[UK-CONTEST] Re Skimmer - was QTC in WAEDC RTTY

[Paul O'Kane]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Hobbs" <peter at tilgate.co.uk>

> So I'm not allowed to use an automatic CW decoder??

Of course you can!  You can do anything you like so long
as it doesn't break the "rules" - or the "law".

However, decoders (whether permitted or not) devalue CW.
They reduce it to the status of what some have described
as "just another digital mode".

http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/CQ-Contest/2008-03/msg00563.html

> I can recall working a fully automatic KH6IJ back in the late 1950's.

Yes, an early example of CW treated as a digital mode.

> SD encourages you to operate CW as a data mode in the TX
> direction, so why not the other way around?

I'd say SD facilitates CW as a data mode - although that's
not the way I use it.  It'll be a while before it offers a
CW decoder - probably just before I add packet support :-)

> .. Surely any arrangement of my station that I may care to
> make is my business, as long as I don't receive real-time
> help from others . . .

Agreed - so long as you don't call it something I know it's not.

> .. we really shouldn't close our eyes (or ears!) to new ways
> of doing things

Agreed - so long as the new ways don't change the fundamental
nature of the activity.  You don't slap an engine in a yacht
and pretend to be sailing :-)

I maintain that when you decode CW other than by ear, it's
not a CW QSO, it's a data QSO.

Radio amateurs, by definition, are not radio professionals.
We decode CW, by ear, for its own sake - it's one of life's
simple pleasures.  If we were to do it any other way, we
would be better off using a faster and more-efficient data
mode.

73,
Paul EI5DI