Very well said indeed.
73, Mike
www.w0btu.com
On Oct 25, 2017 9:37 AM, "Tree" <tree@kkn.net> wrote:
> Great post Steve - you put into words a concern that I am sure many of us
> share.
>
> First off - as manager of this fine list - let's all be careful and not let
> the discussion get out of hand. Respect other people's opinion. This is a
> hot topic for sure and there is not going to be some kind of resolution
> here. It is kind of a social experiment happening in real time.
>
> For me - the magic of radio happens between the headphones. I can still
> remember hearing my first echo off the moon - on six meters. I nearly fell
> out of my chair. Same thing when I found ZS8 CQing away on 160 meters when
> no other signals were being heard.
>
> From my perspective - there are two areas where the "tones" have taken over
> weak signal. The first was mentioned already - 2 meter EME. I have 80
> elements out in the bone pile - hoping to put it up some day - but I have
> to admit that the shift to using tones instead of CW has left me less
> motivated.
>
> The other area is the new 600 Meter band. This small slice of noisy
> spectrum is predicted to be populated with tones for serious DX work
> instead of CW. This might drive me to try it - or perhaps I will be there
> on CW - being a dinosaur.
>
> The comparison to RTTY is certainly a fair one - although the new tones are
> much better with weak signals. RTTY contesting is the biggest growing
> segment by far. It's only time now until the tones establish themselves
> there as well.
>
> However, any activity is good activity. The fact we often can tune the
> band and see nothing on the bandscope except some tones is better than not
> seeing anything. People who don't have good systems for 160 meters are now
> able to make some QSOs and even work a little DX.
>
> Probably the telling thing will be what the choices are by the major DX
> peditions. If the only way to work a new country is with tones - that
> will either push me to adopt it - or go find something else to do with my
> time and energy.
>
> Tree N6TR
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