[Hoot Gibson]

I had a class in high school that was taught by a teacher who was into the whole ham radio thing. We spent most of a semester prepping for the ham radio test or at least we were supposed to be prepping. I along with with about six other football players were in the class. We spent more time throwing pennies at each other, arm wrestling, playing table top paper football, etc than paying attention to the lessons. The first test was covering the Morris Code. The two gentlemen that he brought to administer the test started sending out codes. I started randomly writing down letters. I didn't know he was actually sending sentences. When they started grading my test, they just iook their heads for a few seconds and went on to the other tests. If I remember correcting, only a couple people passed the test.

They did away with the code requirement years ago. There are still a lot of Morse code operators on the air, but a lot of people are pairing computers with their radios to use "digital modes." I have a 0.2 watt beacon transmitter that can be heard around the world with a good antenna set up. I have had some trouble getting my laptop configured with my 100 watt transceiver to use digital modes, but that is my main interest for now. I can operate on battery power at 5 watts for several hours.