[CQ-Contest] CW is over-rated

[Marijan Miletic]

>I really suffered with WPX SSB splatters in poor condx thinking of CW &
>RTTY elegance and simplicity.
 
OC Jukka, OH6LI made a long comment of my above statement.  I am well aware
that speech is the most natural form of human communication.
 
However, the goal of HF contests is passing as much different callsigns and
numbers within a limited time.  We can do it fast almost as horse race
commentators.  We need about 2,5 kHz bandwidth for that within our limited
band phone segments.  They get overcrowded and bad interference occurs with
our 1500 W and high gain antenna systems.  Young hams quickly learn that
they can play the same game using PC and only 250 Hz of bandwidth within
narrower RTTY segments.  Smart ones discover Morse code doing the same job
with even less power.  The only effort they must invest is learning that
code with good tools available, namely ears and brain. However, there are
more interesting games these days with less learning required.  Only the
ionosphere remains for the curious minds!  ITU gives us great opportunity to
explore it.  We also make technical progress on the way including internet
forums on the subject!
 
73 de Mario, S56A, N1YU in poetic mood