Yes, it's legal, since your Garmin 530 (or higher) is actually listening to the Morse and decoding it. SL30's do the same thing. Just remember to listen to the ID on your #2 for any required cross-radials if it doesn't have that feature.
I've yet to meet an examiner who accepts just a quick listen for some code rather than listening to the entire identifier. That is a quick way to be tracking the wrong VOR station if you misdial the frequency.
Exactly.
Every single one of my trainees can -- by comparing what they hear to the Morse code printed on the chart. If you can't "read" Morse (something I picked up as a ham operator about 50 years ago and never lost entirely, although I can't copy 13 wpm any more), you'd better be checking the audio against the dots and dashes on the chart. Why? The issue is that the FAA has run out of ILS freqs in the Northeast (maybe elsewhere, too), and they have to share one freq between both ends of a runway that has full ILS both ways rather than using two different freqs. Same freq, different identifier, and a big switch in the tower to select between the two (can't have both on at once). And here's how) that can go wrong (if you haven't guessed already...
As my story shows, just making sure you have the right frequency is not enough if you listen only enough to see that Morse code is present rather than also correct. Tune and identify!
I live a hundred miles south of the Mason-Dixon, and many of my trainees are in the Carolinas or further south (GA, AL, TX, etc), so I don't think it's a regional issue.* It is, however, a matter of practice, and they get plenty of that during their training -- including on the sim before trying it in the airplane. I've yet to have a single one not be able to do that by the end of training despite zero prior Morse decoding experience.
Whoops, didn't see that this was supposed to be for pilots WITHOUT radio experience. Okay, fair 'nuff.
I learned the Code as a child, both of my parents were lifelong hams. It's come in handy when flying, even though now with a 480 and a SL30, I don't really need to listen. I still do though, because the radios seem to need a couple of times through before they display the decoded ID, and all I need (at that speed) is once.
I don't know if I'm reading you correctly, but are you really saying that on this approach, if you didn't have DME but you had a working GPS, you would give up the DME minimums because you don't want to mix GPS and non-GPS procedures?
No. I'm saying the if the DPE said I couldn't use the GPS on this approach, I would ignore the GPS completely, and just fly the approach VOR-only ignoring the JOBGO fix and DME minima, using time to stay within 10nm of the FNT VOR on the PT.
If the DPE has said the GPS is inoperative, then you can't fly to the DME minima no matter what you actually see in the "DME window" (that readout being based on GPS data, not, for those unfamiliar with the Garmin 480, an internal DME device). In fact, if the DPE said that, it should be a bust if you tried to use the "inoperative" GPS, since you'd be using an inoperative device to sub for the DME you don't have. OTOH, if the DPE has not said the GPS was inop, I'd load the approach and use the GPS to the max extent practical including descending to the DME minimum after passing JOBGO. There's just no middle ground -- either the GPS is working properly, or it isn't, and you fly the approach accordingly.