[TenTec] YACWD and real CW ops

[Paul - W8KC]

-----Original Message-----
From: tentec-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com]
On Behalf Of Ken Brown

>>I did not even start to like CW until I got to about 10 WPM or more...



I was not going to jump into YACWD (Yet Another CW Debate) but Brother Ken
speaks the truth.  Ken's experience is identical to mine and probably to the
vast majority of hams who slogged through the Novice exam and worked up to
the 13 WPM General test.

This is also what I claim as what will be the root cause of the ultimate
demise of CW.  It's just too much of a bother to work toward CW proficiency
when the microphone is also plugged into the HF rig.

I back this up with the fact that in the dozens amateurs in the local ham
clubs that I belong to or are familiar with, I know of only ONE "no code"
era ham who can send and receive CW at 20+ WPM.

30 years ago, I recall folks saying that once a Novice got a Technician
license and a 2M FM rig, they were pretty much doomed.  They became what
were jokingly known as a tech-for-life.  These folks would be on the
repeaters all of the time TALKING about upgrading to 13 WPM General, but
rarely achieving that goal.

Of course that changed a few years ago with the 5 WPM General and Extra. The
techs-for-life were given a new life when they gained HF privileges.  Except
that their Morse skills never improved.

That's just my observation here near Detroit.  I know that there are
probably many instances for "no-code" era hams that have gone on to actually
become CW proficient.  Perhaps they even love CW as much as old-time TenTec
users do.  

Yet I bet that if you examine them, you'll find some other driver that
motivated them toward CW proficiency.  QRP operation comes to mind as an
excellent niche where you'd find more "new" hams that operate and enjoy CW
at what the rest of us consider a comfortable speed.
 
Because CW at 5 WPM is, well... painful.  

If you want to encourage CW operation, you gotta bite the bullet every now
and then and work some newish-prefixed call who is fumbling on a straight
key at those speeds.

Even to this day I recall the shock experienced as a Novice when my pitiful
7 or 8 WPM CQ was answered flawlessly by a guy with a 1x2 callsign.

73 =paul= W8KC
Collector of Ten*Tecs and other fine plastics.
Visit the Virtual Ten*Tec Museum at
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/w8kc/tentec.html
Listen to 7.040 MHz from anywhere with Media Player v9
http://www.w8kc.com/stream.asx