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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!hao!seismo!harvard!wjh12!pixel!pixadv!cmm
From: cmm@pixadv.UUCP (cmm)
Newsgroups: net.ham-radio
Subject: Re: Morse code stinks - (nf)
Message-ID: <24@pixadv.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 9-Jul-84 22:42:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: pixadv.24
Posted: Mon Jul  9 22:42:23 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Jul-84 04:45:33 EDT
References: <1430@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Organization: Pixel Computer Inc., Wilmington, Mass.
Lines: 28

I am for the morse code requirement.  As a child, I watched my mother (K1UZG)
learn the code, and she had no particular problem with it.  In fact, once 
she got her license, she rarely used voice.

It seems from watching her during her active days, that morse almost entered
her brain through a channel completely unrelated to verbal speech.  On many
occasions, she would be cooking supper with three attention hungry children
talking with her simultaneously, while she was carrying on a 60wpm+ QSO with
a friend on 80 meters.  In spite of the sensory assault she was under, she
was still able to copy the code.

After I got my license (then WA1JMS), I found that I could communicate with
people whose signals weren't far enough above the noise to make a perceptable
beat note.  I could copy signals that just barely changed the "texture" of the
noise, if they were slow enough.

I have found that code is a reliable communications means, working when all 
else fails.  Even the space missions, Mercury at least, had morse as a backup.

Yours, (KA1ZF)

-- 
____________________________________________________________________________
cmm   (carl m mikkelsen)    | (617)657-8720x2310
Pixel Computer Incorporated |
260 Fordham Road	    | {allegra|ihnp4|cbosgd|ima|genrad|amd|harvard}\
Wilmington, Ma.  01887	    |     !wjh12!pixel!pixadv!cmm