In article , "Charles
Brabham" writes:


While the legal "requirement" for Morse Code proficiency has gone away,
there still exists a valid reason to keep Morse Code as a basic
communication
skill around. The day of the "universal translator" ala-Star Trek has yet
to
arrive, and Morse Code can still help bridge that gap.

Some amateurs may not realize what Steve is talking about... With morse
code, you can get through a basic QSO with amateurs who speak a digfferent
language better than one might normally expect!

In reality, the "legal" requirement for morsemanship to use all amateur
privileges below 30 MHz has NOT "gone away."

Also, there is NO requirement or even suggestion that U.S. radio
amateurs MUST "speak" to those whose primary language is not
English.

The ONLY reason for adopting a "simple" (technologically speaking)
method of using radio waves to communicate was that turning a
radio transmitter on or off was about the ONLY way the primitive,
early radio could be used.

[Miccolis is even now preparing a scathing rebuke talking about his
old buddy, Reggie Fessenden, doing AM with a carbon mike in the
antenna lead way back in 1900 (supposedly) and for sure in 1906
(many witnesses)...not exactly a wide-spread adoption of an AM
method then, now or in-between]

One argument that was not very well plugged by the "Keep the CW Requirement"
lobby and is still a good reason for learning The Code (compulsory or not)
is the fact that Morse is the "Lingua Franca of Radio". Apparently in use
since the Middle Ages, Lingua Franca was a trade language used by various
language communities around the Mediterranean, to communicate with others
whose language they did not speak. It was a simple language which allowed
traders of different cultures/languages to communicate their prices and
quantities to each other and served it's purpose up until the 19th century.

Tsk. Most of that is intellectual-academic bull**** in actual practice,
according to much more detailed history from about 500 AD an onward
(give or take a millennium).

First of all, amateur radio under U.S. regulations is NOT for trade
purposes, commerce, or anything involving money (that's why it is called
AMATEUR radio, done for non-pecuniary reasons, or, more simply, as
a HOBBY).

What was actually USED as a so-called "common language for money
exchange" (lingua franca or language for franking) was a highly-variable
polyglot depending on the region. There was NO one language, but many,
since there was relatively little in the way of lexicons or other aids for
study. Those in "international" commerce and trade had to learn as
much and as many different necessary languages and dialects as they
were able to do. For business purposes, the needs of language were
relatively simple since business transactions were largely without all of
the modern regulations, taxation, tariffs, etc.

What many don't realise about CW is that it is fairly much "language
independent" and an English speaking radio amateur can communicate with a
Japanese operator without ever being aware of any language barriers!

As written by someone whose native language is English, that's an
extremely biased statement.

First, there's NO "need" for any U.S. amateur to communicate with
Japanese amateurs, nor any other amateurs whose languages are not
English...not any more than a Japanese amateur being required to
communicate with a Chinese, Korean, or Russian amateur. [a large
population fraction of the world, none of whom have English as the
native language...and morse code is based on the English alphabet]

"Q Codes" and other jargonspeak prosigns were developed NOT as any
"lingua franca" but because manual morse was SLOW compared to
speech. That was a convenience, not a necessity. A "QSY" can be
as easy to understand in any form of communication from morse to
TTY to speech to the printed word. It is JARGON, not some magic
phrase. If commonly used by many, then it becomes understandable
throughout the radio communications world. [amateurs didn't start that
sort of jargon, but many erroneously think they did]

This is
because CW uses prosigns and abbreviations (such as the Q-Code) which mean
the same thing world wide regardless of language. Now, what other mode
allows you to do that? (Ok, SSTV gives it a good stab, but apart from that
CW is pretty unique).

No cigar. Invalid reasoning. All those "prosigns" and Q Codes do is
fit standard phrasing into a shorter time frame, no more and no less than
the JARGON of any common activity.

Among the members of the electrical unions at work in the film and TV
industry, "Kill the broad!" means to turn off the broad (wide-beam) lighting
on a set. "Go to black" in TV production means to shut down video-audio
as in after a "Crawl" is done (the roll-through of credits for the
production).
All those terms are perfectly understandable - within their lines of work -
and came to be standardized with wide use as in all human jargon. It
isn't "unique" or magic or any other self-congratulatory wonderfulness.

What all of the PCTA bafflegab boils down to is that the morsemen managed
to learn a particular skill of early radio (a necessary skill in old,
primitive
radio), are highly proud of their accomplishment, and insist that others do
the same extraordinary thing they did...to prove these newcomers are "as
good in radio" as they.