"LLongiii" wrote

Why continue to complain about something you can't change? It started out
to be
5 wpm for novice, 13 wpm for General and 21 wpm for Extra.

It is now 5 wpm for ALL. Until they drop the REQUIREMENT, it is still
there.


Because we CAN change it. The 13 and 21 WPM requirements went away when
enough people complained. The current 5 wpm will also go away, but only if
we complain long and hard enough.

73, K3DWW

"Doug Dotson" wrote in message
...
Just a cop-out. I suspect that folks learn alot more useless
(and incorrect) things in school than having to learn the code.
The requirement is there, deal with it! Whining isn't going
to make the requirement go away nor will it get a license.

Oh yes it will - just like it made the 13 & 21 wpm requirements go away.
There will be no Morse requirement in five years. Nor can I imagine anything
more useless than Morse code. Those who want to keep the requirement are
usually selfish snivelers who think everybody should suffer the same
hardships as they did. Unable to justify their position on technical, moral
or logical grounds they perforce resort to name calling and referring to
facts they cannot refute as whining.

I participate in my wife's VE team. I recommend that people learn code too -
for now. But if they wait a year or two, they won't have to.

73, K3DWW

"Vito" wrote in message
...
"Doug Dotson" wrote in message
...
Just a cop-out. I suspect that folks learn alot more useless
(and incorrect) things in school than having to learn the code.
The requirement is there, deal with it! Whining isn't going
to make the requirement go away nor will it get a license.

Oh yes it will - just like it made the 13 & 21 wpm requirements go away.

When was there ever a 21 WPM requirement? It was 20 WPM when I
tried it. Incidently I was never able to pass the 20 WPM. Not because
I was learning disabled but rather because I didn't really give a damn
enough to keep studying. I got my Extra class when the requirements
changed. 5 WPM is hardly a substantial barrier, just a psychological
one. A good teacher can get folks past it. I have done it dozens of time.

There will be no Morse requirement in five years.

I trust this will be the case. So you want cruising sailors to
be deprived of the utility and safety of a ham license for
5 years? Most cruisers don't cruise that long.

Nor can I imagine anything more useless than Morse code.

You have a poor imagination. I communicate quite efficiently
using CW. Very good for DX in poor conditions. Clearly not useless.

Those who want to keep the requirement are
usually selfish snivelers who think everybody should suffer the same
hardships as they did.

That's a different issue. On one hand you claim it should be abolished
because it is obsolete, on the other you are saying that hard core CW
buffs want to keep it because other should suffer the agony (which is
a myth) of learning it. Which is it? Obsolete or or a Rite Of Passage?

Unable to justify their position on technical, moral
or logical grounds they perforce resort to name calling and referring to
facts they cannot refute as whining.

Technically, CW is a sound means of communications. More so than some
others. Morally, I fail to see any moral aspects to this. Logically, I also
see no issue. The problem is international law which has lagged behind
the technology. Hopefully that will sort itself out soon.

I participate in my wife's VE team. I recommend that people learn code
too -
for now. But if they wait a year or two, they won't have to.

Good advise based upon the realities now in place. That is where you need
to be. Stick to the reality rather than the politics. Or tell her
perspective
examinees to keep their desires of becoming a ham on hold until a simple
code test goes away.

73, K3DWW

"Doug Dotson" wrote in
:

Comments below.

Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista

"Terry King" wrote in message

I believe that 20 years from now, the 'credentialing' that hidebound
'trades' use for self-job-protection will fade even more, and "just-in-
time" Education will supercede the 4-year college model.

I suspect that is true.

The First Class Commercial Radiotelephone license I worked so hard on in
High School is no longer required to fix broadcast transmitters. And the
world has not come to an end. People who can do the job get hired to do
it, and those who can't get fired. Used to be they BOTH had licenses...

I believe that the GROL is required now isn't it?

Nope. No license is required to operate or maintain any radio transmitter
EXCEPT marine or aviation, now. I have a 1st Phone (now expired, dammit)
on my wall I worked very hard to get. I keep the damned GROL giveaway
hidden in a drawer, just because they say I have to have it to work on
marine radios. The old 1st Phone MEANT something to the employers and your
peers. It was a badge of accomplishment. It put you in a fraternity of
technicians with proven skills. GROL is a joke. Just like the Volunteer
Examiner ham licenses, it wouldn't surprise me if you could buy one for
$500 under the table.

