"Larry Roll K3LT" wrote in message
...
In article , "Carl R. Stevenson"
writes:


Larry ... you admit that you wouldn't have learned Morse if you had not
been
(effectively) forced to ... you happened to decide that you liked it
afterwards.
Many folks that have followed the same path NEVER liked Morse and put
the key in the drawer (or sold it, or gave it away) after passing the
Morse
test to get the privs they REALLY wanted, never to use Morse again.

Carl:

That's right. They did. And a lot of them kept the key on the top of the
operating table and continued to use it. Now, in the absence of a code
testing requirement as part of the licensing procedure, how many new hams
will even bother to own a telegraph key?

Frankly, I don't care one iota ... I see that as a totally unimportant issue
in
the grand scheme of things ... it is up to Morse enthusiasts to recruit new
Morse ops ... and talking down to those who are not interested will not help
that cause.
Could *I* become proficient at 20 wpm ... certainly, with enough use and
practice. Do I *care* to? The answer is obviously "No."

Well, at least you were exposed to the code and learned it well enough to
make that choice from a vantage point of actual personal experience. In
the
future, a lot of hams who may have decided to become active CW users will
no longer get that opportunity, due to the elimination of the code testing
requirement.

Again, it's up to the current crop of Morse enthusiasts to do any
recruiting.

There is essentially nothing that could make me interested in becoming "a
regular CW operator with 20 wpm proficiency."

Does this make me a "lesser/2nd class ham?"

Since you tried it and gave it a fair evaluation, I'd have to say that it
does
not. Again, future hams will not have had your experience. That is the
difference. Not having "been there, done that" disqualifies them from
making any judgment on the "code" issue whatsoever.

I don't buy that argument ... folks can be intelligent enough that, with
a modest exposure to Morse through personal contact with other hams,
seeing others using the mode, etc., they can make a choice as to whether
they are interested in purusing the mode or not.

Carl - wk3c