"K4YZ" wrote


I guess the fact that the Morse guys did it faster and with 100%
accuracy doesn't account for anything, eh?


Doesn't account for much!

It's kind of like a speed contest between a turtle and a snail --- mildly
interesting, but inconsequential when comparing them to the speed of a cheetah.

dit dit

de Hans, K0HB

"KØHB" wrote in message
nk.net...

"K4YZ" wrote
I guess the fact that the Morse guys did it faster and
with 100% accuracy doesn't account for anything, eh?

Doesn't account for much!
It's kind of like a speed contest between a turtle and a snail --- mildly
interesting, but inconsequential when comparing them to the speed of a
cheetah.
de Hans, K0HB

Hans has it nailed pretty much. The value of the Leno
Sjow contest was the publicity for ham radio. Beyond
that, it was just a mildly interesting win for the hams.
Other than that, what else does the morse vs text
messaging contest win "account for"?

Cheers,
Bill K2UNK

Bill Sohl wrote:

The value of the Leno
Sjow contest was the publicity for ham radio. Beyond
that, it was just a mildly interesting win for the hams.
Other than that, what else does the morse vs text
messaging contest win "account for"?

Actually, Bill, I think the main focus of the Leno show
contest and its Australian predecessor wasn't ham radio
at all.

There's a certain mindset that automatically connects
"newer" with "faster/better/easier". There's even a
word for it: "neophilia", meaning unreasonable love
of new things.

The Leno clip shows that mindset in action in the way
the woman being interviewed by Jay Leno immediately
assumes text messaging will be faster than Morse Code.
You also see it in the way the audience agrees. Text
messaging is more than 150 years newer than Morse code -
it must be faster, right?

Of course Jay knows the outcome is almost certain to be
very different - that's the whole point of the segment.
And when the Morse Code team wins the contest, the
point is clear: Newer isn't always better, and old isn't
always bad or useless.

--

There was a segment on the NPR radio quiz show "Wait, Wait,
Don't Tell Me" on May 14, in which a caller was asked to
identify the one true story out of three. One story
was about the Australian text-vs.-Morse contest, and the other
two were made-up along the lines of a new product having some
surprising characteristics, like tomatoes that were flammable.
(The caller got it right).

73 de Jim, N2EY

wrote:
Bill Sohl wrote:

The value of the Leno
Sjow contest was the publicity for ham radio. Beyond
that, it was just a mildly interesting win for the hams.
Other than that, what else does the morse vs text
messaging contest win "account for"?

Actually, Bill, I think the main focus of the Leno show
contest and its Australian predecessor wasn't ham radio
at all.

There's a certain mindset that automatically connects
"newer" with "faster/better/easier". There's even a
word for it: "neophilia", meaning unreasonable love
of new things.

Like your new favorite word, "neocon?"

Bill Sohl wrote:
"K=D8HB" wrote in message
nk.net...

"K4YZ" wrote
I guess the fact that the Morse guys did it faster and
with 100% accuracy doesn't account for anything, eh?

Doesn't account for much!
It's kind of like a speed contest between a turtle and a snail ---
mildly
interesting, but inconsequential when comparing them to the speed
of a
cheetah.
de Hans, K0HB

Hans has it nailed pretty much. The value of the Leno
Sjow contest was the publicity for ham radio. Beyond
that, it was just a mildly interesting win for the hams.
Other than that, what else does the morse vs text
messaging contest win "account for"?

Cheers,
Bill K2UNK

Bill, are you and Hans trying to tell me that scores and scores of
youthful white males aren't going to go out and nail the 5aka13-15WPM
Farnsworth exam at the next Hamfest???

I'm inclined to agree. What were they thinking???

"KØHB" wrote in message
nk.net...

"K4YZ" wrote


I guess the fact that the Morse guys did it faster and with 100%
accuracy doesn't account for anything, eh?


Doesn't account for much!

It's kind of like a speed contest between a turtle and a snail --- mildly
interesting, but inconsequential when comparing them to the speed of a
cheetah.

dit dit

de Hans, K0HB





Hello, Hans

Very true. One interesting thing of note - text messaging I'd consider
similar to cw in one thing - it may be fun, but not highly useful. If one
needs to send a lot of text, a computer and the Internet just might be
considerably faster (assuming one can touch type at a reasonable rate). Via
radio, there are digital modes, of course, and text can be reliably sent
much faster with many of the digital modes (even the very dated RTTY).

I have to chuckle at the length of this thread; I thought it an interesting
link and figured there would be a couple of cw detractors that would answer,
but the thread turned out a bit longer than I figured. I keep forgetting
how heated the cw vs no cw arguement can get.

I'd have responded earlier, but yesterday was my birthday and .... well, I
probably consumed enough beer to build a 160 meter half wave beer can
vertical

Fortunately, the better half didn't get upset



73 from Rochester, NY
Jim AA2QA

Jim Hampton wrote:


I'd have responded earlier, but yesterday was my birthday and ....
well, I
probably consumed enough beer to build a 160 meter half wave beer can
vertical


Ah yes, a vertical 'beverage' antenna! Our FD group had one for 20M,
but we had to quit using it when our FD QTH changed to the football
field of a local High School.

Anyhow, Happy Birthday!

73, de Hans, K0HB

"KØHB" wrote in message
ups.com...

Jim Hampton wrote:


I'd have responded earlier, but yesterday was my birthday and ....
well, I
probably consumed enough beer to build a 160 meter half wave beer can
vertical


Ah yes, a vertical 'beverage' antenna! Our FD group had one for 20M,
but we had to quit using it when our FD QTH changed to the football
field of a local High School.

Anyhow, Happy Birthday!

73, de Hans, K0HB


Happy B-day guy.

Our club group built a 3 element 160 meter yagi out of steel beer cans for a
Field Day one year.

Dan/W4NTI

Dan,

I must ask ... did you rotate the whole county to turn the beam?


73,
Jim AA2QA


"Dan/W4NTI" wrote in message
news

"KØHB" wrote in message
ups.com...

Jim Hampton wrote:


I'd have responded earlier, but yesterday was my birthday and ....
well, I
probably consumed enough beer to build a 160 meter half wave beer can
vertical


Ah yes, a vertical 'beverage' antenna! Our FD group had one for 20M,
but we had to quit using it when our FD QTH changed to the football
field of a local High School.

Anyhow, Happy Birthday!

73, de Hans, K0HB


Happy B-day guy.

Our club group built a 3 element 160 meter yagi out of steel beer cans for
a
Field Day one year.

Dan/W4NTI

"Jim Hampton" wrote in message
...
Dan,

I must ask ... did you rotate the whole county to turn the beam?


73,
Jim AA2QA

I don't remember.......

Dan/W4NTI