wrote in
s.com:


Steve N. wrote:
Uh oh! Now a battle of the troll-o-meters...
Really cute, Bill...I love it.

73, Steve, K9DCI
P.S. I tilted my monitor and I see that this movement is a little out
of balance on the sides. End-to-end balance is ok. Carefully turn
the balance weight on the right side in a little, then it'll sit on
zero regardless of the orientation...

Press the degauss button. The needle will let go.

"R. Scott" wrote in message
...
------------ REPLY SEPARATOR ------------

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
TROLL-O-METER


Bill, W6WRT

There I fixed it for you





Just found this thread. If I had to use CW to save someone's life, it would
depend on a lot of variables.

Firstly, if it involved any of my own ham radio gear, it would be more than
a little odd, since I have a mic for each transceiver and I don't own a key
jack that would plug into any of them, although I do have a straight key,
just no jack to plug it in with.

Assuming some weird contrived scenario where I had the equipment to send CW
but not phone, it would depend what frequencies it worked on. If it was on
the HF ham bands then no major problem, as there are still quite a few
people who still use CW.

My own lack of real aptitude shouldn't be a real problem for two reasons.
One, I could slow down to a comfortable speed, i.e. 5-10 wpm. Two, it would
matter more whether others could copy my sending than vicea versa. I did
pass 20 wpm, but have yet to buy a plug for my key, many years later. As I
said though, that really wouldn't make a difference.

If you asked the same question to someone who had only passed 5 wpm and
then, like me, never used it, then I suspect the victim wouldn't make it.
But then in most countries there is NO morse code testing any more, so
there are plenty of hams now who've never learnt atall. For decades there
have been no code VHF hams in most countries anyway.

There again, if the key was anything other than a straight key, that would
be curtains for the victim, as I would have no idea how to use it.

OTOH, if this scenario didn't involve the HF ham bands, then the victim
would be as good as dead, as I'd never find a non-ham who could still read
CW on the other end.

And your point was...?

"Alun L. Palmer" wrote in message
. ..
wrote in
s.com:

If you asked the same question to someone who had only passed 5 wpm and
then, like me, never used it, then I suspect the victim wouldn't make it.
But then in most countries there is NO morse code testing any more, so
there are plenty of hams now who've never learnt atall. For decades there
have been no code VHF hams in most countries anyway.


To "some" extent, I "may" have to disagree. I held a class once for "No Code
Tech" and one of the guys - a man in his 70s asked if he could go for the
code test even though I wasn't teaching code. He said he had learned it
years ago in the service - but may be rusty. Let me tell you - when he was
done testing, he had PERFECT copy. Was he practicing all along? We'll never
know - nor did I ask. He has since passed on. Some people DO have a good
memory and retain quite well. Others - lose things almost immediately if not
used. Some of us, it takes a while to lose it and we usually do.

Lou

wrote in
oups.com:


Dirk wrote:
Ham's care more about operating appliances than knowing how to save a
lives.

:-(

Many ham are American Red Cross first aid and adult CPR instructors.

That trumps CW at any speed.




Have you ever givin CPR to a person 500 miles away? You must have long
arms.

Sc

"an old friend" wrote in
ups.com:


wrote:

Many ham are American Red Cross first aid and adult CPR instructors.

That trumps CW at any speed.
lol thank you for that

Sorry Mark, the pumping and blowing you know isn't called CPR.

SC

Slow Code wrote:
"an old friend" wrote in
ups.com:


wrote:

Many ham are American Red Cross first aid and adult CPR instructors.

That trumps CW at any speed.
lol thank you for that

Sorry Mark, the pumping and blowing you know isn't called CPR.
i am skilled at CPR amoug other thing

you uon the other have given us no reason to say your skilled at
anything

SC

"clfe" wrote in
:

"Alun L. Palmer" wrote in message
. ..
wrote in
s.com:

If you asked the same question to someone who had only passed 5 wpm
and then, like me, never used it, then I suspect the victim wouldn't
make it. But then in most countries there is NO morse code testing any
more, so there are plenty of hams now who've never learnt atall. For
decades there have been no code VHF hams in most countries anyway.


To "some" extent, I "may" have to disagree. I held a class once for "No
Code Tech" and one of the guys - a man in his 70s asked if he could go
for the code test even though I wasn't teaching code. He said he had
learned it years ago in the service - but may be rusty. Let me tell you
- when he was done testing, he had PERFECT copy. Was he practicing all
along? We'll never know - nor did I ask. He has since passed on. Some
people DO have a good memory and retain quite well. Others - lose
things almost immediately if not used. Some of us, it takes a while to
lose it and we usually do.

Lou




It is possible that someone could learn at 5wpm, not use it for years, and
still be able to use it, but I wouldn't want to bet my life on it.

More to the point is I can't magine a scenario in which CW would be the
only mode available, and that hams are about the only remaining users of
CW.

Alun L. Palmer wrote:
"clfe" wrote in
:

"Alun L. Palmer" wrote in message
. ..
wrote in
s.com:

If you asked the same question to someone who had only passed 5 wpm


Lou




It is possible that someone could learn at 5wpm, not use it for years, and
still be able to use it, but I wouldn't want to bet my life on it.

More to the point is I can't magine a scenario in which CW would be the
only mode available, and that hams are about the only remaining users of
CW.

oh I can imgine that much bt then however I can't take the next and
imagine that cw is all their is andthat the message is going to do
anygood the only senario like that is independace day

In article , "Alun L.
Palmer" wrote:

Assuming some weird contrived scenario where I had the equipment to send CW
but not phone, it would depend what frequencies it worked on.

I think this is the nature of the premise on which the original post was based.

Compare it to a similar situation, where a film camera user is debating a
digital camera user:

"If you came upon a drowning man, and you had to choose whether to save
him or photograph his demise, what kind of film would you use?"

On 16 Jul 2006 18:51:21 +0200, "Alun L. Palmer"
wrote:

More to the point is I can't magine a scenario in which CW would be the
only mode available

A transmitter with no mic, no computer - just a transmit switch. Or
not even a transmit switch, but you can get to one of the battery
wires. Far fetched, but it could happen.

and that hams are about the only remaining users of CW.

Boy Scouts? The military no longer uses CW - what used to be passed
by brass pounders is now passed digitally. Merchant Marine? Same
thing. Aero commo? Same thing, except for voice. I doubt any group
or service actually uses it these days.

(Fred McKenzie) wrote in
:

In article , "Alun L.
Palmer" wrote:

Assuming some weird contrived scenario where I had the equipment to
send CW but not phone, it would depend what frequencies it worked on.

I think this is the nature of the premise on which the original post was
based.

Compare it to a similar situation, where a film camera user is debating
a digital camera user:

"If you came upon a drowning man, and you had to choose whether to save
him or photograph his demise, what kind of film would you use?"


Getting rid of CW is like choosing the kind of film.

Ham radio is drowning and the anti-code hams want us to think tossing it
bricks will make it float better. Dumbing things down is never an
improvement.

SC