[Fists] CW Activity

[Stan Reas]

FISTS Members:

You have been rightly urged to "Join in the noble crusade to Retain The 
Requirement!"

And as stated in the latest Keynote "Losing the requirement is a stepping 
stone to losing our frequencies"

I contend that lack of activity on the CW portions of our bands will more 
probably be the reason we may lose our frequencies.

Present CW activity is truly sparce on most all the bands.  I will admit 
that the sun spot cycle is part of the reason for there not being many 
signals on the higher frequencies.  But there is very little CW activity on 
the lower frequencies which are not as adversely affected by the sun spot 
cycle.

Most of the FISTS activity has been centered on 40, 20 and 15 Meters.  I 
feel to insure the future of CW we must populate ALL the bands with signals 
using the Morse Code.

I think a good way to do this is to provide recognition of those members 
who DO populate the CW portions of the bands.  This could be done by way of 
publishing the calls of those who, for example, work 100 points worth of 
FISTS contacts on specific bands.

Or, even providing a certificate of recognition for those members who 
accomplish a "Century Award" on the less used bands.

I think it is imperative that we increase CW activity on all bands.

73, Stan - K4UK