By the way, the GMDSS operator and servicer tests are a pain in the
ass....(c;

I passed....

Larry

"Doug" wrote in
hlink.net:



I too got my license in 1957 and hated the code. I am in favor of
abolishing it for HF except in the code only portion of the bands. A
code endorsement could be added for those frequencies. The
question/answer pools are a joke, but I think federal policy regarding
them goes beyond the FCC as the FAA has similar stuff for aviation
exams now. Lets bring back the 2 year as a General Class or better
before being eligible to take the Extra Exam. Experience is needed
before getting a 1 X 2 vanity call! I keep running into those guys
(especially boaters) who have less than 6 months as a ham and think
they know it all.

Isn't it also time we abolished this ARRL nonsense of segregated ham bands,
leaving 50 Khz virtually "US FREE" from 14.100 to 14.150? 160 meters works
just fine without ARRL flexing FCC muscles on subbands no longer of use.
Let the MARKET and the hams set what is acceptable and what is wasted.

If we're going to keep it segregated like this stupidity, let's CONFINE CW
to the bottom 25 or 50 Khz of the bands, to keep old farts from using it as
a JAMMING DEVICE up in the phone bands. I've been hearing the CW jamming
for 40 years. CW has no place in the phone bands....EVER.


Larry, since you brought up the NNNN at the end of a TTY message, I
must point out it served an autostop function on TTY machines such as
the Model 28 (I admit to being a model 12, 14, 15, 19, 28 TTYer years
ago) that were equipped with a "stunt box".
Do you recall what ZCZCZRJ did?


My mom got ****ed and threw me and my Model 15 out into the garage, back in
the early 60's. Something about teletype noise keeping her from sleeping
at 2AM.....??? I never could afford a Model 28 until much later. By then,
I was running a Micrologic into a TV. Remember them?...(c;

I think ZCZCRJ turned the teletype machine motor on in systems with dead
time.

Did you ever see a Burpee reperf machine? Something like 650 wpm in a
parallel interface (not Baudot serial data). The tape just FLEW out of
them and their motors only ran intermittently. I think they were remotely
addressable, somehow.

Ah, it's all gone, now. Only noise in Radio Central on the ships is
cooling fans. Pity.....

I remember those "Secret" messages:

Mrs. Jones, wife of Admiral Jones, requests the presence of Mrs. Johnson,
wife of Admiral Johnson, at a tea given in her honor on Saturday, June 18th
at 4PM. RSVP

NNNN

Wonder how much paper this crap used to waste, NAVYWIDE? Probably lots
more than the paper I printed 24/7 back in the Cal Lab (Shop 67B) on board
USS Everglades (AD-24) on the Reuters Press broadcast on 10 Mhz band...(c;

Larry

"Vito" wrote in
:

"Larry W4CSC" wrote
ARRL wants code dropped? My, my that IS a switch. ARRL has always
wanted to take ham radio back to 1935 any time I've seen them. ....

Like any org, ARRL is people. Uncle Sam made a lot of people learn 20+
wpm Morse before and during WW2 and so many of them became hams that
they controlled ARRL and set policies for their own benefit - policies
that used Morse proficiency to keep others out. But, as more and more
of them retire or go SK things change. New blood understands that the
more active hams join ARRL the more CQ magazines get sold.

I know. I waited 20 years for them to die off so I wouldn't have to learn
20 wpm....(c;

I won.

Larry W4CSC aka KN4IM aka WB4THE aka WN2IWH

I riled an ARRL bureaucrat from HQ at a hamfest a few years back. Man he
was mad. He threatened to have my ham license revoked. I told him when
the damned ARRL could cause my ham license to be revoked, I'd deliver my
ham license to the FCC, personally, at FCC HQ in Washington. Until that
time, ARRL could KISS MY ASS.....

I'm still licensed....

Examiner ham licenses, it wouldn't surprise me if you could buy one for
$500 under the table.

I've heard of some getting one for free.

By the way, the GMDSS operator and servicer tests are a pain in the
ass....(c;

I passed....

Agreed. I didn't bother with the Op license, just the Maint.

Larry

"Doug Dotson" wrote in
:


I think CW is still more reliable than phone, but certainly not more
effiecient nor is it more practical.


