[CW] Shades and shards of 80 CW

[SX-25]

     The last two weekends I left my receiver off. I'd been gone all week and unable to practice the craft I love, CW and was looking forward to some good ol' fashioned rag chews on 80 CW. I'm no different than many guys, I am sure, whose commitments and obligations throughout the week impose restrictions on hamming until the weekends. 

     Whoops! Wrong again! 80 meters was unusable because contesters were busy honing their skills needed to exchange "599  GL" to as many other stations as possible in some big national emergency some day. Meanwhile, above 3600 the wide open spaces provide plenty of elbow room for the "good buddies" practicing the skills they've learned using cell phones or Channel 19. Jeez Louise, when the FCC took 11 meters from the hams and gave it to the CBers in the 1950s, they got more spectrum than we CW ops have on 80 meters! I guess we see how low we've sunk on the food chain!

     Use above 3600 is also problematic because of the boneheaded idea to make it available only to Extra class licensees. Although I spend most of my listening time between 3600 and 3610 I rarely hear any CW; meanwhile down the band everyone is on top of each other between 3520 to 3570. Who was the nitwit that came up with this plan? !!! 

     Since many seem to be timid about going above 3600, my concession is to hang around 3599, that way I'd maybe find some wide open spaces without limiting myself to the Extra-only part of the band. I'm working a few more stations but still every one seems reticent to operate there. I think there is a feeling of moral "wrongness" for some reason I can't quite explain.

     The Canadians are perfectly happy clobbering us on our pathetic sliver of an 80 meter CW band with their SSB. And the US hams above 3600 act indignant whenever they hear a CW station above 3600. So where are we suppose to  go?

     Without causing intentional interference, perhaps we need to start appearing in vast numbers in new parts of the spectrum that are perfectly legal for us to use. As long as we sit here wringing our hands we'll never call our plight to anyone's attention. We'll deserve being ignored. Squeaky wheel, right?  Since the wide open wasteland of space above 3600 is not available to licensees not holding the (cough cough) so-called "Extra Class" license, why don't we start using 3800 to 3825 as an alternative band when 3500-3600 becomes unusable? It would be legal for General Class licensees and provide some relief to our burgeoning 80 meter band, especially on contest weekends and most other evenings between 6-8 PM.

     It is absurd that our exclusive CW band is only 50 kHz wider than the old 80 meter novice band! And into this 100 kHz is now crammed all those novices/beginners, data, nets, the illegal Spanish language fishing boats, the Canadian phone ops and somehow the rest of us are suppose to "pull up a chair" and operate. And yet they have the audacity to further dissect the band into an "Extra Class portion and add further restraints on all of those nonsense "DX windows" "QRP windows" and so forth. 

     We really need to try to fix this thing. It is a crappy band plan and patently unfair to us CW operators. We are legally licensed and pay taxes just like the privileged phone ops, only they have been rewarded with bonuses for doing nothing and proving even less. We're either going to have to grow some of our own for a change or develop a taste for the sand being kicked in our faces.

     ZUT, Vern WA9VLK

     -30-