[Fists] Re: Honey vs. Vinegar

[Jeff Davis]

Dear Mark,

I just don't understand this thinking at all.

If you want to make the argument that CW should be eliminated as a testing 
requirement, then you can make that argument and many folks on this list may=
 
well agree with you.

But there is simply no way that CW is "becoming a relic"... unless you would=
 say 
the same about the spoken word ... as speaking audible words to communicate=
 is 
much, much, much older than the Morse code. The fact that audibly speaking=
 words 
to communicate has been used since the dawning of time doesn't make it any=
 less 
useful, helpful, or a "relic", does it?

In the same way, just because there may be fewer CW operators today than=
 say, 
fifty years ago, that doesn't make the mode any less efficient or useful. In=
 
fact, as a mode, CW is extremely valuable. It's bandwidth friendly, requires=
 
much less technology to produce than alternative forms of wireless 
communications, it can be easily decoded by a human interface (brains and=
 ears) 
and it provides a means of communications that works well in conditions=
 where 
other modes cannot.

In fact, the only downside to CW as a mode is that some people have been 
hoodwinked into believing that it's an "old, useless, relic" and therefore=
 they 
don't bother to learn it. If the art dies out because of this campaign of 
misinformation, then of course the mode will become useless as there will be=
 no 
left one to communicate with.

-- 
Vy 73 de Jeff, KE9V
FISTS #6641

 

On Sun, 25 Apr 2004 16:58:54 -0400, W1EOF wrote:

> It's a fact: CW is rapidly becoming a relic in communication. I
> hate to see it. I hate to even SAY it. Every step along the way as
> CW was replaced with other forms of comunication I was saddened.
> But it's a fact. Personally I found this concept very difficult to
> accept. I did not want to "let go" of the idea that CW was
> something that should be used everyday just like it had for over 75
> years.