[CW] Shades and shards of 80 CW

[Fred Adsit]

Amen to the whole thing, or most of it. One more reason that in my old age I 
no longer care much about not having a station on the air. OTOH, how about 
all the Generals getting those easy to get Extra tickets? You don't even 
have to BE a CW operator any more. Do just that, quit whining, and have full 
use of all the bands. Makes sense to me. Meanwhile, almost all the ham 
interest groups and clubs and major orgs .. plus the FCC.. are complicit in 
the history of reduced licensing standards and fouled up ham band 
privileges. .. I am too old for this any more.

NY2V - a ham since 1948
"599 QTH" is NOT a QSO

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "SX-25" <telegrapher at hotmail.com>
To: <cw at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 12:16 AM
Subject: [CW] Shades and shards of 80 CW


     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-