Hi Phil,
I am glad you have had so many opportunities to do different things on Ham Radio.
We do have a couple of guys who can still run phone patches in Navy Mars in Ohio although they do not have to do this much any more.
Yes the other Digital Modes do help but sometimes CW just is the best option.
I am not one of those people who learned CW but I am glad that people are still using it.
I hope you are able to continue your participation in Ham Radio for a long time to come.
I know some people who read Morse Code on their PC Screen.
I wonder if you could use a Braille Display if one came your way if your hearing made that necessary.
Just a thought.
Have a great day!

Colleen, N8TNV;



----- Original Message -----
From: Phil Scovell <[log in to unmask]>
To:  [log in to unmask]
Date: Friday, Jun 13, 2014 04:18:55 PM
Subject: Re: Ham Radio Ethics In Decline

>
>
> Coleen,
> 
> I never figured CW should be a requirement to become a ham but back in 
> earlier days, CW got through when phone didn't.  Now some digital modes can 
> help take up for poor band conditions for both phone and CW.  Nets are fun 
> and used to serve a great service sending traffic messages than now they are 
> competing with cell phones now.  I've been net control literally hundreds of 
> times over the years on SSB, CW traffic nets, the regional 10 CW net, and I 
> ran 130 phone patches; some even for missionaries in the Caribbean and for 
> soldiers stationed in the Pacific Islands back in the Vietnam days.  Phone 
> patches and repeater patches aren't needed much any more, I'm sorry to say.
> 
> Phil.
> K0NX
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "COLLEEN ROTH" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, June 13, 2014 2:02 PM
> Subject: Re: Ham Radio Ethics In Decline
> 
> 
> > Hello Phil,
> > I really enjoyed your post. I have been a ham since 1992. Of course some 
> > people would look down on me because I do not use Code. I do respect those 
> > who use CW and know its value in poor conditions.
> > I am happy to say that we have some operators who use CW for Traffic 
> > Handling. This is great and I definitely encourage the to handle traffic 
> > for our loac Traffic Net.
> > We have a few younger guys who are interested in CW and are recruiting 
> > others to join them.
> > It's very unusual for us to be without a CW Rep for our Through Traffic 
> > now.
> > I would say that we have a CW Liaisson five nights a week now.
> > We also have a Liaisson for our sideband net.
> >
> > Sometimes our only Rep is our CW Rep.
> > This is great a change.
> > People are not very respectful in general these days but maybe we can lead 
> > by example.
> > Colleen Roth, N8TNV;
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Phil Scovell <[log in to unmask]>
> > 1to3 [log in to unmask]
> > Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 11:16 pm
> > Subject: Ham Radio Ethics In Decline
> >
> >ar
> >ar
> >ar It is time to speak out in my opinion.
> >ar
> >ar This topic has come up recently and it put me of a mind when I saw the 
> >ar FCC
> >ar letting all the unlicensed, that is, expired licenses, rejoin the ham
> >ar community.  I wonder how that is going to change the complexion of what 
> >ar used
> >ar to be standard ham radio on the air ethics.
> >ar
> >ar First, when I was 14 and got on the air with my brand new Drake TRBLED I 
> >ar got
> >ar for Christmas in 1966, the bands were red hot and propagation was 
> >ar wonderful
> >ar to all points of the planet.  You could work Europe with a 10 meter 
> >ar dipole
> >ar in your attic with 10 watts output.  I remember my very first night on 75
> >ar meters.  A non ham, sighted friend, helped me get the radio out of the 
> >ar box,
> >ar set things up, and he sat for probably four hours reading the manual to 
> >ar me
> >ar as we, together, tried to figure things out.  It was late that night when 
> >ar I
> >ar finally got fired up.  I tuned across 75 meters and the band was full of 
> >ar 20
> >ar over S9 signals.  Every round table I stopped and listened to made me
> >ar nervous because I thought they wouldn't want to talk to a kid.  Finally, 
> >ar I
> >ar picked out a group of W5 stations in a large group and broke in.  They
> >ar answered me right away and welcome the new kid on the block right in.  In
> >ar fact, over the years, as I operated on every band, I never once had a 
> >ar group
> >ar tell me to get lost.  I hear it all the time now.  Even in our teenage 
> >ar ham
> >ar group that met on 3997 at midnight each night during the summer, we never
> >ar turned anybody down that broke in.  We were rowdy, joked around, made 
> >ar light
> >ar of life in general, and just horsed around like teens do but we all were
> >ar polite to breakers regardless of their age.  We weren't rude, we didn't
> >ar deliberately try and leave anyone out, and we often told the breaker, 
> >ar "Look,
> >ar just talk when you feel like it.  This isn't a round table and we all run
> >ar vox so when you want to comment, just jump right in because it isn't that 
> >ar we
> >ar are leaving you out on purpose; we just have a lot of guys in the group 
> >ar and
> >ar we forget who all is on frequency."
