RadioBanter - View Single Post - Element 1, Code vs. No-code, and Dad

October 26th 03, 01:42 AM

In article , (N2EY)
writes:

In article ,
(Bert Craig) writes:

(snip of excellent description of the 5 wpm code test)

Here's another way for those unfamiliar with Morse to look at it:

Hundreds of thousands have "looked at morse" over the years,
shrugged their shoulders, and dismissed it.

Professional communications services don't use it because it
was never considered for their service to begin with, or other
services that did use it have either stopped using it altogether
or relegate it to the back room.

There's not even any landline telegraphy used in the USA and
the Morse-Vail telegraph system debuted here (Baltimore to
Washington, D.C.) in 1844.

SOME radio amateurs are still infatuated with it...but over two
hundred thousand US amateurs got into US amateur radio without
taking any code test whatsoever...in just a dozen years.

You like "Slow English?" Check with the Voice of America, maybe
they still have a few broadcasts with it.

Want to send a 100-word message with morse code at 20 WPM?
That will take 5 minutes to complete. An ancient Apple ][ with a
2400 baud modem can do that in less than a couple seconds.

So Dad pondered for a moment and furled his 77 yr. old eyebrows and
said. "They're right, Morse code IS antiquated." My jaw dropped, "say
it ain't so!" (E tu Brute?!) He then asked me about the licensing
structure and I explained the three-tier system presently in place.
"You've gotta keep the code test in place though." Ok, now I'm a tad
confused. "Why, if it's antiquated?" I asked.

"Values, my boy…values. Just ask yourself if this is what you want to
teach your own children? Should they apply this logic to other aspects
of their lives as they grow up?

You can bet they'll try!

Try what? Hold back progress?

Let's bring on Family Values of proper horsemanship, get rid of those
stinky, polluting automobiles. [and create a methane pollution no
one can imagine!]

Let's bring on Family Values of doing away with power tools to build
things or appliances to prepare and cook food. Get down to Basic
Values of physically working hard very long hours using only hand
tools. Let's have the cooks and womenfolk slave away in the kitchen
and bakery for most of the day to restore Family Values!

Let's get rid of all those damn aeroplanes that kill so many people.
On December 17 this year there's a centennial on heavier-than-air
flight. "If man was meant to fly, God would have given him wings!"
FAMILY VALUES. Old things. Walk, don't run. Stay on the
ground.

The Amish have the right idea, you think? FORBID the NEW.

"I had to do it, so you do, too"? Heck, professionals don't rely on manual
calculations for anything important.

Professionals in communications have STOPPED using morse code
for anything important to be sent.

OH, yes...your idea of Family Values in amateur radio is to love, honor,
cherish morse code. Just because you had to do it to get that much
prized extra license.

Your idea of Family Values is to act the petty little dictator by arrogant
superiority of Knowing What Is Best For All Amateurs!

Tradition. Family Values. Hold back progress. Forbid the new.

Emphasize the MODE, not the communication. That's a Family
Value?

Family? That's more like the Jukes family...

LHA