http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/7842858.stm today reports "A 79-year-old woman who was almost completely paralysed after a fall has learned to talk to her son by tapping out Morse code with her thumb.

Sylvia Jones, 79, from Swansea, suffered brain damage five years ago.

But thanks to her schoolgirl knowledge of Morse code, she has broken her silence using sounded dots and dashes."

The incompetent idiots who run the British Government have reduced the incentive for radio amateurs to achieve competency in morse by granting A grade amateur licences to people who have not passed the 12 wpm morse test.

Morse can often get through when there is too much static for speech tansmission. If you have children a valuble part of training would be Morse code. Ideally teach it by sound, sight, and touch. Sometimes people who have only learned it by sound have difficulty reading it by light.

Computers have done much to reduce the old amateur radio enthusiasm. The global communications backup that was available to communities is fading away.

But check it out locally to you, talk to anyone who has a big aerial or two at home. They were required to be on standby for the emergency services to use, probably still are, so should not be required to pay a planning permission fee when applying for permission to errect their aerial mast.

The fee for an amateur licence should also include citizens band radio use, because there could be need for information to passed between the bands.

And what can be discussed should not be so limited.