MrsMac and I attend a ham radio breakfast every Sunday morning. The group on Sunday ebbs and flows with sometime only 3 hams and up to 9 hams. In actuality, only about 20% of the morning talk is about amateur radio. The other talk covers many different topics, politics local & national, guns, vehicles, hunting, fishing, etc. etc. etc. Well yesterday the discussion became a lively one. In essence it was a heated discussion on what is real radio, digital, phone, or CW (Morse code for you Al Green supporters).
I pretty much kept my mouth shut as to me, all three have a purpose. Of the three, I like phone the best however, I am not willing to say phone is best.
In my book, CW is best for long distance comms while using low power. When the bands were weak as we where at the bottom of the sun cycle several years ago. Using my rusty CW skills it is not uncommon hearing transmissions from around the globe.
Digital to me is awesome when ground noise is high and similar but not as good as CW is great for long distance. When the HF propagation is poor again digital blasts through. With that written, to me it is very impersonal way to communicate. One of the best things about digital in my book is you can send a message or SITREP quickly which hinders being RF'd by the opposition.
Phone is like having a nice conversation over a adult beverage in a comfortable tavern while sitting in front of a fire in the woodstove or fire place. I love to listen to people and have the ability to interject as appropriate. Part of that interaction is listening for cues that operators put out through changes in their voice modulations. Typically, the HF propagation takes a larger role in being able to communicate - Or not. You need more power than CW or digital to communicate in most cases although I regularly only use 5-10 watts for a QSO; However, 100 watts or higher is so much better.
All three share benefits. One of those is security and the ability to send secure comms, whether they be
OTP (One Time Pad) or
brevity codes. Now of course that is illegal. The FFC does not allow coded messages on the air waves. Yes we know
This is your opportunity to express your opinion. What is your favorite comms mode? Do you believe that digital is not "real" amateur radio? What have I missed in my above categorization of each mode? I only ask that you play nice in this discussion.
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