Ham Radio Online welcomes letters from readers. We reserve the right to chose which to publish and to edit the letters as necessary. The opinions expressed in the letters are strictly those of the writer and not necessarily of Ham Radio Online. As opposed to supporting his opinion with any significant facts or research, our friend Laird simply engages in an ad-hominid attack on those who hold higher classes of Amateur License.
Morse code is absolutely irrelevant today.
Mr. Wilcox, conveniently, chooses to address none of these points. A code requirement for HF privileges makes as much sense as a Portuguese language requirement would. The vast majority of the world's radio amateurs are proficient to some degree in use of the radiotelegraph code. Only a very few understand Portuguese. Therefore, one could make a very strong argument that the radiotelegraph code is far more relevant than Portuguese.