[Elecraft] OT: VOA Article about Hams in India

[Fred Jensen]

As a member of the choir:  I think hams will always preserve competency
in CW, regardless of what the ITU and FCC does, as long as a CW Q counts
more than a fone Q in most contests.

That said, this is yet another example of infrastructure-free
communications that hams can provide and hardly anyone or anything else
can.  When the going gets tough, the power is scarce, and the noise is
high, a radio/ ham operator at each end of a 15,000 km circuit can still
communicate.  Note in the VOA article ... it was all the other
commercial communications that were lost.  It's not something I hear
much about.  Naybe we should change that.

73,

Fred K6DGW
Auburn CA CM98lw
"not even faintly embarrassed"

Daniel Reynolds wrote:
> 
> --- lonnie.m.juli at verizon.net wrote:
> > I also understand that the DXpedition relied on CW at the beginning of their
> > relief effort so that they could operate successfully with small antenna
> > systems and low power. If the FCC and its counterparts around the world keep
> > doing away with the Morse requirement, who will be there to copy weak,
> > hastily assembled stations in the future?
> 
> Here Here!!! (... however - I think you just preached to the choir)
> 
> I think that as long as there is QRP, Elecraft, kit building, and ham radio in
> general - there will always be CW (unless they one day decide to make CW
> illegal ... which would be really dumb - they still use AM don't they - however
> I think they did ban spark gap transmitters, but not because they were morse
> code). I don't think CW will ever go out of style. People still use sailboats
> (and sailboards!) even though steam ships were developed over 100 years ago.
> People still use hot air baloons even though we just celebrated the first
> century of powered flight. We still make kids learn how to write by hand with
> #2 pencils even though most American students have access to a computer and
> know how to use one. No - I think that we are quite a long way from seeing the
> end of CW. The CW bug 'infects' a certain kind of person. There's no known
> antivirus/antibiotic for this kind of 'infection' - and it spreads readily.
> 
> 72,
> Daniel / AA0NI
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