Sweden Drops Maximum Code Test Speed to 5 wpm for Full HF Access


The following is excerpted from a letter NCI Director Fred Maia, W5YI, received recently from Gunnar Kvarnefalk, SM0SMK, the President of the Swedish Amateur Radio Society (SSA).


The Swedish Telecommunication authorities came to a decision on new regulations for Amateur Radio 4 months ago.  There are two license classes, namely class 1 and class 2. Holders of class 1 are permitted to use all bands, holders of class 2 can only use frequencies above 30 MHz.

For class 1 the Morse code examination speed was reduced from 12 words-per-minute to 5 words-per-minute Many holders of class 2 licenses have already passed the new Morse code examination and received class 1 licenses as the technical examination test is the same for both classes.

The keyword of our authorities is deregulation. Very soon we will agree on other matters making Amateur Radio in Sweden easier, but it is too premature to launch it just now.

For training we have granted to issue training licenses, the aim is training for examination to class 1 or class 2,.therefore the training licenses are limited to 3 years.

73 de SM0SMK Gunnar, president of SSA.