[CQ-Contest] Contesters on CW (was: FCC on CW)

[Brian Lambert]

Hi All,

Let me say this about that.  Dave is exactly right!

Requiring someone to learn CW at ONLY 5WPM to advance through the ranks is
essentially the same as not requiring them to learn CW at all.

Those who want to learn CW, and then become proficient at it, will do so.
Those who don't, won't.

CW contesting will be one of the main things that will draw people to CW.
It was for me.  When I watched a number of skilled CW ops run in a contest,
I said, "Man!  I want to be able to do that!!!".  I can't run yet, but I can
do a million points in S&P mode.  So I'm having fun with it and still
learning.

HAM radio used to be an elite club which had very strict front-end barriers
to entry.  When HAM radio was the only cool technology game in town, I think
that worked pretty well.  Techie people who wanted into the club would pay
the entry fee.

Now there are lots of other things for techie-minded people to get into, and
HAM radio is not as appealing as it once was.

Imagine if you weren't allowed to get on the Internet until you could
demonstrate proficiency with TCP/IP and routing protocols?  And if at first
you could only get a 192.168.1.X address so you could be on a local LAN?
And only after an exhaustive set of exams and hard work could you ping
www.k1ttt.net?  Most people would pass it by and do something else.  This is
what has happened with HAM radio.

What does this say about society?  Who cares!  The point is, increasing the
ranks of HAMS in general is the goal.  When you add more general-purpose
HAMS, you can infect more of them with the contesting bug, and when you do
that, some number of them will want to learn CW so they can participate in
CW contests.

This is marketing!  

Best 73,

Brian, N1IK

 

-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of David Robbins K1TTT
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2005 6:27 AM
To: cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Contesters on CW (was: FCC on CW)

How about this...  If the fcc drops the cw requirement I think contesting
will be one of the few reasons for anyone to bother to learn cw.  Its not
like many hams build their own very simple cw radios today so have to learn
it to get on the air at all.  Nor can it be said to get through when nothing
else can with the very weak signal digital modes available.  So how can
contesters help keep this mode alive?  Or should we keep it alive?  Is it
time to drop cw contesting in favor of more digital modes?


David Robbins K1TTT
e-mail: mailto:k1ttt at arrl.net
web: http://www.k1ttt.net
AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:cq-contest- 
> bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Tom Frenaye
> Sent: Friday, July 22, 2005 02:18
> To: cq-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] FCC on CW
> 
> 
> Let's keep the discussion to contests and contesting issues.   I've
> declined a couple of messages that had to do with the FCC's plan to drop
> CW - there are plenty of other places for that discussion.   If you want
> to post something here, please keep it closely related to contesting.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
>           -- Tom/K1KI  cq-contest admin
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest at contesting.com
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