The main reason why cw lasted as long as it has was because of an
International Agreement. Basically it stated no person could be
licensed by their country unless as part of their testing, proficiency
of cw could be demonstrated.

Unfortunately other countries broke this agreement. The United States
after many years of upholding cw tossed in the towel.

The purpose of proficiency testing was to insure you can send and receive
code with a minimum of effort. Consequent to receiving your license, you
also took a commitment and seriously I might add, to assist and render
aid should you hear a distress call.

In spite of the numerous advances made in the communications field, one
thing that has been proven time and again, is that cw is easier to decode
under trying band conditions. Developing the ability to hear a distress
call and rendering aid takes very little effort.

My concern is that someday a call will be transmitted for help using cw
and while the signal could be ideal for decoding. The person hearing it
will have no idea what he/she is listening to. The result of overlooking
the call could be devastating. That will be a tragic day.

What bothers me equally as bad, is how people want things to be easier.
I'm tired of the whining. I hear. It's to hard, it's to difficult . . .
baloney!

Try holding a verbal (not cw) conversation with someone at only 5 words a
minute. After 5 minutes you'll go crazy and want to speed things up. It's
a natural process. Try it.

What gets me is that some people want to talk cw at 20 wpm or faster
right out of the box. If they can't do that, they don't want to deal with
cw at all.

Let's cheapen cw a bit more. Using a tnc is easier than learning code but
it does not make you any smarter and provide you with anymore ability to
operate cw when the tnc is not available.


Commitment, honor and tradition.

Thank God you can't buy a license or commitment goes right out the
window. The sad fact is that I think we're getting close to it.

In the past it was an honor to become part of an elite group of
communicators and to serve a community when the need arose.

CW became the traditional banner you displayed and cherished. The faster
you copied code the greater your bragging rights.

Not anymore. Amature Radio is seriously getting as cheapened as a 99 cent
happy meal at McDonalds.

I have been apart of Amature Radio since 1962 and if you think the code
was tough when it was abolished, you should have seen the requirements
back then. I could be wrong but 30wpm for an Extra class is ringing a
bell.

I saw this trend with c.b.. Our ham bands are going down the same drain
I'm sorry to report. Get to relaxed about something and you loose it for
good. Look at the 220 band, half of it gone. 11 meters (yes c.b. use to
be apart of amature radio) is gone entirely. Now the code.

Has the FCC specified if a non-code tested station can operate cw with a
tnc in the specified freqs? I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the FCC took
those portions away from us so they can sell the frequencies like on 220.

Bill Cosby in one of his many speeches said "hold yourself to a higher
standard." While he was refering to something else, the comment stuck
with me as it can be applied to many circumstances. If your going to get
an Amateur Radio license, then get one being the best operator you can
be. Don't cheapen yourself by trying less and accepting something second
to number one.

Was learning cw boring for me, yes. But so was learning my abc's and 1+1
equals 2 stuff.