Steven (KC2SIZ) I can't argue with your opinion. But perhaps you didn't read my post very carefully... I said: More people leaving feet first than arriving head first. Just the way it is. FB on your love of sailing. Sailing is different - its a widely diversified hobby and sport with a huge community. Based on the last regatta I was at, there is no shortage of old, new and in between sailors. Even young, hardcore live-aboards in cold states like Massachusetts and Connecticut. Takes a LOT of skill(s) to do well. But navigation the traditional way - without GPS, does appear to be a dying art and is going the way of CW. BTW: My favorite place to sail is off the New England coast - so many friendly harbors to drop into, so many islands to explore. Favorite song when sailing is "Cool Change". It's how I feel. And many others do, too. So I'm not knocking your CW hobby, just making an observation. For example, the name of this post is: "It ain't dead ... YET" Which pretty much says it on it's way out. But not today. And that's what counts. Brian - K6BRN
Hi Bobby (KG7VTO): I see. Then why is the OP starting a thread regarding CW not being dead? What happened to make the OP think he needed to post a title explaining that? And rather than argue trivia, why not argue the topic? "Yet" is a pretty obvious conclusion, which is why I put it in CAPS, after the " ... ". The sunset of any pastime or life is an uncomfortable topic. I miss AMTOR, believe it or not. Made my first contact in that mode with a tube rig and ancient AMT-1 TNC. Gone now. The world has moved on. And I still have the TNC (Sigh!). CW is NOT gone. Yet. But It's on its way out as a major mode. Like tubes, It'll hang on there a while as it fades away, it's driving need long gone, but with those that grew up with it and viewed proficiency in CW as a rite of passage and symbol of expertise and respect using it until the end. Plus some die-hard, nostalgic new users. Times have changed. Circle of life. Not much more to say. We're all on the same ride. Brian - K6BRN
Congrats on your new ticket! The only piece of advice I'd give you is to start using CW on the air as soon as you can. You'll be nervous as heck the first few times, but that wears off and you can start to enjoy it.
I got my tech license in 1997. I wanted to get on HF and so I ordered the CW 5 wpm cassette tapes from Gordon West W5YI. I found Gordon to be an excellent teacher with an organized structure course. He knew exactly where I was regarding the hurdles most people encounter learning Morse Code. He made it interesting and I could see the progress I was making so it motivated me to stick with it and I did. My first goal was to get tech plus and I did but waited until I could pass the General test which was theory and 13 wpm Morse Code. Within 3 years I was licensed as a General and sent my first CW QSO in 2000. I filled up a Radio Shack log book which was mostly CW QSO's but I also did SSB as well as AM because there was a good solar cycle when I entered the hobby. I am a member of the FISTS and SKCC club and can say there has been a bit of a decline in CW ops for various reasons. However the FISTS club and SKCC club is growing and many of them are new at Morse Code. I have found since the requirement to learn it was dropped the pressure to learn it was too. Many are learning it for nostalgic reasons and that is good. Their keeping the mode alive so to speak. Accuracy transcends speed is a FISTS motto. I will always accommodate those who send slow code. I understand because I've been there. I normally send at around 15 wpm and found that it is comfortable for me and the listener as well. Words are evenly spaced too. That is focusing on the accuracy of sending. You must have an interest and desire in Morse Code in order to learn it. I recommended one program but there may be other programs as well. Find one and stick with it. Learn all the letters, numbers, signs and prosigns before you start sending. Saturate you mind with the sound of each letter and know that you will hit a hurdle from time to time. Don't give up. Once you feel confident, start with a straight key and use it for at least a year before using a paddle. Your brain needs the time to be to become acclimated to sending. If you do this, it will all fall into place for you. Every so often I will meet someone who just got on the air and told me I am their first CW QSO. I always like being a first for someone. If you run into someone who won't slow down, simply sign and move on. They are far and few between. Most CW ops are accommodating. I hope to chat with you someday on the CW portion of the band. 73! Greg
I have also been told, (Does anyone do Morse Code any more, ) I answer with a Big Grin, Yes WE do, there are hundreds if not thousand's that communicate on the airways using CW. 95% of my contacts are CW contacts, the only phone or voice contacts I make is with a one day a week Church net. There is one regional Church net I am involved in is held on 80 meters, and most of the time I am unable to get thru to net control using phone so I switch to CW, and of coarse net control does not understand code so he asks for a translation, someone usually steps in and translates. I believe if you are going to be an emergency response communicator net controller, ya might ought to learn code. But Code is not dead, it is such an enjoyable form of communication there is. You may think I am crazy and maybe I am, but when I am communicating using code it is like talking with that person face to face. Crazy, ya But I enjoy it. Am I good at code? no, I copy at around 18 wpm fairly well, and I make my share of mistakes. You will not find a nicer group of people then the people that uses CW, All have been very kind to me. And to add to that thrill, try using a pocket sized transceiver and make contacts several states away or another country away using a wire, a transmitter producing less than 5W using CW. Nothing is funner than that. OK I am Crazy, but a Fun Crazy 72'
You hit the nail square on, I was one of those not to long ago that was afraid to send QRS, so I struggled thru several QSO's myself, I then decided to send out QRS PSE, and guess what every time the operator slowed down and CW became more enjoyable and less of a chore. I no longer break out in a sweat, Do I still get behind, sure, I think all of us do time to time, not all send perfect code, myself included, and then some signals are weak, then we deal with QRM that you can not quite filter out. Get on the air, listen, copy, copy, did I say copy, yes I did say copy, I have spent hours listing and copying what I can, you will surprise your self how much you can get out of a conversation by copying the faster code, you can, fill in some blank spots and wow you understand the conversation. Send a little slower than what you fill you can copy that helps some what, most will try and match the speed you are sending. Try this, turn your vox off, set your cell phone to record, pickup a random advertisement or some paper article, tap out what you read, say a paragraph or so, then a day or two later try and copy what you recorded, this will do two things. First it will show you what you need to work on and that will be spacing, most of us do not leave enough spacing between words. Second It will let you know if you can copy at the speed you are sending. Did not mean to hijack your comment, sorry if I did, I just enjoy CW 73'
In fact Morse Code has become an exiotic language. I am a 20 wpm Extra so I had to learn code to get my upgrade but I have always loved CW. I work with a school ham club and the kids get excited when I make a cw contact. As for CW ops who won't slow down, they are not CW ops. They are using programs to send and receive code and would not recognize QRS QRS. They only know F-3 F-4 to send call rst section and name. SKCC is one place you will find CW ops who love the mode and use it to keep it alive. I have become active in Parks On The Air and the use of CW increases my no of contacts.
