Perturbation

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The Unthinkable

Posted: 07 Mar 2016 08:24 PM PST
http://ke9v.net/2016/03/07/the-unthinkable/


In the aftermath of the rule change that removed Morse testing as a
requirement for amateur radio licensing in the United States many years
ago, hams went on a roller coaster ride of emotion.

At first, we fretted and freaked out that the change signaled the beginning
of the end for our favorite mode. But as time went on, the popularity of
Morse seemed to grow. Or at least thats what we told ourselves and anyone
who would listen.

We looked for reasons to believe that version of reality and found clues in
contest results that indicated CW was growing in popularity. Logs from
Field Day operations confirmed that Morse was alive and well.

That belief has become so pervasive that the popular meme among CW
enthusiasts goes something like this with the testing requirement removed,
more hams are taking an interest in CW because they dont have to.

But for one scary moment, allow yourself to consider that radio contest
enthusiasts are in it to win it and almost all contests, including Field
Day, offer a healthy bonus for CW contacts. Remove the bonus, and you have
to wonder if those contest scores would still reflect a healthy growth in
the use of Morse?

Maybe. Maybe not. But heres another data point to consider.

According to the ARRL, 136,000 NPOTA contacts have been logged so far this
year. Of those, 88.4% have been via voice while only 10% have been via CW.
This seems significant. Its an operating event where phone and CW contacts
are on an equal footing with the result that phone is preferred by almost 9
out of 10 operators.

Despite the fact that most trail-friendly equipment is CW only.

That seems odd considering our belief that CW is alive, well, and finding
plenty of new adherents. Unless of course the meme is a shared delusion.

On second thought, forget what Ive written here. Lets all take another blue
pill and keep believing that all is well Im certain well all sleep better.

On 3/8/2016 10:43 AM, KE9V wrote:

In the aftermath of the rule change that removed Morse testing as a
requirement for amateur radio licensing in the United States many years
ago, hams went on a roller coaster ride of emotion.

At first, we fretted and freaked out that the change signaled the
beginning of the end for our favorite mode. But as time went on, the
popularity of Morse seemed to grow. Or at least that's what we told
ourselves and anyone who would listen.

...But here's another data point to consider.

According to the ARRL, 136,000 NPOTA contacts have been logged so far
this year. Of those, 88.4% have been via voice while only 10% have been
via CW. This seems significant. Its an operating event where phone and
CW contacts are on an equal footing with the result that phone is
preferred by almost 9 out of 10 operators.

That seems odd considering our belief that CW is alive, well, and
finding plenty of new adherents. Unless of course the meme is a shared
delusion.

First, I'll say that I'm an "Old Law" Extra, and since I passed the
20 wpm code test, I think I'm qualified to say if the view from the
top of that mountain was worth the climb.

From the start of radio until well into the 1960's, Morse Code was the
preeminent military mode. IMNSHO, hams were required to be proficient
in Morse Code because we were, in practical terms, a reserve corps of
radio operators which could be pressed into service quickly in time of
war.

Time, of course, moved on - and as the Clarke Belt satellites and
secure, encrypted voice communications replaced Morse and AM/SSB, the
need for proficiency in Morse Code waned away. When the U.S. Coast
Guard announced that it would no longer monitor 500 KHz for distress
calls, the end of Morse was at hand.

Many hams decried the end of the Morse era, sometimes because they felt
that new recruits should crawl under the same barbed-wire that they had
crawled under when they were Novices, and sometimes because they felt
that Amateur Radio's reason for being was going away along with the
keys.

I am in the later camp, and it seems clear to me that our hobby is in
need of a new purpose and a renewed focus on emergency preparedness and
disaster-related communications. After all, without the Pentagon
backing our interests at frequency allocation conferences, we wouldn't
have enjoyed the privileges we did on HF, especially since shortwave
broadcasting was, until relatively recently, the primary means for
nations to distribute their political messages to the world.

It seems fitting that the same satellites which made Morse Code
unnecessary for military communications also relieved (at least for the
moment) pressure on Ham allocations - but that's not going to last
forever. The ease with which a major corporation was able to obtain
220-222 MHz for use by delivery truck drivers was a warning that we
can't ignore, and the "Use it or lose it" mantra which many voiced
while trying to preserve 220 is once again needed, but now on a much
bigger scale.

We must use, or lose, not just our existing frequency assignments, but
more importantly, the capabilities we can offer to disaster
preparedness planners, political leaders, and the public. Hams have
barely escaped major assaults on HF bands by technologies such as
data-over-power-lines, and also by fleets of invading "out band" users
with ham rigs on their boats or in their cars. Most hams have heard
fishermen using "our" bands for casual conversations about drift nets
(which have their own locator beacons), fuel costs, and current prices
- and "CB" users who have drifted (pun intended) up from 27 MHz all the
way into 10 Meters, with the FCC doing little or nothing to stop any of
it.

VHF and UHF users have already seen the voracious appetites of cellular
users causing commercial equipment manufacturers to look for more and
more bandwidth - and even though the "refarming" of the old television
channels has drawn demand away for the moment, that craving will never
be satisfied so long as consumers are willing to purchase wireless
devices.

The sad, but pressing, fact is that although low power, short antennas,
and household budgets mean that Morse is still a practical mode for
hams, it's no longer the only hook we can hang our hat on when the next
WARC occurs. There are hundreds of deep-pockets commercial firms
planning future wireless devices for the "Internet of Things", and they
can, and will exert pressure on the FCC when they notice how many bands
hams have and how little we're using them.

It's no longer enough to be proficient in Morse Code: we must become
proficient in the hard, but necessary, work of making not just
ourselves, but our hobby, useful to those who influence public policy.

W4EWH

--
Bill, W4EWH
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)