> >ar
> >ar 80 and 75  and 15 meters were always my favorite bands back in those 
> >ar days.
> >ar At night, I worked 80 meters often till 5 o'clock in the morning.  I 
> >ar often
> >ar broke into a group where I knew no one and found myself never rejected. 
> >ar I
> >ar practiced
> >ar the same ethics on all bands and broke into hundreds of groups every band 
> >ar I
> >ar worked over many years.  As I already stated, that isn't the case any
> >ar longer.  Let me tell
> >ar you a personal story first and then I'll mention other events I've
> >ar recently copied on air to back up my own experiences.
> >ar
> >ar 75 meters has loads of round tables day and night.  There is a group in
> >ar Colorado, for example, that started way back in the early seventies. 
> >ar Most
> >ar of the guys were older than me by20, 30, and 40 years; some even more.  I
> >ar was 28
> >ar years old at the time.  I was living in western Colorado back then for a
> >ar couple of years and in
> >ar a small town of 800 people.  We had a total of two hams, by the way, for
> >ar such a small town.  I worked this Colorado group on 3898 every morning 
> >ar and
> >ar every evening and we were spread out all over the state.  Although many 
> >ar of
> >ar the guys have passed away, there is still a considerable group of these 
> >ar guys
> >ar left, or who have joined the group, since it's inception.  Several are in
> >ar their seventies now, a few in their sixties, like me, and some even 
> >ar younger.
> >ar I know
> >ar a few of the older guys, some locally from 6 meters, and a couple of 
> >ar others
> >ar who were hams back in the seventies when we started the group.  They 
> >ar operate
> >ar on a lower frequency now because our group got so large in the late
> >ar seventies and early eighties, another group was started down the band.
> >ar
> >ar One of the regulars just turned 70 years of age.  A little over 5 years 
> >ar ago,
> >ar this guy, of course, would have been just about 65.  The very first thing 
> >ar he
> >ar said to me when running across me on 6 meters was this:  "Phil, if you 
> >ar ever
> >ar need any help with antennas or any other ham stuff, let me know.  I'll be
> >ar glad to come over and help out."  I explained I was blind and did need 
> >ar help
> >ar because I couldn't climb even my 38 foot tower any more due to my spinal
> >ar problems and that I had a 40 meter rotatable dipole I wanted to put
> >ar up, along with a 3 element 6 meter beam, as well as hanging a G5RV.  By 
> >ar the
> >ar way, he asked me what 6 meter antenna I was using now.  I said, "I really
> >ar don't want to tell you."  He laughed and said why?"  I said, "Well, I'm
> >ar using my R7 vertical at 20 feet on the roof and on a tripod but it isn't
> >ar made for 6 meters but I have a
> >ar 1.4 to 1 SWR anyway and 40 watts output."  This guy laughed again and 
> >ar said
> >ar he knew several guys doing the same thing with good results.  That 
> >ar season,
> >ar by the way, I worked 36 states and one guy in the Caribbean.  Anyhow, 
> >ar this
> >ar guy, quite nice and very friendly, said he had a 70 foot tower and he 
> >ar still
> >ar climbs it all the time so he'd be happy to help out.  A friend of his 
> >ar broke
> >ar in and we all rag chewed for about 30 minutes like we'd known each other 
> >ar for
> >ar years.  You know how real hams are; it's natural to chat about 
> >ar everything.
