K6LHA wrote:
wrote:

The main reason other services stopped using Morse Code was that they
didn't want to pay skilled operators. It was cheaper for them to buy
more-complex equipment.

As to a typical non-amateur-communications service, an old Teletype
Corporation teleprinter cost less than a quarter of the annual salary of
a skilled morse code specialist and had a service life of at least 10
years. That was before WWII...but it applied just after WWII as well.

This is a little like saying that the reason commercial shipping moved
from wind power to engines is that they could have a smaller crew. Cost
is only a minor part of why commercial communications services stopped
using cw.

Technology moves forward. That TTY teleprinter might cost less than a
skilled Morse operator, but more important is that it does the job
better. If you're running a commercial service and you're being paid
real money to move message traffic, you invest in the latest technology
to do it because that's the overall most efficient way to get the job done.

While I'm nostalgic about the end of cw in the world of commercial
radio, that has nothing to do with my feeling about its use in ham
radio. One of the things hobbyists do is maintain expertise in skills
that might otherwise be lost forever. I enjoy the mode, and it still
has plenty of application in my hobby.

If others don't enjoy it, fine. I don't enjoy EME, and I feel myself no
less a ham for that. I'm not going to denigrate my fellow ham because
they don't care to operate a mode that I happen to enjoy.

73, Steve KB9X