wjm@whuxl.UUCP (MITCHELL) (07/16/84)
<munch, munch>
As I once told a friend of mine who is considering getting his Novice ticket...
"Ham Radio isn't one hobby, it is many". To many people, hams are people who
work DX and rag chew on the HF bands, but as we know there's more to hamming than
that. There is CW operation (either informal rag chews or formal traffic
operation - actually most traffic nets prefer CW, due to the natural ambiguities
of copying phone - letters sounding alike, etc,) and there are those who make
CW proficiency a goal to be achieved (the League runs high speed (at least to 60
wpm) tests on W1AW several times a year - check QST for details).
Of course if you're not into CW or phone, there's always slow scan TV, amateur TV
(on the 432 MHz band), moonbounce, ASCII operation, etc.
Some people concentrate on contests, some on traffic, while others just like to
ragchew, and I think there's room on the ham bands for all of us. However, we
must not lose sight of why the FCC has granted us all this spectrum:
1) Hams have been pioneers in the use of radio, developing useful new
communications techniques (who found that the shortwave bands were useful
for DX and that moonbounce was feasible?)
2) Hams are a national resource of people trained in communication techniques
that can be used in an emergency.
Given those two things, I'd like to see the exams encourage a wide range of
technical skills, but would also like to see the code requirement kept, since
one never knows when you or the country may need it.
As for mpackards comment that CW is less useful on VHF due to its limited range,
I respectfully disagree. There are several long distance means of 2m propagation
like aurora that really can't be used with anything BUT CW due to the wavering
Doppler shifts of the aurora. Also, if I have to operate 2m simplex in an
emergency where most of the repeaters are knocked off the air with a 1 watt
hand-held with a "rubber duck", I need all the help I can get to get through,
and I'm going to use CW.
73's
Bill Mitchell, WB2IAU (whuxl!wjm)