"Michael Black" wrote in message
mple.org...
On Mon, 25 Aug 2008, Richard Knoppow wrote:


"W9HGO" wrote in message
...
GM,

I am a new ham interested in CW and would really like to
find an
operators manual written before the topic of CW started
to
be diluted.

I would prefer a 1st or 2nd edition.

TNX
73, Harry
W9HGO -SKCC #4647

Do you mean a Radio Amateurs Handbook? If so look at
this group, some have been advertized in the last couple
of
weeks. The books may be helpful if you want to build CW
transmitting equipment but its very simple (one of the
virtues of CW). If you want to learn code there are a lot
of
resources on the web.

I thought the question was clear.

The Handbook had to cover everything, so it could never
cover
it all in depth. You'd get a copy of "How to Become a
Radio Amateur"
to learn the basics, and maybe build that first regen
receiver and
single tube transmitter, and learn the code.

If you needed more help, you'd buy "Learning the
Radiotelegraph Code";
I never had a copy, I don't know how it compares with more
recent
books about learning the Morse code from the ARRL.

You'd buy the Handbook next, to cover technical stuff in
more detail.

Then you'd buy the mobile manual if you wanted to go
mobile, or the SSB
manual if you were really interested in SSB (especially in
the early days
when they covered theory of ssb better than in the later
ones that were
mostly construction articles), and you'd get the VHF
manual if that was
your interest.

If you were mostly interested in operating, you'd get
"Operating an Amateur Radio Station" which was sort of an
extended version of the
"Operating a Station" chapter in the Handbook. I never
saw one in
the old days, but my impression was that it was a
relatively slim,
like the rest of the topic-specific ARRL books. The
current one
is terribly thick.

That's the one he wants, to read up on operating CW when
it was
a much bigger part of amateur radio.

The old books have the advantage that they are current
with the
era. The state of the Handbook varies, since every time
something
new is added to the hobby (and thus the Handbook),
something else
gets cut. There was a long period when SSB got short
shift, because
the initial surge of SSB was passed and there seemed to be
an assumption
that everyone knew the basics. Likely also the rise of
commercial SSB
rigs helped. Then building changed, and a lot of people
started
building QRP ssb rigs and the ssb chapter improved. Solid
state
and even computers came along and helped to better
implement the
phasing method, and whammo, the phasing method that had
been mostly
a footnote in the Handbook for many years suddenly became
more detailed.

Michael VE2BVW

A good, comprehensive answer but I don't think the
original question was quite as clear as you think. Also, the
name of the book requires some clarification: you may be
right that he wants "How to Operate an Amateur Radio
Station" but I am not sure how old a first or second edition
would be. In any case the older ARRL handbooks cover a lot
of CW stuff like handling traffic etc. Being a long time CW
person myself perhaps it seems simpler to me than to someone
new. I certainly encourage anyone to wants to practice this
art.

--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA