[ARC5] "What's Old is New..."

[Mike Morrow]

I was involved with Arkansas CAP in the late 1960s as a senior member.  My main contribution was radio-related.  Most members on the CAP HF nets used the two-channel Heathkit HW-18-1, mostly on 4630 kHz USB.  One of my last Arkansas CAP jobs was installing and tuning a vertical antenna for 4360 kHz on a barracks at Blytheville AFB for a cadet encampment being held there.  Shortly thereafter I began my Navy-related service and dropped out of CAP.  They were good folks...one of my friends was Major Mel Stubblefield, CAP, who was killed in a CAP flying incident in the early 1970s.

As Jeep says, the CAP pretty much eliminated ham gear and the associated ham operators with all the NTIA standards they began requiring in the past 20 years.  All unnecessary and unfortunate, IMHO.

I never ever heard of any interest in CAP for CW operations.  If there had been interest in such nets, I doubt many of the ham members would have been capable of performing adequately.  It is giant mythology that most ham operators even 50 years ago were competent Morse operators,

The MARS networks (I was NOLTD) were the ones with real SSB, CW, and RATT capability.

Mike / KK5F

-----Original Message-----
From: jeepp 
Sent: Aug 8, 2017 11:56 AM

Wayne,There is currently zero interest in cw. With the wholesale implementation of the NTIA Red Book some time ago, the number of amateur radio ( hence qualified cw operators)  went way down as virtually all amateur equipment was said to be non-compliant.  By that action, CAP was able to convince the DoD that funds were necessary for new equipment, HF SSB and VHF FM.  Unlike MARS and other Govt. agencies, no waivers or accomodation (clearly available) were requested by CAP.  This still a hot political topic in many circles.Jeep K3HVG (50+ years in CAP)

-------- Original message --------
From: Robert  Eleazer <releazer at earthlink.net> 
Date: 8/8/17  12:32  (GMT-05:00) 

Back in the mid-70's I was surprised and disappointed to
find that the Civil Air Patrol ran its own HF radio networks, using SSB - but
that CW/Morse was not allowed without special permission from the local
commander.

One would think that such organizations would be a reservoir of
expertise in that crowbar-simple highly reliable means of communication,
but the reverse proved to be true.

Wayne
WB5WSV