In an historic move, the FCC has acted to drop the Morse code requirement for all Amateur Radio license classes.
Good riddance! When I was a kid I considered getting a HAM licence, but I had absolutely no interest in becoming proficient in an alternate alphabet. This seemed an arbitrary requirement upholding an obsolete technology and a warning post that other stupid rules would probably be encountered down the road in this overregulated hobby. There were other, ultimately more important technical subjects that I could explore without having to bother with that nonsense. In fact, they killed the code requirement for the lowest class license the same year I started my Bulletin Board System. I did reconsider it at that time, but the interesting stuff still required morse code, so in my mind it was a dead end. Given that I have a degree in computer engineering I figure I can cut through the technical knowledge required by the exams fairly quickly and I might learn a thing or two about radio. QSLing the space shuttle would be fun! ARRLWeb: End of an Era: FCC to Drop Morse Testing for All Amateur License Classes | 
