Andy wrote: > Today for example, I worked NX7F 559 on CW, then barely readable on phone, 339 > at best, then 100% copy on PSK31.
I know your point is really about digital modes required S/N, but a bit of a pet peeve on the CW operations it's perceived usefulness as a backup mode: I find that many of the " I worked xyz 599 on CW" examples are minimal exchanges, barely above RST. And most of them are canned macro's. IE: It's not a real exchange of information that would be useful outside of hobby "make a contact & log" operations. And certainly not a rag-chew round table or message handling like you see on SSB. Yes, there are true blue CW rag-chewers, as well as hard core message handling, but that seems to be evaporating as macro operation has taken over. Many friends who view themselves as hard-core CW operators have the typical ur 5nn memorized, etc, but fall apart when it goes beyond that. Yes, they can copy calls, but if the dialog goes free form, all the sudden panic ensues. :-) I make no pretensions, my marginal 10-11 wpm is done the hard way, lot's of concentration and pen in hand. In portable ops on HF, we quite often fall back to cw as needed. I can send using my mic buttons and have many times. But I'd never count on that for "serious" comms. :-) There is more ragchew on psk, but still quite a bit of macro operators. Nothing in the digi modes that make rag-chew harder, just does not seem to be as common. Even with all the hard core DX & contest operations taking over SSB sub-bands, I still see far more rag-chew on SSB than any other mode. Have fun, Alan km4ba
