Surprise Morse Code is BACK!!!!!

[Herbert Lindsey]

Ham radio needs more young people to get involved and learn. The harder the effort to participate, the fewer there will be who make the effort. Soon, there will be hundreds of old men working the bands and when they pass, the frequencies we now enjoy will be sold to companies for business use. If it's not infused with rap then todays emerging generation will not even consider it fun to spend thousands of dollars to talk about the weather or even follow a code of ethics while doing so. Hence out with the code. Yes code is important. Just because some of us didn't have to learn code and some of us did, doesn't belittle the accomplishment of someone who had to learn and take he code test.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Ham radio needs more young people to get involved and learn. The harder the effort to participate, the fewer there will be who make the effort. Soon, there will be hundreds of old men working the bands and when they pass, the frequencies we now enjoy will be sold to companies for business use. If it's not infused with rap then todays emerging generation will not even consider it fun to spend thousands of dollars to talk about the weather or even follow a code of ethics while doing so. Hence out with the code. Yes code is important. Just because some of us didn't have to learn code and some of us did, doesn't belittle the accomplishment of someone who had to learn and take he code test.

Today's youth has no interest whatsoever in communicating via RF especially HF unless they have a defunct gene or something that really separates them from the rest.. No I do not consider cell phones RF devices despite the fact they do use RF. Most today are born with a cell phone in hand already. All dropping the code requirement did was make it that much easier to get a ticket the same way publishing the question pools and making the exams easier did. It just makes for more poor operators on the bands. Note: I fully realize that NOT all new ops are poor ops but I contend that there are more on the air today than 20 years ago and YES some old farts are among the worst. I lived thru a bad experience here when code was dropped and the local ragtag CB group basically took over a local repeater for a couple years with their D104's on their 2m FM rigs and 10-codes, fuck you I have a license too attitude etc. It just left a REALLY sour taste in my mouth for lowering the standards. YMMV

 

[543_Dallas]

I don't believe I've saw a d104 on a vhf rig...I'm picturing a modern dual band rig with the mic cord cut and a d104 spliced in with wire nuts. Maybe a sock or crown royal bag over the d104.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I don't believe I've saw a d104 on a vhf rig...I'm picturing a modern dual band rig with the mic cord cut and a d104 spliced in with wire nuts. Maybe a sock or crown royal bag over the d104.

No marettes (wire nuts) needed. Try a crimp-on RJ45 connector.