> >ar These two guys are regulars on the Colorado morning and evening group on
> >ar 3868 that used to be on 3898 in the late seventies I mentioned.
> >ar
> >ar Well, when I talked to these guys on 6 meters just mentioned, it was 
> >ar about 6
> >ar months following my purchase of the Icom 7000 with the LDG 1000 Pro auto
> >ar tuner, and the AL600 solid state amp by Ameritrone.  I actually had the
> >ar equipment, still in their boxes from H R O here in Denver, for several 
> >ar weeks
> >ar because I got the Equipment November 7th, 2008 and less than 2 months 
> >ar later,
> >ar I came close to being paralyzed from the neck down.  My surgery was in
> >ar January of 2009.  I was home from the neck surgery for 2 weeks before I 
> >ar even
> >ar had enough strength to stumble out to my office/ham shack, to play around
> >ar with my new gear.  Prior to this, I was unable to unpack everything by
> >ar myself and lift it so my daughter, she was 30 years old at the time, 
> >ar helped
> >ar me arrange everything on a floor-to-ceiling wide bookshelves where I 
> >ar operate
> >ar from now.  The only thing which doesn't fit on the bookshelf due to its 
> >ar size
> >ar is the AL600 power supply which sits next to the bookshelves on a small
> >ar table.  I ran across multiple local hams both on HF and 6 meters and 2
> >ar meters running the Icom 7000 so I thought I'd get a lot of help from 
> >ar various
> >ar sources of whom I could ask questions.  That never seemed to happen but 
> >ar at
> >ar least I figured out enough from trying to read the manual, and my 
> >ar youngest
> >ar son, he was 25 at the time, read portions from the manual which I'd 
> >ar already
> >ar located in the text version and could tell him the pages I wanted him to
> >ar read.  In short, I made
> >ar a lot of progress but I'm thinking now of getting the software and using 
> >ar a
> >ar netbook to access the functions of the radio, if Jaws works with it, that
> >ar is.  Perhaps I can learn more.  I tried using Ham Radio Deluxe but it 
> >ar didn't
> >ar work well at all with Jaws.  At any rate, I was pretty much on my own and
> >ar still am all these years later.  Nobody can tell me ham radio hasn't
> >ar changed.  So,
> >ar now back to my story.
> >ar
> >ar I broke in one day on the 3868 Colorado group when I heard a couple of 
> >ar the
> >ar guys I'd worked on 6 meters.  I had not yet learned how, on my own, to 
> >ar set
> >ar the width of the side band signal.  Before getting on the air, I was told 
> >ar my
> >ar audio was fine; don't change a thing, they said on 6 meters.  So I 
> >ar figured I
> >ar was safe.  Apparently it wasn't set to wide SSB 100 to 2900 KHz when I 
> >ar broke
> >ar in on the HF frequency band.  By the way, I ship the microphone off and 
> >ar had
> >ar it modified the first couple of weeks I had it because Icom had been 
> >ar getting
> >ar bad reports of narrow audio no matter where you set the width.  I talked
> >ar only for about 5 minutes because I
> >ar wasn't running much power
> >ar but when I signed out, one of the old timers, nearly 80 years of age, 
> >ar whom
> >ar I've known from the seventies, and who drinks like a fish, came on and
> >ar commented to the group that what he just heard was the worst audio he'd 
> >ar ever
> >ar heard.  When he was told I mostly worked CW and probably hadn't gotten 
> >ar used
> >ar to adjusting to the settings of a
> >ar new radio yet on side band, the guy asked what I was running.  One other
> >ar operator said,
> >ar "The same as you; an Icom 7000."  He said, "Well, he doesn't know what he 
> >ar is
> >ar doing then."  For background, this guy lost his ham call for a year 
> >ar because
> >ar he was, back in the late seventies, modifying big amplifiers for CB
> >ar operators to use on 11 meters.  He
> >ar can't get his old K0 3-letter call back and has a 2 by2 call now since
> >ar those days 40
> >ar years ago.  He's also a drunk or what most would call an alcoholic.  He
> >ar didn't know me because I had a different call back in the late seventies.
