Date: Mon, 22 Aug 94 04:30:21 PDT From: Ham-Policy Mailing List and Newsgroup Errors-To: Ham-Policy-Errors@UCSD.Edu Reply-To: Ham-Policy@UCSD.Edu Precedence: Bulk Subject: Ham-Policy Digest V94 #386 To: Ham-Policy Ham-Policy Digest Mon, 22 Aug 94 Volume 94 : Issue 386 Today's Topics: CW ...IS NOW! Send Replies or notes for publication to: Send subscription requests to: Problems you can't solve otherwise to brian@ucsd.edu. Archives of past issues of the Ham-Policy Digest are available (by FTP only) from UCSD.Edu in directory "mailarchives/ham-policy". We trust that readers are intelligent enough to realize that all text herein consists of personal comments and does not represent the official policies or positions of any party. Your mileage may vary. So there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Aug 1994 04:33:00 EST From: agate!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!news.umbc.edu!eff!wariat.org!amcomp!dan@ames.arpa Subject: CW ...IS NOW! To: ham-policy@ucsd.edu Peter Coffee WA2OJL/AE <72631.113@CompuServe.COM> writes: >I know quite a bit about packet communications, thank you very much. >My current class of license requires a written exam covering a variety >of advanced modes as well as a code exam at 20 wpm. I don't currently >operate digital modes because I don't have the money for additional >equipment, but I accept the requirement for knowledge of those modes >in support of 97.1(b), "advancement of the radio art." Would that those >who oppose the code requirement, due to lack of interest in operating >with that mode, could be equally accepting of its place in carrying out >the purposes of the amateur radio service. Really, the VE test you took required a pass/fail element on digital? When was this? Or do you mean you tested on ALL other modes in ONE test and the 20 WPM in a separately graded element? Please do not equate EQUAL with a separate pass/fail arguenment. >I did not introduce the subject of "preserving the history of radio," >which your message seems to suggest I did. Speaking of straw men. >CW is not history: to those doing EME and other state-of-the-art modes >that happen to work with weak signals, CW is now. Yes, and we see the commercial world FLOCKING to it in droves. (Manual decoded morse is what I assume you mean by CW.) However, this debate has never been about 'CW The Mode' it is and always has been about 'CW The TEST'. The straw man in constant use (and you used it) is to attempt to justify a pass/fail manual morse decoding element because 'CW is THE mode', it is not. It is A mode. It may even be a usefull/fun/enjoyable/ weak signal mode. It is not the end all to radio. It does not deserve the place it now has in the testing structure. >And I'm sorry I got into this discussion, because it seems to me that >the time spent replying to these messages with increasingly nasty personal >comments could better be spent in acquiring useful skills. I have nothing >further to add. I could say 'We knew you had nothing further to add because you are stuck in the past with manual morse decoded signal detection', but I won't. You ASSUME that these discussions are not 'usefull skills' and that learning manual morse decoding is a 'usefull skill'. Well, Sir, the rest of the world (non-amateur) disagrees with you. I know MANY people engaged in professional communications, NONE are currently using manual morse (or any kind of morse). True, some shiping interests currently us it, but that is being replaced. Your attitide of 'better spent' and like comments are as much a 'personal attack' as any that have been made requarding you, to someone who has NO desire to do manual morse decoding. Being a policy news group, IMHO, this would not be an appropriate place to discuss the relative value of one mode over another on pure engineering grounds. The .misc group or another, more specialized group would be better for that. The issue here is (or should be) TESTING REQUIREMENTS, not mode value nor popluarity. There is no test for FM which is the single most popular mode (followed by SSB), there should not be a pass/fail test for manual morse decoding. Dan N8PKV -- "They that can give up an essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin - Misspelled? Impossible, my modem is error correcting! ------------------------------ End of Ham-Policy Digest V94 #386 ******************************