RAC Morse Code Proficiency Certificate

Industry Canada has discontinued the requirement for the 12 WPM Morse code qualification and now accepts the 5 WPM Morse code qualification for operating privileges on all HF Bands. This leaves a conspicuous gap in the encouragement of Morse code proficiency at higher speeds for the many amateur radio operations in CW mode on HF and VHF/UHF/SHF bands.

Radio Amateurs of Canada now offers a  Certificate of Proficiency in Morse Code, to be administered by the RAC Awards Manager, to recognize voluntary candidate Morse code reception proficiency at speeds of 12, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 WPM.  A new dated certificate will be issued with each new "qualification" earned. The examination and certificate are also available in the French language. A charge of $5 is assessed to cover printing, handling and postage costs.

Click for a larger picture of the certificate

The certificate and associated testing is for reception proficiency using the Industry Canada RIC-1 standards of a three minute receiving test with less than 5 errors remaining after a two minute correction time allowance. Testing may be performed by any Accredited Examiner holding a current Industry Canada Letter of Authority who voluntarily chooses to participate in this program. As this program is not related to Industry Canada, Accredited Examiner participation or non-participation in this program has no effect on their Industry Canada appointment. The examination may be generated by any of several software programs (download below), or audio tapes prepared using such a program, using suitable text selected by the Accredited Examiner. As with 5 and 12 WPM Morse code examinations under RIC-1, the plain language examination text should be limited to the letters of the alphabet, the ten numerals, and the period, comma, dash, question mark and fraction bar. Vermorse (download below) is a special text editor that can assess a sample text file and count the number of occurrences of each character to ensure that it contains one or more of each permitted examination character. A candidate who is being re-examined at the same or higher speed should be given a different examination text for each examination.

The blank form to be completed by the Accredited Examiner to 'qualify' the candidate may be downloaded and reproduced as needed. Accredited Examiners may also authorize the form for candidates who produce an original Advanced Amateur, First  Class or Second Class Commercial, or military Morse qualification certificate issued by the Canadian government to that candidate, for the same receiving speed shown on such certificate. In such instances, the Accredited Examiner should date the Authorization Form with the date on the certificate produced as proof of proficiency. Once the form is completed by the Accredited Examiner  it may be given to the candidate to mail in to the RAC Awards Manager with a money order for $5. As the certificate conveys no operating privileges, candidates are expected to respect the honour system.

To stimulate interest among newcomers and old-timers alike, amateur radio clubs are encouraged to run periodic Morse Nights so an Accredited Examiner can qualify groups at progressively higher speeds.

Links to a variety of software, and Morse practice files can be found on the CW and Beginners pages on this web site.

	Download Vermorse (DOS Text Editor / Content Analyzer for user-supplied ASCII text file)
	Download Morse Academy (DOS Morse Test Program using user-supplied ASCII text file).
	Download New Morse (DOS Morse Test Program using user-supplied ASCII text file).
	Download Simple Morse (free Windows .exe program for random practice and user-supplied ASCII text files)
	Download Supermorse  (DOS Morse Test Program using user-supplied ASCII text file).
	Download Application /Authorization (pdf) for RAC Certificate of Proficiency in Morse Code