> >ar Well, in his state of mind, he probably wouldn't know me regardless of my
> >ar call, if you get my meaning.
> >ar
> >ar The guy who offered to help with tower climbing wasn't there so I emailed
> >ar him, explained the situation, asking for his help as offered.  I
> >ar explained the situation with the drunk in the group down south of Denver.
> >ar The guy offered to help all over again and said he'd help get the side 
> >ar band
> >ar audio thing adjusted, too, so I could do it on my own.  He never did to 
> >ar this
> >ar day.  In the mean time, I figured most of it out myself except for 
> >ar putting
> >ar all the pieces of equipment together so I can run a complete station.  I
> >ar currently have had back surgery again, 4 times in 3 months, and have some
> >ar loss of feeling in my left foot and leg.  I am going tomorrow to be 
> >ar tested
> >ar for hearing aids due to the hearing loss that has been creeping up on me 
> >ar in
> >ar recent months.  Additionally, I have a vocal cord problem that doesn't 
> >ar let
> >ar me speak normally all the time so thank God I'm a CW op and not so much 
> >ar on
> >ar side band, haha.  After the big surgery in 09, it took 3 years for the
> >ar feeling to return to normal in my numb hands so even typing the code for
> >ar awhile was limited.
> >ar
> >ar Now to a couple of more recent stories that show how ham ethics are going
> >ar down hill these days.
> >ar
> >ar As I said, I love CW and work it way more than phone and always have. 
> >ar One
> >ar nice thing about CW operating is that you don't hear this exclusionary
> >ar characteristic, unethical jamming, and rule and regulation violation 
> >ar going
> >ar on
> >ar as much in the CW bands.  80 and 20 meters have dozens of nets and round
> >ar table bull
> >ar sessions day and night.  I sort of get a kick out of listening to various
> >ar groups on different bands so let me tell you of a couple to prove my 
> >ar point.
> >ar
> >ar Morning and Evening, there is a group on 14.208 that sound like a bunch 
> >ar of
> >ar nice guys.  Over the last couple of years, listening off and on, I've 
> >ar heard
> >ar guys trying to break in to join the conversation.  Once in a blue moon,
> >ar they are nice but normally the comment on how lousy the guys audio is and
> >ar sometimes they literally tell the guy they are busy talking to friends 
> >ar and
> >ar to leave them alone, is their normal response.  I've heard them do this 
> >ar many
> >ar times so it wasn't just a one time deal.  They go out of their way to 
> >ar ignore
> >ar all breakers 99 percent of the time and if one does get through, he is 
> >ar never
> >ar talked to again so the guy leaves, of course.  This same behavior is 
> >ar common
> >ar on 75 meters.  You will find it most commonly practiced between 3800 and
> >ar 3870 by big signal stations.  Yes, I've literally heard weaker station 
> >ar break
> >ar in and told by the group, this frequency is in use so go away and if you
> >ar come back, buy an amplifier first.
> >ar
> >ar The one like this I heard just last night on June 10 on 14.200 which is a
> >ar commonly  use frequency by a group of guys around the country later in 
> >ar the
> >ar evening hours.  Most run big towers, big amplifiers, big antennas and 
> >ar enjoy
> >ar big DX.  So do I and that's why I enjoy listening to these guys.  They 
> >ar often
> >ar meet with 9K2GS from Kuwait and visit with other DX stations that come 
> >ar and
> >ar go.
> >ar
> >ar Last night, as I started saying, I heard a guy with super bad audio.  I
> >ar mean, he sounded like he was talking through sand paper as he talked into
> >ar the microphone.  He wasn't as loud as most of the signals on frequency 
> >ar and
> >ar doubled a couple of times but I figured he tuned across the band, found a
> >ar loud bunch of guys, and wanted a signal report.  He certainly needed some
> >ar friendly advice about his modulation and side band quality; that's for 
> >ar sure.
