The 12/27/06 edition of the New York Times contains the article, “A Fading Signal.”.
Paul Saffo opines in his 12/16/06 journal entry:
It is tempting to conclude that the FCC’s action spells the end of Morse, but I am certain we will see a very different outcome. Freed from all pretense of practical relevance in an age of digital communications, Morse will now become the object of loving passion by radioheads, much as another “dead†Language, Latin is kept alive today by Latin-speaking enthusiasts around the world. Latin fans eagerly tick off the practical benefits of speaking a dead language, but of course they pursue their study because it is fun and challenging, gives them a sense of accomplishment and links them to a community of other passionate speakers.
The demise of CW has been greatly exaggerated.
Of course the demise of CW is exaggerated.Many hams will learn it anyway.It was the first digital mode of transmission and it can get through when all other modes can’t.Digital decoders need sync and parity bits to decypher the message and don’t work in a noisy/fading environment wheras the human mind can interpret the CW message despite missing information due to qrn and qsb.Cw will continue! Bob WB6JRY