[CW] Re: Why did the FCC(ARRL) FRack up 80 meters so bad?

[D. Chester]

Because there was so little activity between 3600 and 3700.  A handful of 
traffic nets in the evening, and maybe a half dozen  RTTY and data qso's, 
and that was about it.  Much of the time the segment would be completely 
empty while all the cw stations packed themselves into the bottom end and 
the phone band was congested beyond usability.

I find the density of cw activity on 3500-3580 now to be about the same as 
it was across the entire 3500-3750 segment when I first got started in 
amateur radio in 1959.

Receiving with an appropriate bandwidth cw filter, with negligible drift in 
my transmitter and receiver, I don't find the "new" cw band unreasonably 
congested, even during weekend prime time.  Except during contests of 
course, but that's an exception; I don't think of contest weekends as 
"normal" activity.

As a  matter of fact, I find it easier to make cw qso's now because I'm not 
tuning through all those idle kilohertz listening with my 300 Hz receiving 
filter, searching for a signal.

Use it or lose it.

Don k4kyv