RadioBanter - View Single Post - Is the code requirement really keeping good people out of ham radio?

Dave Heil · October 1st 06, 07:45 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.policy

wrote:
Cecil Moore wrote:
wrote:
What IS outmoded (technically) is sitting only on HF
and "working" other stations with morse radiotelegraphy.
Amateur radio is the ONLY radio service still using
morse radiotelegraphy for communications purposes.

Actually Len, almost all amateur radio operation has
been outmoded by advancing technology which has made
amateur radio first to be redundant and later to be
obsolete. I'm still using the same modes for amateur
radio that I used more than half a century ago.

That is true in essence for all those who "work DX on HF
with CW." :-)

It is true of those who listen to the medium wave broadcast band and the
FM broadcast band. It is true of most of those who tune the short wave
broadcast bands. Go figure!

Some will point to modern techniques in radio (DDS, PLL
frequency control, solid-state PAs that need no tuning
controls, etc.) as being advancements. Trouble is, those
advancements came from the designers-manufacturers,
advancements to capture market share of ham consumer
electronics. Using only on-off keying with a state-of-the-
art transceiver seems a waste of available resources in
that equipment.

Using the latest technology to listen to a ball game transmitted using
amplitude modulation is a waste of valuable resources.

My daughter lives in New York state. 50 years ago,
I would have tried to talk her into getting a ham
license. Today, Sprint cellphones allow the two of
us to communicate any time, day or night, for free.

One in three Americans has a cell phone now
according to the US Census Bureau. Each cell
phone is basically a little two-way radio.

No "CW" test is needed to use a cell phone. :-)

No, Len, it isn't. No license exam at all is required. You are
qualified to use a cell phone. If you want to work some DX, you are
free to see how far from a tower you can be and still make one work.
You can even set up a random dialer in order to fish for "contacts". :-)

I just completed an exchange of files (including hi-
resolution photographs) this morning with another
in Europe. Took only a few minutes. The Internet
stretches over most of the globe, is unaffected by any
ionospheric variation.

Wow! I wonder why that might be. Do you suppose that it is because that
most of the internet is linked by wires and the parts that aren't use
frequencies that are capable only of relatively short distances where
ionospheric variations aren't applicable? As with cell phone use, you
meet the qualifications to use the internet.

But, in 2006 the FCC regulations still require any radio
amateur to test for "CW" in order to operate on bands
below 30 MHz.

Imagine that!

None of the other radio services
require that. shrug

Then perhaps amateur radio is the wrong radio service for you. You
might choose one which doesn't require testing and which will permit you
to exchange high speed digital data.

See IEEE Code of Ethics

(superfluous newsgroup trimmed)

Dave K8MN