"Dwight Stewart" wrote in message
link.net...
"Dee D. Flint" wrote:

Just a few short weeks ago, auroral activity
imposed so much distortion on HF voice
that it was not useable. (snip)


Perhaps you mean HF voice was limited, not unusable. I wasn't aware that
all HF voice communications, including short range, was impossible during
that period. Regardless, a very temporary condition doesn't make a mode
itself necessary in the overall scheme of Amateur Radio. Amateur Radio
continued on during that period, even for those HF operators who simply
decided to turn the radio off or to other frequencies during that period.
At
the same time, I heard no reports of emergency services, or other similar
Amateur Radio activities, being seriously disrupted.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/


For local communications, one has many choices and although one could use HF
there are better frequencies for that and experienced hams know that. The
choice for local work is generally going to be VHF. So when hams are
talking about HF propagation and usage, they are talking about other than
local communications.

Long distance HF voice was unusable during that time for many locations (the
north is affected worse by auroral but geomagnetic disturbances seem to have
an equal effect everywhere). Such "temporary conditions" can happen several
times a year. If one wants or needs to make other than local contacts then
yes code is necessary. We've had several such occurrences in the last
month. Auroral conditions and other items like geomagnetic storms can
affect all the HF frequencies simultaneously. So for long distance
communications under such conditions, changing bands or frequencies within
HF is often of little help. Yes one could turn off the radio if they didn't
know code but why place that limit on one's self? If the choice is to turn
off the radio or use code then I'd say that code is indeed necessary whether
or not it is an emergency.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE