PA8E Kent PaddleThe other day I was browsing the club’s website (which has a very 90’s look and feel btw) and spotted a news article about a morse exam being organized in our neighbour country Belgium. That might sound weird but wait untill I explain!

When our Dutch FCC (AT) dropped the morse requirement for amateurs, they cancelled the whole possibility to do a morse program. When you think that is a bit radical, you’re right! Because now we have a situation where a Dutch amateur can do his/her full license exam, pass, but still can’t use HF in some countries like, for instance France! If in a country there is still a morse requirement and this country did not adopt the harec agreement, Dutch amateurs officially are not allowed on HF!

This wouldn’t be a problem if at least there was a option of doing a morse exam. But since dropping the morse requirement in The Netherlands, there isn’t. So when a Dutch amateur (who passed his exam for full license) still want a “CW included” notation on his license, he has to take the “Belgium-route” as it is named here. You have to take a d-tour to Belgium, attend a morse exam there and when you pass you can submit your paper in The Netherlands to get your “CW included” sign on your license. I think this is ridicoules but it’s the only way. Only a few indivitual amateurs did this “Belgium-route” so far, but now our club is looking for the opportunity to organize this for more interested amateurs.

I did contact the organizer for more specs of the exam. The next one is in March. But I concluded that I’m not ready for this one. You need to be able to receive at a speed of 13 wpm (that wouldn’t be a problem if I didn’t had the actual speed set for 6 wpm ) including the pro-signes. I did not yet trained those. And you need to be able to send 13 wpm. That would be a real problem since I didn’t send at all.

Maybe I can join the next exam!

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