[KYHAM] CW or no CW, that is the question...

[Pete & Kim]

I'm going to weigh in one more time, and then bow out for a short while. 

 

I'm fluent in French, and my wife has taught college French. She usually had
one student who could not learn another language, no matter how hard they
tried. Now, CW is not a different language, but it is different enough that
learning it is similar to learning a second language. Some are better at it
than others, and I find that I'm not very good at it, despite spending
months working at 13 wpm, while only taking weeks to learn General class
theory. I don't care for CW, and all I ask is that my feelings be accepted
as such. CW has had no bearing on my ability or skill at operating, and I
find that my goals with amateur radio differ significantly from those of
others on this list. I can accept that. But don't call me a welfare ham, or
a CB ham. I am neither, and at least for me, my sense of accomplishment is
learning basic electronic and radio theory that has resulted in a federal
license and hundreds of QSOs. If you have a deep sense of accomplishment
from learning CW, fine. But I did that already years ago learning French.

 

This is excerpted from a much more pointed response I wrote two days ago: 

 

I belong to the Episcopal Church. You've seen us in the news recently,
because our national governing body ratified the election of V. Gene
Robinson to be the Bishop of New Hampshire, and who is an openly gay
relationship. Not long ago, the Bishop of Kentucky  came to our church, and
was asked what the church youth and young adults thought of Bishop Robinson.
He implied that a lot of them would have left had Bishop Robinson not been
accepted. He specifically explained that half of them came from divorced
homes, where they saw their parents fighting over what was in the best
interest of their family.

 

Not knowing anyone on the list, I estimate the average age here to be about
52. My 12 year old daughter has been interested in amateur radio ever since
I got my license. A 14 year old young man in my church's youth group took an
intro class in Middle School. A 29 year-old woman at work has expressed an
interest in amateur radio. How can I keep their interest in an aging hobby
when they see a bunch of old guys arguing over the importance of
transmitting beeps on a radio?

 

Pete.

KF4VCC

 



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