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This “Notice of Variation” enabled class "B" licensees to use the Morse Code within our band allocations. More importantly, this enabled us to gain valuable on-air operating experience with CW (as Morse Code is commonly known) and it's subtlies . I will remain eternally grateful to those more experienced operators who showed up on 2m and helped instill in us tyros some good operating practices.
In 1988, after some intensive coaching from several people, notably Tom and Sue Morgan (G0CAJ and G0EZN respectively) I sat and passed the dreaded Morse Code examination at a speed of 12 words per minute. I remember telling anybody who would listen that as soon as I had passed the code test I was going to bury the key in the concrete tower base and never sully my fingers with it ever again. Oh how our words come back to haunt us, now, some 14 years later, things turned out somewhat differently. It was Sue who persuaded me that to have taken so much time and trouble to learn this skill it would be sad not to at least give it a fair test "in anger". So with some trepidation I set about exercising my fledgling CW skills on the as yet unsuspecting Amateur Radio community. The phrase "only now that you've passed the test you will start to learn the code" is so true, once I got on the air I really started to learn the techniques of CW operating, an education which has stood me in very good stead ever since. The other revelation was that once I started to use CW on the air I was enjoying it, so much so that 99.9% of my operating on the Amateur bands is CW.
1988 was a special year in many ways, not only had I passed the Morse Test, received my Amateur Radio Certificate and with it access to the HF bands but I also had a dream fulfilled. The Science Museum in London's South Kensington had always held a fascination for me, I loved the place and when I was about 10 years old I discovered GB2SM, the Science Museum's permanent Amateur Radio station and it's curator Geof Voller (G3JUL). From that day on I was hooked on wireless and the family broadcast receiver was no longer safe from being "fiddled with". Well in 1988 I was invited, by Geoff, to become one of the team of demonstrators at GB2SM. Here I was, operating and demonstrating the very station that sparked that interest all those years ago, you cannot believe how special that felt. I remember wanting to share the feeling and reveal some of GB2SM’s history with a wider audience so I wrote it up and Practical Wireless published the article and pictures in the August 1994 edition (that was also my first published work as a freelance journalist).
Through Amateur Radio I've been privileged to have made friends all over the world, people who's knowledge and generosity of spirit has never ceased to reaffirm my faith in human nature. Amateur Radio operators have always been ready to give of their time and expertise when their community calls.
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