I agree Bill, and you hit the spot when you say that there are few
opportunities out there to begin using cw. I can still remember my first
novice qso and I have the qsl to prove it. On the qsl, the station I was
working states something such as "If I could get my hands on you right now,
I would chop your head off!" Now that's even a little worse than "go away".
But no problem, I knew that I was a real novice and hadn't practiced the
code since I took the test (probably about 2 months earlier when it took a
while for the FCC to get around to assigning calls). So he was right, I
was a terrible cw operator, but I enjoyed talking to people and I found
things like Worked All States and novice roundup and before I went for my
conditional (I lived in the boonies) I could copy well over 20 wpm. I
missed North Dakota for my WAS and I can't remember where I ended up in
novice roundup, but my call was there somewhere. So I had the opportunity
to grow with others that had the same growing pains as I. I'm not sure if I
was placed into todays enviroment as a beginner that I would ever learn CW
very well because I learned by doing rather than 'practicing'. I did
enough of that on my trumpet!
So let's face the facts, there will always be some that have the discipline
to go that extra mile to learn the code even though it wasn't necessary,
but they are going to be few and far between. Enjoy the light of CW while
we can because as Bill stated, someday it will be like AM at the top of 10
meters.
73
Red
K0LUZ
-----Original Message-----
Good points, but not the main problem..CW is dying. A majority of the guys
get up to 5 wpm just to get on ssb and then seldom if ever use the code.
Check the checks that you received...not many in the 90s or 00s. There were
a surprisingly large number in the 40s and 50s. This is not the case on ssb.
Cw will always be around, just like AM is. It will eventually be in the
same
class as AM...nostalgic. This is not a condemnation of cw, just an
observation.
The ARRL and the FCC have sealed the fate of cw with the 5 code speed. Back
in the old days (the 60s and 70s), there was a place for novices (the novice
bands) to work up to the 13 wpm which is sort of adequate for contesting.
When someone got into the prime frequencies for contesting they had code
experience and might have even had some experience with contesting.
Remember the novice roundup? How many of us made our first contest qso
there
at 5 wpm or maybe even the speed demon rate of 10 wpm?
Nowadays, the guys have no place to build up speed. KG4XYZ upgrades to
general and all around him, even when contests are not going on, everyone is
going at least 15 wpm. Do you remember how your hand shook and how it was
so
hard to copy your first qsos at 5 wpm? Now think what it is like make your
first qso at 15 wpm, or worse yet, try to contest. It's intimidating as
hell. Most of the guys, even if they are motivated, would be scared.
I don't have the answer. I wish I did. My main love is ssb contesting, but
I would like to see new blood in the cw tests too. Maybe we need a 'radar'
cw contest...one in which speeds were limited to 15 wpm or less
Bill K4XS
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