[CW] ARRL MUST GET BETTER

[N2EY at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/6/05 8:02:18 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
bcarling at cfl.rr.com writes:


> On 6 Mar 2005 at 17:08, N2EY at aol.com wrote:
> 
> > Personally I think the time has come for CW-only subbands on the MF/HF
> > bands. Say about the first 15% of each band. If enough of us tell ARRL
> > and FCC that we want such subbands, we might get them. But not telling
> > them is useless.
> 
> Er... but we HAD them... 

A long long time ago.

My 1954 License Manual says that US hams could use FSK ("F1") on all of the 
non-phone parts of the HF bands. That's more than 50 years ago, back when "F1" 
essentially meant 60 wpm RTTY. Oddly enough, F1 wasn't/isn't allowed in the 
'phone subbands, but CW is.

My 1951 LM says CW ("A1") only in those subbands, so the change took place 
somewhere in the intervening time. 

What has happened is wholesale
> 
> acceptance of digital modes and our wonderful NAFTA
> partners stomping all over us on SSB in our CW sub-band too.
> 

We don't have *any* CW subbands on HF/MF - just "CW/data". 

Most of the rest of the world has no subbands-by-mode like the USA. That's 
why we get clobbered! They're staying away from the QRM in the US 'phone 
segments.

> It's reaching a critical mass and now something has to be done to 
> restrain the Pactor menace. The other digital modes are fairly 
> predictable and stay within expected ranges of frequencies,
> even if some are overlapping and annoyiong to CW ops.

Agreed! Back in the day, the RTTY folks stayed together, not all over the 
band. Even though it was legal to fire up on 3505, they hung out around 3620.

To paraphrase something I saw on another list:

I don't agree with simply mixing modes. If ham operator using data mode X
won't be required to know Morse, it's going to be easy for that operator to
regard a CW station on a frequency as so much background noise to be 
overpowered. And the CW folks may respond in kind to such treatment.
That doesn't make either side right.

Good fences make good neighbors.

73 de Jim, N2EY