Charlie, No reasonable person can deny that the FCC no longer considers CW a necessary skill for radio amateurs to have. At one time it was something of significance, now it is not. At one time, CW skills were something the government wanted maintained within a subset of the population because it might be needed during wartime. This is no longer true since even the military (with a few exceptions) no longer uses CW.
CW was only a necessary skill on amateur frequencies during the earliest days. Once voice modes, and much later, RTTY modes, became common, CW was no longer a necessary skill for ham radio. For many hams, CW was abandoned for the remainder of their operating years. The percentage of radio amateurs who operate CW for at least part of their operating time, has been decreasing drastically and will likely continue to decrease, but this is something left up to each individual to decide. If you listen to the ham bands today, compared to a few decades ago, it would be obvious that there are many fewer operators sending CW. BPL issues just go to show you how incorrect bureaucrats can be when it comes to new technology. Just because something is new, does not necessarily make it useful or even desirable. 73, Rick, KV9U Charlie Wilber wrote: >"KV9U" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >"Clearly, the FCC no longer considers CW a necessary skill. No >reasonable person can deny that." >========== > >No "reasonable person" can deny what? That CW is no longer a necessary >skill or that the FCC no longer considers it to be so? If you meant >the former, your arrogant generalization is unfortunate and incorrect. >If the latter, we need only remember that the FCC also considers BPL >to be a benign technology that has no effect on amateur radio to >understand the error of that statement. Any reasonable person will >understand that. > >Charlie Wilber >N1AOK > > >
