is interested in participating, please let me know.  The code
is written in Perl, but also involves maintaining post-processed copies
of the FCC exam question pool.

I'll set up mail lists at radioexam.org for the purpose of building a
community around the web site operation and software maintenance.
We'll maintain a list of other participating exam practice web sites
which run the software, making a network of exam practice sites.

I'll soon propose to the Board of Directors to create a new SIG for the
RadioExam.org organization as a new Open Source project.