On 12/15/15, Mro said the following...
they should have morse code. it might come in handy some day.
Indeed!
I got licensed after the code requirement was dropped, but there is a certain snobbery in the hobby towards "no-code" hams, so I made it a point to learn
it and actually use it. I wanted to get into hiking with radio and making contacts from mountain tops and code seemed the best way to do that reliably since it doesn't require a lot of power or complicated gear.
During the recent K1N expedition, code was the only way I managed to make a contact since the "pile-ups" for voice contacts were fierce.
It's a very unique and efficient method of communication once your brain gets past the initial shock of it! Anyone looking to get into CW ops, I'd suggest finding a local code guru to watch and learn from. Or maybe watch some YouTube videos. After that, it's a matter of listening and getting a knack for the
use of shorthand, prosigns, procedures, etc.
It's not easy, but if you can send and recognize your callsign and "5NN" (the universal or lazy signal report), you can work the world.
|10z|02E|08RO |10r|02E|08ADER|07
--- Mystic BBS v1.11 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io