AmateurRadio.com

This month WorldRadio Online features an article in the CW FISTS Club column entitled CW Naysayers: Would You Like Hollandaise Sauce With That Hat?  The article by KC0CCR outlines, correctly, the growth of amateur radio and CW usage since the demise of the code test.  KC0CCR quips:

"Will those who predicted that ending Morse Code testing would be the death knell of Morse Code on the airwaves, please find your hat and eat it? Would you like Hollandaise sauce with that?"

The irony of this is FISTS led the charge against eliminating the code test and even petitioned for more stringent CW testing requirements, 180 degrees out of phase with the direction CW testing, amateur radio, and the rest of the civilized world was heading.  FISTS' own petition to the FCC stated:

"...Morse code proficiency assists amateurs in acquiring the very skills that form the basis and purpose of the Amateur Radio Service, and provides something essential to our country - technical skill and experimentation. There exists no simpler entry into the field of radio-frequency circuit design. Without Morse proficiency this easy entrance will be closed."

"Retaining the Morse code requirement encourages amateurs to become proficient in Morse code and many other activities...."

"Failure to keep Morse testing part of the licensing structure undermines many core activities integral to the Amateur Radio Service and nullifies one of the traditional objectives of the Service, i.e., to train a ' . . . reserve pool of qualified radio operators and technicians.' "

While the FCC NPRM was open for comments, the FISTS Code Crusader webpage rallied the troops and rattled the sabers to encourage everyone to protect the CW test and all that was good and wholesome in amateur radio:

"LET THEM HEAR FROM US!! Start a petition at your local club!! We will not just sit by quietly and let them dumb us down any further!!"  (emphasis added)

Presumably a large number of hats sporting Hollandaise sauce will be FISTS caps?