"Dee D. Flint" wrote in
:


"Alun" wrote in message
...

Yes, they are living in the past. This has nothing to do with the
merits or otherwise of their beloved mode, simply that the world has
unquestionably moved on and they have not.


The merits of the CW mode have been presented many times and in depth.

It wasn't the "new" hams that came up with RTTY, packet, satellite,
PSK31 and the many advances in ham radio communications. Instead, it
was the experienced hams. The experienced hams have moved on while the
new, inexperienced hams are too often afraid to experience the full
range of ham activities and deny themselves the ability to make
judgements based on personal experience. Too often they instead listen
to other inexperienced hams and make decisions based on incomplete and
inaccurate data.

It was not the new hams that I heard last fall several days after the
major flares and auroras discussing on SSB how they had to shift from
PSK31 to CW as the auroral activity was causing terrible phase shifts
in the PSK31 and how they had to wait to establish SSB communications
until the effects of the flares had passed.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE



We have indeed debated the relative merits many times. I could make a case
for other modes, but it isn't the issue. Nor is experience the issue here.
If it were it would degenerate into analysing different kinds of
experience. This in turn is entirely self-defeating, as usually only those
who actually like CW have a lot of experience in using it. OTOH, I have
held a ham licence for 24 years, which is a significant amount of time, but
of course without using CW it doesn't count :-)

The issue is living in the past, harmless and perhaps even admirable in
itself, but not something to force upon others if one has a proper sense of
decency. Morse is an antiquarian mode, dropped by every other service. It
does indeed have advantages, but then so does spark, and so does joining
two tin cans with a piece of string. Any self-respecting debater could make
a good case for standing on hilltops waving semaphore flags.

In my musical analogy the aging rocker in the song 'wore his trouser cuffs
too tight', but he didn't say we all have to dress that way. The 'morse
forever' crew are effectively saying we all have to 'wear our trouser cuffs
too tight' in the style of long ago. Ultimately, it's just an extremely
silly point of view. However, if it weren't so deeply held we wouldn't be
arguing about it. Unfortunately, it seems likely only to fade away along
with those who beleieve in it.

73 de Alun, N3KIP