THE FINAL AMATEUR RADIO CW TEST

[Bry Carling]

Jon writes on the Heathkit group...

> I can't help but speculate about someone, someday, losing a life 
> because the only working communication equipment would only transmit an 
> intermittent continuous wave because the voice portion of the 
> transmitter would not work.  It has happened in the past, however, 
> the "victim" was able to send Morse code by touching and removing two 
> wires.  
> 
> Wonder if that will eventually cause the re-institution of CW in the 
> Ham licensing procedure.  Probably not, few people learn from the past. 
> Most seem to require an even more complicated approach to solving a 
> problem.
> 
> Jon

I honestly thought there would be more discussion on this epic 
occasion, Jon.

For myself, I will continue to be using CW on the air as long
as I am here! In the car I tend to use phone, some AM on 
ten metres which is a blast, and occasional CW too.

I was waiting to see if some other group challenged that claim 
that these guys were the very LAST Volunteer Examiners to 
administer a code test. I guess no one else noticed it was going 
away.  I think it was fitting to mark the occasion and try to honor 
morse code in a way.

Ham radio won't be the same without it, and we are seeing 
the gradual erosion of what has been the greatest hobby of 
all time during an era when our culture and our world were
possibly at their peak.

I suppose everyone would rather just forget about morse code 
now, or that many didn't bother to read the message. It could 
also be that some guys were so disgusted about it that they 
didn't want to think about it or discuss it!

73 es QRV de AF4K 
AR

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