Posted for the benefit of our local ham radio community.
Source: George Ure’s Urban Survival Blog
Dec 28, 2019
No, you don’t need to know Morse Code to be an effective ham radio operator.
SKN comes on New Years Eve. It’s “Straight Key Night.” We’ll get into that, in a second.
First a pitch for learning Morse code. Light signaling (silently), having another way to communicate in event of a stroke or voice stifling injury. Even without the joys of Morse ops on the air, there are some damn good reasons to learn it. SOS?
There’s a lot to be said about being one us “digital-direct” humans. Because although the baud rates may be a quarter to half of what an old Model 19 teleprinter will throughput, Morse is all between the ears where there’s little to go wrong or “break.”
Let’s start with what a typical “modern” ham shack looks like. Here’s Operating Position #1 in my office:
There’s a 43″ monitor for Mr. Old eyes to log contacts and for digital ham modes. In answer to the unasked question (go with me on this), yes, hams send pictures (via slow-scan TV) often heard as a warbling sound on 14.230 MHz (USB).
And we use PSK-31 – a kind of Internet chat workalike, except we use radio instead of ISP’s. No internet needed. And for more exotica, try other modes like JT-65 or FT-8.
