Why do you care?

I ask this question, “Why do you care how I operate?” You shouldn’t. Unless I am causing interference, doing something malicious or illegal, then how I operate is none of your business. I bring this up because some individuals feel the need to let me know that how I operate does not make me a ham operator. Unfortunately, it’s people like this who, in my opinion, give amateur radio a bad name.

For example, the subject of Morse code is always a touchy one. More so for those OM’s who think there is one way, THEIR WAY. Thankfully technology is a wonderful thing and now learning Morse code hasn’t changed over the years, but software and programs to supplement code has. There are countless programs designed to teach you, to test you, to increase your speed and decoding. That is great! I applaud those individuals who are helping others interested learn.

Then there is the software designed, again, in my opinion to be used as a tool or resource and those are programs designed to help decoding. I will be the first to admit my decoding skills suck! Yeah, I know 15-20 minutes a day and I will improve. Thankfully my license allows me a lifetime to learn and I have many years to improve my decoding speed. Again, the OMs will claim the only decoder is the “gray matter between your ears” but I disagree.

When I started on HF, I skipped learning the code, for the same reasons many do. I did not think I could do it. Well some 12 years after I was license, under no pressure from the FCC or anyone else I took the chance, dedicate time and made an effort to learn the basics. I learned enough that I could make my way though a simple QSO at say, 5 WPM. I know not impressive, but still an accomplishment.

Unfortunately 5 WPM rarely cuts it on the HF bands. Yeah, I know there are clubs and organizations that promote CW and operators to use the mode. Hell, I even became a member of SKCC. Unfortunately, when you come across a pileup on a DXpedition, you better be ready, because it’s not easy for a newly learned CW to get a dit or dah in edgewise. Don’t even think of trying out a contest at 5 WPM.

My solution, use a tool, a decoder. Why not? Isn’t that why they were developed? I will admit I have used decoders on both occasions. When I worked XR0Y and K4M recently, I used a decoder because I could not copy at the speed they were sending. Does that make me less of an operator? Not in my eyes. Now maybe in the eyes of those OMs who are stuck in their ways from years gone by, sure. But who cares what others think! I surely don’t take their opinions of comments to heart when they claim I am not a ham.

My decoder of choice is MRP40 developed by Norbert Pieper. It has been a real workhorse for me. Whenever I tune to the CW portion of a band I start the program. Sometimes I don’t even need it, but there are other times when I won’t ask an op to QRS. It’s those times that a decoder is used as a tool. Amazingly I have had very good success using MRP40 and will continue to do.