[CW] CW augments SSB for traffic handling

[Alan W.]

The other day, the Alexandria Radio CLub (Alexandria, VA) had a station set
up at the town's 254th birthday celebration.  We took several pieces of
message traffic from bystanders, including one going to to a scientific
station in Antarctica.  The next day we had terrible propagation on 40 and
80 meters.  I tried to send it on the afternoon 40 meter 4th Region SSB
traffic net, but no one could hear each other.

The receiving station asked net control, "Can we try CW?"

Net control said to me, "He wants to try CW.  Can you do it?  If so, what
frequency?"

I replied that was fine, and suggested 7.025 MHz.  Net Control relayed that
to the other station, and we met down there, with him calling me (receiving
station usually calls after the QSY).  In about 5 minutes, I had sent him my
3 messages, including the on to Antarctica (Davis Station) - NO PROBLEMS!

Without CW, we would have had to simply give up.

Thus CW is an essential technique in emergency HF communnications as a
supplement to the SSB nets.  But without knowledge of CW (and 5 wpm won't
cut it), our HF net operations would be crippled.

dit dit y'all

Alan W. N5LF