Australia Lowers Morse Speed Standard

VK adopts 5wpm Morse code standard

Australia has become the 7th country to adopt the five-words-per-minute
Morse code amateur license test speed for full access to the HF amateur bands.

In an official announcement in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette on the
12th of July, the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) changed the
amateur regulations for the VK Intermediate grade license that requires only
5wpm Morse code proficiency.

In doing so it lifted the previous HF band restrictions on the Intermediate
License which can now use all bands below 30 MHz.

The change had been anticipated following a submission to the ACA made by
the Wireless Institute of Australia in March this year seeking a lowering of
the code speed.

Australia is maintaining for the time being, its Unrestricted grade license,
that requires the passing of a 10wpm Morse code test - but this is only to
satisfy the needs of reciprocal licensing agreements.
 
The HF operating privileges and conditions for the Intermediate and
Unrestricted licenses are now identical.

Australia, in adopting 5wpm, has joined Denmark, Sweden, Britain, USA, South
Africa and Gibraltar.  

Others including New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Pakistan,
Papua New Guinea, Kenya and countries in Europe are in various stages of
seeking to lower the code speed to 5wpm.

(Issued by Jim Linton VK3PC, President, WIA Victoria, and the author of
Morse code watch www.tbsa.com.au/~wiavic)
 


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