James E. Whedbee, N0ECN, of Gladstone, Missouri, has petitioned the FCC to designate Morse (radiotelegraphy) Amateur Radio band segments as “symbol communication” subbands. The FCC has invited comments on his Petition for Rule Making (RM-11769), filed on May 2. Arguing that retaining the current regime of “legacy” CW subbands has proven to be grossly inefficient, Whedbee said he’d like to see the FCC delete all privilege restrictions that limit any part of the Amateur Radio spectrum to Morse code to the exclusion of other modes.
“Nostalgia for retention of Morse code telegraphy-only subbands is also an insufficient reason to avoid moving forward to [the] elimination of such subbands, because nothing about this Petition suggests the elimination of the mode itself, only that it not be the sole authorized mode in the subject subbands,” Whedbee told the FCC.