[CW] Dumb down not justified

[Donald Chester]

The push to eliminate cw-only subbands is as much a result of lack of 
activity as restructuring.  Take 80m for example.  Even in wintertime when 
the QRN goes away, there is relatively sparce activity from 3500 to 3580 or 
so, a few "digital" and a very few cw stations scattered from about 3580 to 
3675, some cw activity in the novice band (but nothing like it was 25 years 
ago), and heavy congestion in the phone band.  A few nights ago  the QRM 
level dropped so that the band was useable.  About 0500 GMT, I scanned 
across the band, and counted a grand total of FOUR cw QSO's,  a couple of 
some kind of digital data signals, and somewhere between 50 and 60 phone 
signals.  The USA is one of the very few countries with any kind of subbands 
at all.  As I recall, European  countries didn't have subbands when I 
started in ham radio in 1959, and Canada got rid of its subbands about 8 
years ago.

Incentive licensing turned out to be a dismal failure in terms of its 
original stated purpose, to increase the technical expertise of the amateur 
radio community.  If anything, it had the reverse effect.  The recent 
"restructuring" was the final, fatal blow to the concept.  Compare the 
technical knowledge and expertise of the typical ham in 1968 with today.  
Also, compare the difficulty of the licensing exams.  When was the last time 
you worked a station using homebrew equipment?  Today's dumbing-down process 
didn't begin until AFTER incentive  licensing.

I passed my Extra in 1963, about 5 years before the advent of incentive 
licensing,  In those days the Extra was something to hang on the wall (you 
got a nice certificate type of licence, similar to a commercial licence).  
It granted no additional operating privileges over the General.  Once all 
the dust had settled over incentive licensing, I have to say I preferred the 
way the ham bands were before 1968.

As far as "restructuring" goes, maybe we should have kept the the original 
cw licensing requirements and got rid of the subbands instead.  I'm sure 
Brother Stair and his ilk salivate when they tune through all the vacant 
frequencies.  If the amount of space reserved for cw were substantially 
reduced, maybe  the remaining portion would sound more like it did 15-20 
years ago, when you could put your receiver in the narrow selectivity 
position and still tune in a signal every few degrees of dial rotation, and 
call CQ on cw with the expectation of an immediate reply any time the band 
was open.

Don K4KYV

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