I had heard a couple of stations near Manchester and as a non British Isle geographer and the lazy sort that I am had not done a lookup on your call to find out where you were and than correlate this with the similar data on Manchester.  

While IRLP is kind of fun, I really do not think it will have a great deal of usefulness other than for short specialized  contacts and long rag chews are  not only discouraged but are sometimes difficult and unreliable as the number of users and links nodes are increasing.  You are right that the a1 digital mode still has a long way to go to get replaced for its shear joy and relaxation as well as for its efficiency.  Alas though too many take the easier way out.  I myself do not do enough cw anymore but hopefully will find time to return to it someday.



thank you!

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