[UK-CONTEST] Fw: Demise of CW as a comms medium?

[Ian White GM3SEK]

Bob wrote:
>Guys,
>
>I wonder if the level of CW activity from the old Eastern Block countries
>is anything to do with the use of CW in their armed forces and the number
>of their conscripts being trained in CW?
>
Partly; but probably also due to the system where new licensees in the 
Eastern Bloc could only operate from authorised club stations, and also 
of course because CW remains by far the easiest way for non-English 
speakers to work DX.

I don't know if anything like a 20wpm Morse test was required as part of 
getting an individual licence in those countries; but it certainly was 
in the USA, until recently. If you wanted all the other privileges of 
the Extra licence, you also had to take a QSO-style 20wpm Morse test. 
Even if someone didn't particularly like CW, that was high enough to 
practically ensure that they'd have sufficient skills to operate on the 
air.

Despite the huge political differences, the licensing systems of both 
countries created a pool of competent CW  operators, who could then 
encourage other people to follow on.

I don't share Peter's pessimism. I think there is a very good future for 
CW - not as a last-ditch survival mode (as Peter rightly says, that 
argument has long passed its use-by date), but as a skill that people 
can freely choose to learn, use - and above all, enjoy.

In the UK, of course, we have somehow managed to lumber CW with the 
worst of everything. People were forced to learn Morse whether they 
wanted to or not, for a Morse Test that for many years bore no relation 
whatever to amateur radio. In far too many ways, the UK Morse Tests have 
been an active barrier to learning the CW skills you really need: how to 
copy in your head, how to actually make QSOs, and how to move on from 
12wpm.

The QSO-style Morse Tests were a step in the right direction, but they 
were too little, too late, too slow, and still completely locked into 
writing everything down. There has always been far too much of the UK 
Morse Tests that had to be UN-learned before anyone could start to enjoy 
CW.

A minority were lucky enough to fall in with a good crowd, or took up CW 
because they discovered a personal need for it; but the vast majority of 
amateurs don't use CW at all, and are afraid to try because the learning 
curve is too steep and there isn't enough organised help.

And then there's us. Most of us here are far enough up the learning 
curve to KNOW what's so good and enjoyable about CW... but it's a very 
personal pleasure that we still find it very hard to communicate to 
other people, in a way that makes them want it for themselves.

Equally, we don't have many good practical ways to help them. However, 
we DO have an opportunity to develop some new ways. There is no need to 
'teach to a test'  any more, so we should be steering people straight 
towards the skills that are really needed.

Dave's column in Radcom is our shop window, and an excellent marketing 
tool... so what can we offer to people?

We cannot rely on anybody knowing a good CW operator and learning from 
them. In the UK we are way below the 'critical mass' of numbers required 
to make that take off as a national strategy.

It has to be done by computer-based training, not only to make it 
available to anyone who wants it; but also so that people can set their 
own pace, and can start out by making all their mistakes in private. We 
very much need to capitalise on the computer's infinite patience and 
tolerance of mistakes, because there's an awful lot of 'fear of failure' 
involved in all of this.

As a first step, I'd suggest stepping up the basic character speed of 
Farnsworth/Koch trainers to 20s. Perhaps Ray FON or others can comment?

And after that, what else is needed?


Whatever we do, we need to do *something*... for if CW does die out, it 
will be this generation of CW operators that let it happen.



-- 

73 from Ian GM3SEK