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Supporting CW
7 April 2012 | by RSGB had this puzzling note in its recent news script:
Some say that CW has been made obsolete by modern digimodes, which work well in conditions far too poor for the older mode. Now that Morse is no longer used in commercial radio traffic, the RSGB confirms that it would fight any moves to prohibit CW on amateur bands. The Society recognises that Morse gives much pleasure to thousands of operators, and will continue to support its use.
The blurb doesn’t cite any specific threats. To use a quote never said by, but attributed to Jerry Seinfeld, “Who are these people?“
I’ve said before that there are people saying there are people saying that CW is dying, but I have yet to find anyone saying CW is dying. Much like American politics, we tend to get our panties in a bunch making up things to be outraged over and threats to be worried about. No radio amateur who has been licensed more than a week would seriously propose to outlaw CW operation. Any amateur who does is likely insane or doesn’t have the capacity to garner support of anyone from amateurs to government officials.
Perhaps I’m reading more into the RSGB statement and giving it more time than it deserves, but my guess is RSGB suffers from one of the thorns that has been in the side of ARRL here in the States. People make accusations that the organization doesn’t support the code, in order to increase the number of licensed amateurs and fill its coffers with more memberships. The people who make such nonsense accusations are still upset with the elimination of the code test or just dislike the organization and look for whatever means to criticize it. To this day I still hear people claim ARRL doesn’t support CW, despite petitioning the FCC for a 5 WPM test for the Extra class test and running code practice and bulletin broadcasts every weekday. Myths are hard to replace with facts.
8 Responses to “Supporting CW”
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Date of the new bulletin: 1 April 2012. Maybe a lame attempt to crack an April Fools joke.
So how is it that I was able to work as a FCC General Class HAM with a reciprocal license in the UK for over 30 years (GM5DIG); then all of a sudden the new EU guidelines say that I am no longer qualified? I still work CW & SSB on the HF bands in the US; but now my station in Scotland sits dormant.
Is that a result of the RSGB or rather the EU? I’m not familiar with the inner workings of either, but it would seem that this is an issue of questionable decisions on matching up differing foreign licensing systems with EU ones and not CW support.
Seems to me the EU is one huge failure. Gonna try and screw up as much as it can before the fall.
72 de Craig N7CPC
“I think, therefore I ham.”
Let those people make fools of themselves. I think CW will be around for a long time to come. To paraphrase Mark Twain, “The reports of CW’s death are greatly exaggerated”.
Fact is , CW is the essense of all communication which evolved into the digital communication systems we have today. If Amatuer Radio Operators are to be experts in their hobby, then there is nothing wrong with learning CW. If we have a breakdown in standard communications we will all see why we have CW. When nothing else gets thru , cw can. Less complex systems equals more reliablity , maybe not the most efficient, but there is still something to be said for reliablity.. Enjoy our hobby
I just say the day this happened, I would no longer be a ham. Period.
CW privileges aren’t going to be eliminated, at least never in our lifetimes or as long as it’s kept alive by people like us. This next statement is bound to anger some people, but look at modes like SSTV, Hellschreiber, and AM which we still keep around, but are arguably quite inefficient and low tech. The whole “CW is dying” mantra is not the product of people who don’t use or despise CW, it’s the creation of those who need something to be outraged about. It’s an emotional strawman to attack.