[Elecraft] Re: Cw in the military

[cwbybee@attbi.com]

Regarding the below, as a Chief Petty Officer in the USN, I know that the 
signalmen are still required to know and be able to use CW with the visual 
lamps designed for that purpose.  Just like the fact that most battle 
communication within a modern Navy ship is still by sound-powered phones, much 
line of sight ship to ship communication is still by CW lamps and signal flags.

As a fire control radar specialist, I can also tell you that there never was, 
nor ever will be a radar system that could blank all other radio communications.

Cheers,
Chuck
KG6GUF

A few years back I read an interesting story about the discontinuance of
CW in the military...I am working from memory and all the facts might not
be accurate...I haven't been able to locate the source of the story, I
thought it was the QCWA journal, but I have all the back issues and
cannot find it...

As I recall, a Navy task force was conducting sea trials on a new
radar...Aircraft were launched, the radar was fired up, and all
communication between ships was wiped out...They didn't want to shut the
radar down until all aircraft were retrieved...One ship went dead in the
water and was being overtaken by another ship...The only means they had
to communicate was by visual CW with lamps, and there was a collision
because nobody aboard knew CW, the "dead" mode...

Jerry, wa2dkg