CwCommunicator ( CwCom ) and SUPERALDIS3 can be used for those that don't have radios but do have access to computers. If you're teaching MORSE CODE to a small group of scouts or in a school setting. You can use MANY software packages or live personal instruction to teach the characters needed , but USE the CwCOM and SUPERALDIS3 for letting the kids get hands on with USING the code between the computers. So instead of only being able to use it at a scout meeting ( with the OLD code boxes and some hook up wire ) or in the school radio station ( if you're that lucky ) Break the code into small weekly sets ( usually 5 weeks for every thing but the letters wk 6 & 7 for them ) then let the kids practice sending the code from computer to computer. You can have as few as one practicing off line or you can have 3 or 4 or 5+ practicing on line working BOTH on sending and receiving. The instructor can get in on this too. They can monitor what is being sent and if someone needs a little on line tutoring they can listen to the sending and come back with sending of their own to correct the cadence of the kid that hasn't gotten his rhythm down just yet. Schedules can be set up just like on the air. There are also people from all over the world that use this software so there is the possibility of sending Morse Code to some one out side of the class or group.
At Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas Morse Code is still taught there mainly to the Special Forces. It is not dead nor completely outdated in the US Military. The same goes for other military's around the world. Do you think the vacuum tube is outdated too? The Russians still use them in many of their military radios because they can survive the big bang of atomic warfare.
Look at the examples you provided (Special Forces, use of tubes for EMP resilience). Those are not general purpose applications, but very specific use cases. We're talking about general communications here. Outside of specific military applications (not all, but specific requirements), it's not used as a common mode of communication. But that's ok. Morse doesn't have to be the answer to everything. It's not outlawed, we're still free to practice it. It will survive or not in the Amateur arena on its own merits. Chris
My first ever QSO was on 40m CW as a novice. I was using the Heathkit HW-8 I built just prior to my license arriving in the mail. It still qualifies as my most exciting contact as an amateur. The thrill of hearing my callsign being sent back to me in Pennsylvania from a station in Kentucky in Morse code is something I will never forget. I upgraded about 5 months later. In those days, to upgrade to the general class license, we had to go to the FCC office in Philadelphia to take the test for 13 wpm. I was ecstatic when I aced the exam. I had made so many CW contacts by then, that I increased my speed to over 20 wpm. As station accessories go, I have more keys and paddles than any other item. Though I enjoy all modes, including digital, CW is still the most satisfying. I believe it is because it requires a little more effort than just yapping into a microphone, and it embraces the historical nature of radio. When I served in the U. S. Navy, I was on a temporary assignment to a destroyer escort and was on the signal bridge waiting to photograph a Soviet submarine we were "chasing." With me on the bridge were a signalman chief and a group of seamen he was training to read flashing light from an adjacent ship. Being a ham, the flashing light sent at about 3-5 wpm was a breeze since I had experience copying CW at over 20 wpm. All of the trainees were equipped with clipboards and seemed to struggle with the message. Standing about 10 feet away, I was reading the message aloud as it was sent to another sailor. The chief glared at me and sauntered over to ask why a lowly photographers mate was able to copy Morse code. I explained I was an amateur radio operator. He just shrugged and understood. CW is radio...
So... what paying job requires morse code these days? BTW, my brother was a Navy Seal (do a search, he's in the Seal Museum roll of honor) and my nephew is a an Army Ranger. Neither seems to use Morse code. So .... Glad you enjoy the mode, and you should. But still struggling to find the driving need in today's world. As I once posted, even more recent POWs used tap codes and not CW to communicate between cells. Regarding the need for tubes that resist EMP, that need is long gone. Maybe 25+ year ago. Today, there are better ways, out of necessity.
Fantastic, you are so correct, there are some that do not know code, they are using computer software to receive and send code, after a bit we can tell who knows CW between the ones that are computer keyboard jockeys. In some cases this is understandable for they may have of physical impairment and these programs are a wonderful tool for them. But for those that have not committed time and effort to learning to copy and send code they sure are missing out aren't they. 73'