> >ar After several tries, he finally got through during a low of 
> >ar transmissions.
> >ar N0UN here in the Denver area, answered him and immediately told him he 
> >ar had a
> >ar rotten signal and that he was busy trying to talk to his friends.  So, he
> >ar invited this poor guy to get a signal and clean it up and go away and 
> >ar leave
> >ar him to his conversation with his friends.  I thought, I knew it!  The FCC
> >ar must have started having licensed to hams to have their own frequencies 
> >ar and
> >ar you should not be bothering them when they are talking to their buddies.
> >ar Sad to see ham radio come to this.
> >ar
> >ar One last parting story.  I have never owned a tower above 65 feet.  I've
> >ar never had an amp bigger than the SB220 and my two largest antennas were a 
> >ar 4
> >ar element 20 and a 2 element 40.  On 80 and 160 I have used wires and shunt
> >ar fed the tower.  I still have 316 countries and most of that came with 
> >ar wire
> >ar antennas or smaller beams made for low power.  I have 138 countries on 80
> >ar meters.
> >ar
> >ar I was invited once to the Mile High DX Club get together.  We had a cook 
> >ar out
> >ar over at a guy's QTH who helped me with my first tower and my 40 meter 
> >ar beam
> >ar so I went out of respect to him for his friendship and all his radio 
> >ar help.
> >ar Sure, I knew some of Colorado's biggest DX contesters personally; some I
> >ar knew personally and talked to, not just on the air, but on the phone and
> >ar they had been in my home over the years.  People like W0UA, considered by
> >ar some to be the best DX contester on the planet, is a jerk but a talented
> >ar jerk and a super operator.  Every time I work him, say in WPX, he doubles
> >ar his speed because, you see, for years, the DX contesters in Denver knew 
> >ar me
> >ar as a high speed QRQ CW operator.  I knew going to the DX Club cook out 
> >ar would
> >ar be another lonely get together as far as I was concerned because, #1 I'm
> >ar blind, #2 I have a mediocre station, and #3, the guy who picked me up was 
> >ar a
> >ar Yellow Cab Driver who did so well, he own his own cab and hired a day
> >ar driver.  K0VVV had a big signal; as big as anyone in Denver with a TH6DXX 
> >ar at
> >ar 132 feet and a 2 element 40 above the tribander at 136 feet.  But, poor 
> >ar old
> >ar bob, passed away now apparently, wasn't well liked among the contesters
> >ar because he was a common working stiff.  As I said, we took his cab to the
> >ar club cook out.  I ended up, after an hour of standing around doing 
> >ar nothing,
> >ar sitting down with a couple of real hams, drunk, but real hams and we had 
> >ar a
> >ar blast telling ham stories and discussing antennas.  Absolutely no one 
> >ar else
> >ar but W0UA, George the contester, said hello to me and he had two because I
> >ar was standing with two other guys and George walked up, talked to them, 
> >ar not
> >ar me, to them for a few minutes, and then those two walked away.  George 
> >ar said
> >ar hello to me, nice meeting you, and disappeared.  The only DX contester I
> >ar have met in Denver who wasn't like I describe was W0ZS but he hadn't come 
> >ar to
> >ar the party that afternoon so I never met Bill in person but we talked 
> >ar often
> >ar on 2 FM we used for a DX notification frequency. K0CL and K0UK and a few
> >ar other contesters with big stations have been close friends for years 
> >ar since,
> >ar at one time, we all lived in western Colorado.
> >ar
> >ar So, that's my story of how ham radio has changed.  I still enjoy CW and
> >ar bless my heart, I copied a 16 year old ham on 20 CW the other day using a
> >ar bug so the hobby ain't dead yet.  In another message, I'll tell you what 
> >ar I
> >ar am doing to change this form of degrading ham ethics.
> >ar
> >ar Phil.
> >ar K0NX
> >