[Elecraft] OT: Decoding high speed CW

[Bill Frantz]

In a desperate attempt to make this subject at least vaguely on 
topic, note that future CW use is important to the future 
requirements for ham radios. If new hams aren't interested in 
CW, then good support for CW will become less important, 
particularly as older ones leave the hobby.

There are a couple of things which give me hope for the 
continued use of CW:

CW is the easiest mode to use for DXCC. Between the large number 
of stations active on CW, and CW's ability to work in bad band 
conditions, I think it will continue to attract users. Digital 
might be a contender for bad conditions, but it seems to me the 
QSO rate is always slower for Digital vs. CW.

The number of licensees in the US continues to climb in all 
three license classes. Even if we assume that all the 
technicians are only interested in VHF/UHF FM for emergency 
services use, we still have growth in generals and extras. These 
people will be using HF for contesting, among a myriad of other 
uses. Many contests have incentives for CW in their scoring systems.

73 Bill AE6JV

On 3/29/16 at 5:34 PM, lstavenhagen at hotmail.com (lstavenhagen) wrote:

>So... this may be too far OT and forgive me for being ignorant, but I'm
>genuinely curious. Is Morse used at all anymore in any commercial or
>military enterprises? Or is amateur radio "it" for CW these days? I honestly
>don't know if we're the only ones left using it on planet Earth or not....

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