The End of the Morse Exam - 2003, 2007 and What Happened Next For a century, the price of a full amateur radio licence was Morse code copied by ear. Then, within four years, the requirement vanished worldwide - and the predicted death of the code never came. How the gate fell In 2003 the ITU made Morse testing optional for member states; country after country dropped it. The United States, one of the last holdouts, ended Morse testing on 23 February 2007. What happened next Licence numbers grew - and so, unexpectedly, did voluntary Morse. Freed from the exam room, the code became a chosen craft: contests, low-power field work and straight-key nights all carried on without compulsion. Translate any text to Morse code, play it as sound and download the audio free at: https://morsecodeworks.com/