I've been listening to this crap since SSB came out.....

In 1949, it may have been true.

But, I tell you what.....Go download WinWarbler:
http://www.qsl.net/winwarbler/download.htm
for free.

Install it, then simply plug your soundcard's audio input to the headphone
jack on any SSB radio set to USB on 14.070. Pick the faintest PSK31 trace
you can find on that display and click on the trace. Winwarbler will print
perfectly on a signal NO CW OPERATOR COULD EVEN HEAR. Most PSK31 operators
never run over 10 watts. PSK31, by the way, is NARROWER IN BANDWIDTH than
15 wpm CW!

Winwarbler, just to show off, will copy THREE SIMULTANEOUS frequencies
inside the SSB rig's 3 Khz bandwidth this way.

That old CW-in-a-pinch nonsense IS really nonsense, now.

Anyone in their boat's SSB that wants to see what's going on can download
Winwarbler to their boat laptop and tune the Boat SSB radio to USB on
14.070 Mhz, where 90% of the PSK31 traffic occurs. On Lionheart, I don't
even have to connect the M802 to the notebook! The notebook's built-in
microphone can hear the radio's PSK31 warbling tones and prints them
perfectly if there's not too much conversation going on around it!

PSK31 is the most uncanny form of HF communications ever invented....and it
was invented BY HAMS FOR HAMS. Sorry you're stuck on SITOR clicking and
clacking away.

Larry W4CSC and other fine old calls since 1957

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
"Doug" wrote in
hlink.net:

Larry, since you brought up the NNNN at the end of a TTY message, I
must point out it served an autostop function on TTY machines such as
the Model 28 (I admit to being a model 12, 14, 15, 19, 28 TTYer years
ago) that were equipped with a "stunt box".
Do you recall what ZCZCZRJ did?


My mom got ****ed and threw me and my Model 15 out into the garage, back
in
the early 60's. Something about teletype noise keeping her from sleeping
at 2AM.....??? I never could afford a Model 28 until much later. By
then,
I was running a Micrologic into a TV. Remember them?...(c;

Larry, I was cleaning the garage and found a UGC-20, TT-192A, and a TT-187
under the bottom of a pile right next to a model 33-ASR. It seems like our
garage was the local repository for TTY gear. At one time we had an SB-1210
capable of running 6 loops off one supply. We had 4 loops with a tty demod
on each and then a wide section of equipment that could be patched in. AND
then came computers.............

Leanne

There you go again Larry. My comparision was between
CW and phone and you bring up PSK31 Now that I think of it,
I have tuned into CW signals that I could hardly hear and was
able to get the computer to pull it out pretty sucessfully.

Doug, k3qt
s/v CAllista

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
"Doug Dotson" wrote in
:


I think CW is still more reliable than phone, but certainly not more
effiecient nor is it more practical.


I've been listening to this crap since SSB came out.....

In 1949, it may have been true.

But, I tell you what.....Go download WinWarbler:
http://www.qsl.net/winwarbler/download.htm
for free.

Install it, then simply plug your soundcard's audio input to the headphone
jack on any SSB radio set to USB on 14.070. Pick the faintest PSK31 trace
you can find on that display and click on the trace. Winwarbler will
print
perfectly on a signal NO CW OPERATOR COULD EVEN HEAR. Most PSK31
operators
never run over 10 watts. PSK31, by the way, is NARROWER IN BANDWIDTH than
15 wpm CW!

Winwarbler, just to show off, will copy THREE SIMULTANEOUS frequencies
inside the SSB rig's 3 Khz bandwidth this way.

That old CW-in-a-pinch nonsense IS really nonsense, now.

Anyone in their boat's SSB that wants to see what's going on can download
Winwarbler to their boat laptop and tune the Boat SSB radio to USB on
14.070 Mhz, where 90% of the PSK31 traffic occurs. On Lionheart, I don't
even have to connect the M802 to the notebook! The notebook's built-in
microphone can hear the radio's PSK31 warbling tones and prints them
perfectly if there's not too much conversation going on around it!

PSK31 is the most uncanny form of HF communications ever invented....and
it
was invented BY HAMS FOR HAMS. Sorry you're stuck on SITOR clicking and
clacking away.

Larry W4CSC and other fine old calls since 1957