[Fists] Honey vs. Vinegar

[YoDoc@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/25/04 4:13:59 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
fists-request@mailman.qth.net writes:
From: "Dan KB6NU" <kb6nu@w8pgw.org>
To: "Fists" <fists@mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Fists] Honey vs. Vinegar
Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 14:13:41 -0400

I'll ask the same question I asked last time we had this debate on this
mailing list. If your club has no CW users among the members who were not
required to take the code test, then what are you doing to promote it?
Dan:

The answer to that question is, whatever I can, for whatever good it does.  
The problem is this:  People don't learn the code because it was "promoted" to 
them.  OK, maybe a few will, and then they'll get on some forum such as this 
one and claim that they were ready and willing to learn it once it wasn't any 
longer being "shoved down their throat."  I should know, because for the 
fourteen years between the time I became aware of amateur radio and the time I 
finally obtained a Novice-class license, I was the same way.  I just wanted to get 
a powerful, frequency-agile HF microphone in my hand -- I didn't want to learn 
no steenking beeps and bloops, not in a day and time when we had sent men to 
the Moon and had computers that would fit into a single room!  Fortunately for 
me, the day finally came when I wanted to be a ham radio operator more than I 
wanted to rail against the code test requirements, so I finally committed 
myself to learning it, and getting on-the-air.  

Since the adoption of the No-Code Technician license, I've been involved in 
numerous club programs intended to get newcomers interested in and learning the 
Morse Code.  In spite of the enthusiasm of those leading such projects, they 
were invariably doomed to failure, mainly because of the universal perception 
that code testing would ultimately be eliminated as a requirement for an HF-pri
vilege amateur radio license.  

 
You guys can piss and moan all you want, but the code test requirement is
going to go away. Despite its usefulness in amateur radio, it is a skill
that the international regulating bodies and most telecommunications users,
including our own military, have decided is no longer necessary, outside of
perhaps a few oddball situations. It may be a useful skill, but it's
certainly no longer a necessary skill.

Well, maybe not necessary until one encounters a situation where it is the 
only way one can communicate.  I've been an avid user of RTTY, Pactor, and PSK31 
for years, but I've encountered numerous situations when these allegedly 
superior digital communications modes were made useless by band conditions.  
Especially PSK31, which everyone touted as the "code killer" that can get through 
under the most severe conditions -- many times when I quit printing the other 
end of a PSK31 QSO, I was still able to copy the CWID!  

A lot is being made of our "Emergency Communications" capability these days; 
in fact, it is the primary way in which we justify our continued existance on 
what is literally billions of dollars worth of valuable spectrum.  If we want 
to consider ourselved to be truly "emergency capable" communicators, then we 
must embrace each and every possible means of communicating, not just those 
that come as naturally as talking.  Face it, there is no genuine technical 
challenge left in amateur radio anymore, all we do these days is plug the right 
cable into the right sockets, spin a few dials, punch a few buttons, and we're 
on-the-air.  With the exception of a dwindling number of homebrewers, we're 
mainly off-the-shelf appliance operators.  As it is, the only thing that is left to 
distinguish ourselves from cell phone and PDA users is the fact that we can 
continue to communicate over long distances under severe conditions -- using 
the Morse Code.  

As for your contention that licensees who did not have to pass a code test
"are exactly what they seem to be -- CB'ers or ex-CB'ers who want a more
powerful and frequency-agile microphone to blow into," do you have any proof
of that besides your own personal experience? 

What "other proof" could I possibly have OTHER than my personal experience?  
The world is as I perceive it, and perception is reality.  

Our club has several members
who now have no-code Tech licenses and are working towards passing the code
test. They are NOT "deliberately refusing to get involved" with CW, and
they'll be on the air sooner or later.

Wonderful.  They are now working to crack that big, mean, old 5 WPM code test 
requirement, then they will be able to plug the mics into their HF rigs and 
start blowing hot air into them.  But how far would they get if they had to 
pass a 13 WPM test for General, or an 20 WPM test for Extra?  Unfortunately, they 
will never know -- and I predict that a very small percentage of them will 
ever become proficient CW operators -- mainly because of the lack of a 
requirement to be tested at those higher speeds.

So I ask again, "What are you or your club doing to promote CW"? The
requirement is going to go away whether you like it or not, and all the
bitterness that you "know code" guys seem to have is certainly not going to
make things any better.

What "bitterness" would that be?  I, as one 20-WPM tested and capable radio 
amateur, am nothing but grateful for having been "required" to have 13 and 20 
WPM Morse code testing "shoved down my throat."  It was something I needed and 
have made effective use of as a ham -- and something that led to the greatest 
fun and enjoyment I've had as a ham.  I find that any "bitterness" that exists 
is on the side of those hams who are on the outside looking in -- those who 
have never had the opportunity to experience the same epiphany I did as a 
CW-proficient radio amateur.  There may be a very select few who arrive there on 
their own, but they will not come forward in the same numbers as they did when 
we had a licensing structure which rewarded progressively increasing code 
proficiency with progressively increasing HF privileges.  

I know what works, because it worked for me and every other code proficient 
ham I know.  A much better question would be "What are YOU going to do to 
create code proficient hams in the absence of a code testing requirement?"  

73 de Larry, K3LT
FISTS #2008


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