Back in the 1960s in the UK, Morse (CW) at 12 words a minute was essential to get a licence to transmit on HF.
In most countries this is no longer the case. I think you can get on HF now without Morse. Mostly I use FT8 and WSPR in preference, mainly as my fine motor skills are poor. I have used CW since my 2013 stroke, but rarely.
Back in the late 1960s I used to be taught CW by Bill Honeywill G4PJ (SK) on 160m. He would regularly send me slow Morse over the air. Somewhere (goodness know where!) I had a tape recording of some of these.
I passed my Morse test in the Liver Building in Liverpool whilst at university in 1967 when I first got my G3 call allowing HF operation.
