On Apr 5, 3:52�am, John Smith I wrote:
AF6AY wrote:

* ...

* *Careful, JS, you are speaking to Mister DeeEcks, formerly from
* *the Government! *[here to help? *nah...]

* *He WAS DX!

Len:

I am quite sure the problem is all on this end; *the importance of
pointless bickering has always escaped me ...

It ain't "pointless bickering" in Heil's case. In the typical
"look at me, I am SOMEBODY" fashion of computer-modem
comms, the bickerer has to come out on top, regardless.

During Word War 3 prior to FCC 06-178, morsemen HAD
to be on top. It was almost a compulsion. Just about all
the old morse myths were brought out, dusted off, and
presented in all their "glory" despite being outmoded, out-
dated, too worn to use in the future. Morsemen were
intensely PROUD of their skill and were bound and
determined to shove it down everyone's throat...whether
anyone actually thought much of the mode or not. They
had rank, status, privilege all because of that morse skill
and hated to lose any of it. It was almost a fight for
survival of a species...it was THEM or no one...and to
hell with what any newcomer thinks or for the future of
US amateur radio. It was extremism in the defence of
their very-private playground. [de fence was up and
trying to keep off the encroaching voice modes]

Early on I had mentioned my military service assignment.
I thought it was adequate proof that "CW" wasn't up to
the task of hundreds of thousands of message relays
per month (teleprinter was used)...the necessity for an
entire military theater of operations doing 24/7 duty during
the Cold War. No, the morsemen HAD to try turning that
around to "my bragging" and a general big nothing during
Word War 3. Sure, I did brag some since I absolutely
lucked out on that assignment, even if the station was only
the third largest in the Army worldwide network. Even
being only third, pushing 220K messages relayed a month
24/7 is Big Business any way one slices it. The amateur
national network can't come close to that using RTTY and
certainly not via "CW." Manual "CW" even at 20 to 40
WPM just can't beat the old 60 WPM machinery (then
the only form of Data using electromechanical terminals).

That was in 1953 to 1956 and most of the "CW" super-
skilled hams in here were just being born (a few not yet
conceived). The military was ramping up its skills and
beginning to go 100 WPM teleprinter, 300 WPM "Data"
(that word not yet in vogue then), using Troposcatter
and hoping satellites could be put up without the launch
vehicles constantly exploding on the pad. All was
accomplished and more, no military OR commercial
service looking back to quaint old methods. Yet the
superskilled (self-imagined) hams HAD to stay with ALL
needing to be federally tested for "important" skill of
morse code! For a hobby activity yet. Morsemen had
done it, therefore "all could do it."

None of the Word War 3 fighting on morsemanship was
"pointless bickering" to the morsemen. They were the
"best radio operators" and HAD to tell everyone they
were. Years and years of them honing their twitchy-
fingered skills on the paddles made them a needed
resource in homeland defense and security of the nation,
the amateur radio SERVICE...and all should look up to
them, admire them, salute them as they entered a
room and other ossifer courtesy tenderred in utmost
respect and reverence.

So, on 17th February I decided to get in the amateur radio
hobby. Might be fun...except in here waging the on-going
gorilla fight in the post Word War 3 era. I became an
Extra Out Of The Box by test on February 25th, by law on
7 March. All the operating privileges of any OTHER Extra
are mine, no restrictions by law. Now Heil wants to drone
on that I'm such a "Beginner, a Neophyte" in ANY radio,
amateur or not. After 54 years of doing it in many radio
services? Amateurism is extra super-special most very
difficult to learn? No. It is for me and morsemanship,
something I will probably never use, but who really cares
except morsemen? The FCC gives the OPTION to any
amateur to use ANY allocated mode, any allocated band.

Ah, but Heil, Miccolis, Kelly, et al, say I "MUST" use "CW"
to "PROVE WORTH." Prove to whom? To them? Mais non,
mon ami, they be just little people, almost a protected
species of old and, with the protection they had gone, now
a dying breed. They continue their POINTLESS BICKERING
yet, trying to put down all those who do not agree with Their
magnificence and god-like skills. It is Them against the rest
of the radio world and they are losing. Let them bicker and
rant. It is all they have left in the wreckage of their fallen
towers and former imagined glory.

73, Len AF6AY