[OKDXA] LID FILTERS

[Kim Elmore]

I'm a devoted CW op, though I'm not any kind of high-speed superhero. 
I use CW almost exclusively. I cynically quip that any idiot can 
talk, just listen to 20 and 75 m. And, to a person, each of *them* 
had to pass a CW test. CW a lid filter?  Bah!  Humbug!

Yes, yes: I got all my licenses (save the Novice) in front of the FCC 
and I'm a 20 wpm Extra. Anyone could (and can) do it, as I'm clearly 
proof. I now own a software-defined radio: for the most part, I can't 
fix it if it breaks and I can't generate the code that makes it go. 
Therefore, I'm an appliance operator! Yet, this radio does things 
undreamed of when I bought my TS-930S over 20 years ago, so I'm 
willing to pay the price of operating an "appliance."

CW will continue, just like RTTY continues in the face of "superior" 
non-CW digital modes. And make no mistake, by almost any measure the 
newer digital modes *are* superior. AM continues in the face of 
"superior" SSB, which will continue in the face of digital audio. And 
so it goes. For many, CW has a mystique that transcends licensing 
requirements. That mystique will never be universal, but it doesn't 
have to be because  CW the "Classical Music" of radio.

Kim Elmore, N5OP

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