"Michael Coslo" wrote in message
...
What is more important:

1. Having a license that allows HF access.

2. Not having to learn Morse code.

IOW, is standing on principle, and refusing to learn Morse code a better
thing than learning it to get the priveliges?

- Mike KB3EIA -

YES to CW or NO to CW makes no difference whatsoever Mike.
Not at this stage of the game. Ham radio is a dying hobby, period.

The average age of the USA ham operator is a staggering 64 Years.
There are FIVE TIMES more hams dying off per month than there
are new hams comming into the hobby and license renewals combined.

80% of young people 2-day have text messaging cellphones.
Also there's AOL Instant Messenger or similar Chatroom software
plus Apple IPOD Podcasting and similar technology. (just wait till
the wireless IPOD hits around October 2005 just in time for xmas!)

What young person, apart from the occasional geek, would want to
invest time and money in archaic, obsolete, analog technology based
ham radio in 2005? Oh yes there will be a few, but for the most part
today's young people wouldn't know ham radio from CB and could
not care less either.

Tune across HF any evening and tell me how many young people
you hear on SSB. Most of the guys I hear on 75 Meters are long
retired and most callsigns I recall from just 10 Years ago are either
in the local nursing home or 6 feet under the earth.

Read the handwriting boys. At this rate Ham Radio will be dead
by 2030.