I have been a ham since 1988 and have seen the steady decline in
operators who upgrade their licenses from tech and tech plus to
obtain hf privileges. I believe this is due to the 13 word per
minute code requirement. I would therefore propose the code
speed be changed to 5 wpm for general 10 wpm for advanced and
above.

In my opinion the proposal to make 13 wpm the entry level for hf
would greatly reduce the interest in obtaining hf privileges
among younger people who consider cw an outdated mode.
This I believe would cause a great reduction in the number of
people who would consider ham radio as a hobby in this computer
age and result in the decline of ham radio.

Fred Nicholas kc4ena