BARRY GOLDWATER K7UGA: NO CODE IS GOOD CODE
 
   The following is a transcription of the satellite
teleconference feed between former U.S. Senator Barry M.
Goldwater K7UGA and newsman Roy Neal K6DUE. The program aired on
WESTAR 5 on Sunday March 12.
 
   Neal: If we don't go no-code, do you think we can hold onto
our present frequencies?
 
   Goldwater: Can they hold on with the numbers they now have? My
answer would be very doubtful. Can you hold onto them with a
couple hundred thousand young amateurs? Yes. [This is] because
they will all vote. They can all communicate with the Congress.
They can tell them -- look, we don't want you ta�frequencies away from us! I'll tell you as [the] former Chairman
of the [Senate] Communications Subcommittee, I practically never
heard from a ham!
 
   Neal: Barry, what influence, if any, do you think the amateur
fraternity can have on politicians?
 
   Goldwater: You will find that among the 535 members of
Congress, right now, not one amateur operator. Now, there are
some that are interested because they have friends and
constituents that are interested in saving a frequency, and they
have a lot of mail ét, but they don't know what the hell they
are talking about!
 
   Neal: What is your position on no-code?
 
   Goldwater: I hate to say this to you, because i'm one of those
old fashioned hams that really loves the code, but we are not
getting new amateurs! So, we do away with the code requirement
and we bring a lot of new young men into the business of [being]
amateurs and also into the business of bettering the new
communications systems.
 
   Neal: So, you are proposing a no-code license?
 
   Goldwater: I frankly would put more emphasis on the technical
questions. Forget about the code. Nobody's going to use it. Now,
there used to be a pretty good argument for learning the code. We
would say that it would come in handy if you ever become a member
of the armed services. No more! There is no requirement for it.
All of the armed forces have dropped it. Everything new is
digital, coînèere are few things you can't do with
a computer and equipment.
 
   Neal: How would you propose that we get into the business�no-code?
 
   Goldwater: Well, The business is rather simple. You first
would have to get the ARRL behind it. You have to get�magazine editors which I think are inclining that way. (Motioning
to his rig) You have to remember one thing. You have more
amateurs, you are going to sell more equipment.
   But, the easiest way, is to convince American Radio Relay
League, that, opposition or no opposition, if they want to
increase the amateur ranks, they have to do away with the number
one objection, code.
   I knìot of people will be shocked to hear an old
timer like me say that, [but] we are not going to do away with
the code. I want to sit down here and wobble the key. I'll do that
forever, but it isn't going to be with some young kid that wants
to become an am� 
   Neal: Lets put that into practice. How would it really work?
 
   Goldwater: Schools come up here. Young people come up here to
watch radio communication and they are all thrilled. But then you
say that you are going to have to learn the Morse Code. �think it's impossible. Now, you know and I know that it's not, but
that's their attitude and they don't want any part of the Morse
Code. Even if God stuck a pin in their heads and said now you can
work Morse, they wouldn't want it! They are enthralled by the new
communications. Baudot, high speed digital and frequencies -- all
of the different things that we have today. I'd hate like the devil to
start over again and have to learn them. I'd rather learn the Morse Code
over again.
   But we will make more aíent with young people fiddling
around with soldering irons and a good book and a box full of
junk then by teaching them Morse code, when nobody much talks in
Morse Code anymore.
 
   Neal: Barry, would it be fair to say that the day of the Morse
operator is gone?
 
   Goldwater: Well, I'll make a prophecy and I won't be alive to
ever see it come true. If we continue to require a knowledge of
code for a license, people are going to just plain die! I'm 80,
and I know I'm not going to be around here forever,îd when I'm
gone that's one less guy who knows the code, so what's the
difference.
   I don't want to see amateur radio die out because, as I have
said, 98% of all of the improvements made in radio have come out
of an amateur's shack. I want to see that encouraged. I think we
can swell our ranks by at least 200,000 if we just allow young
would-be amateurs to come in as licensed amateurs without having
gone through the process of learning the Morse Code.