Topband: Yaesu Key clicks

[Jim Brown]

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 04:49:52 -0000, Mike Brown wrote:

>I guess the Yaesu rep never owned an hf transceiver? A really good 
example 
>of cw being dead would be letting him listen to 160 during the ARRL 160 
>contest or of course this weekend.

I tried working 160 this weekend to scare up some multipliers for CQWW, 
and found it next to dead. I was able to make a grand total of 4 QSO's with a 
KW.  Yes, I heard a few guys trying to work a few DX stations, but I didn't hear 
even a sniff of what they were trying to work. And there were a couple of 
QSO's going on. That's it, on a Friday and Saturday night!  

The sad truth is that our CW bands ARE dying, except for contest weekends 
and some guys chasing DX.  Granted it takes a fairly strong signal to get over 
the noise level in my city neighborhood, especially on 160, but it is VERY 
common for me to turn on my radios and hear no CW signals at all on 160 
and 80, and a very few on 40. 


Jim Brown  K9YC