[KYHAM] Why CW

[A. W.]

 Mr. Schneider,

 While I still agree with your thoughts on a
theoretical basis, as a practical matter I cannot
think of a single incident in my 24 years of public
safety communications experience wherein CW was a
significant factor in amateur radio's support of an
operation that I participated in. I can't think of a
time during such an incident when anyone ever even
thought of CW, for that matter. Of course, there was
one episode of 1 Adam 12 where one of the officers
sent CW by shorting the microphone cord of a VHF Mocom
70, after it was damaged.

 Granted, I've never been an EMT nor am I an active
firefighter at present, my primary qualifications are
several years of service as a public safety dispatcher
for a small (496 sq. mile) county, a brief stint with
county level DES (now KYEM), and my present position
as a field technician with a large police agency which
uses an extensive UHF land mobile infrastructure.

 The point I'm making is that amateur radio must
change with the times, or risk the fate of this
station:

  CQ DE KFS 
THIS IS THE FINAL CW TRANSMISSION FROM STATION KFS -
THE LAST 
COMMERCIAL RADIOTELEGRAPH STATION IN NORTH AMERICA.  
APPROPRIATELY, WE CLOSE CW AND EMBARK ON A NEW ERA OF 

COMMUNICATION WITH SAMUEL F.B. MORSE'S WORDS OF 155
YEARS AGO 
BT NW CL 73 BT 
WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT BT DE KFS SK  


 Thanks for correcting me on the shipboard operator's
CW qualification- I failed to properly research that
issue, relying instead on memory of a past QST
article.    

Tony 

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