[Fists] Some observations

[ATanner283@aol.com]

!. Good question. The logo on the front of everything FISTS says its the 
International Morse Preservation Society.  While this appears to be obvious, 
it's not. If you are taking the position of trying to preserve something, you 
are usually willing to make a public stand about it. FISTS as an organization 
has clearly stated in the past that they will not do this. So I guess that 
leaves us with trying to keep CW as visible as we can on the air. The way we 
do that and keep it somewhat interesting is to provide different levels of 
awards. ( of which I have long since lost track of) I am not much of a paper 
hunter and stopped counting after I received CC#165. If that's what you do 
and enjoy, then knock yourself out. However when the future of CW is 
affected, we as a group and individually (save for a few) do NOT make much of 
an attempt to "get involved," preferring to leave that to someone else. About 
95% of the FISTS QSO's I have anymore end shortly after the exchange of 
numbers. This was not the case a few short years ago, but has become the 
"trend." We also seem to be involved with numerous "slow speed code nets" 
that come and go pretty regularly also.
2. Code speed is always a problem. It WILL be come more so as older ops 
retire to where ever and the newer nocode extra's as they are known, become 
more common. It used to be that . 025 and down was considered DX and pretty 
good areas for higher speed code ops. Not true now. It is not uncommon to 
hear 15WPM and slower QSO's going on common place in these areas. If we so 
value our novice bands, why don't FISTS members use them for the slower speed 
QSO's. Why don't we use them for Sprints or general stateside ragchews??? Why 
do we pile up on the FISTS freqs. of .058. Its certainly NOT because they are 
overcrowded. 
       If I call CQ at 25 wpm I expect a 25 wpm answer. If two stations call 
at different speeds, I will take the faster one first. HOWEVER, if a slower 
guy calls I try to match his speed. If he asks me to slow down further ....I 
will. Usually have to go to straight key though.' To do otherwise is arrogant 
and rude. I HAVE noticed recently that many ops send much faster than they 
can receive. I know because questions go unanswered and I get the same old 
RST, name, WX, rig no matter what.
3.I think the BK thing has become common practice to mean "break." The other 
guy sends it at the end of his and most start out with the same. It's just a 
slang we all understand and I see no problem with it since anyone that's been 
on CW for awhile knows what it means. It's in use world wide. We have seen 
long and windy arguments about prosigns here, and most of it boils down to 
just a general usage. We are NOT professional telegraphers and certainly 
don't handle much traffic anymore. Many will argue that we should stay with 
the "book" rules, but I submit that those days are long gone and dead in ham 
radio.
    I had a REALLY enjoyable QSO the other night on 160 for a long long 
while. There were three of us, and we did a CW round table. Just like I 
remember used to be quite common on the bands when I was first licensed. We 
just kept taking turns in order, and the speed was around 25WPM, which is a 
good solid conversational speed. It was great and we didn't need a NCS to 
take up time. I used to get into roundtables with up to 5 or 6 ops. All were 
proficient in code and no one gave it any thought. With the lowering of the 
speed requirement it will slowly go away. We have already lost much of our 
tradition in ham radio. WHERE are the hordes of new operators that dumbing 
down was supposed to bring in?????? All I can see is that it provided a cheap 
and easy way for people too lazy to apply themselves and learn code as 
thousands have done for years, and get a "FREE" upgrade.
Good luck and keep poundin' as long as someone else will listen and respond. 
73      Al/W8FAX/2192                                   Extra......Heavy