[Elecraft] Sad day for amateur radio

[Craig Rairdin]

> Code has been an artificial barrier to entry for a long time. I fought every 
> attempt to reduce or eliminate code. In the end, the joke was on me. Reducing 
> it didn't hurt ham radio, and eliminating it will most likely help. Not to swell our 
> ranks, but to bring in quality people who will advance the hobby, but have 
> always thought ham radio was irrelevant. And those newcomers who are bright 
> enough will recognize for themselves when Morse Code makes sense and they 
> will use it.

True enough, though many of us operate CW now only because we were forced to learn it then found out it was fun. Without the motivation to learn it, there will be fewer practitioners. As all you Really OF's (i.e. older than me) die off, there won't be as many people to talk to on CW. 

The other side of this coin is that I hang out with a whole bunch of Technicians who know way more about electronics, antennas, and propagation than I do. Their interests are in the bands I use to cook food. They're certainly no less "hams" than I even though none of them know any code.

Craig
NZ0R
K1 #1966
K2 #4941