> Imagine if you weren't allowed to get on the Internet until you could
> demonstrate proficiency with TCP/IP and routing protocols? And if at
> first
> you could only get a 192.168.1.X address so you could be on a local LAN?
> And only after an exhaustive set of exams and hard work could you ping
> www.k1ttt.net?
I believe this is a good description of the Internet before about 1995. And
guess what? Most people did not use the Internet!
The Internet was a much different environment (old timers will work their
gums, lick their drying lips and recall how much better is was then and
where's the nurse?) where text was king and images files. Not entirely
different stylistically than the Grand Old Days of one-tube rigs and
open-wire feeders and snappy traffic handling every night. Assuming the
world tends to operate at a normal level of chaos and squalor, there are
short periods of time when technology or philosophy manages to create a
temporary deviation from the norm, for better or worse. Such is life and
things tend back to the norm - the bell curve is a powerful thing.
CW may have some life in it, yet - if we can communicate why it is
enjoyable. Recall, too, that fly fishing was a dying art until various
sources communicated its beauties and now you can't swing a cat on some
rivers without getting snagged by some guy in $500 designer waders. Instead
of berating people for not fly fishing, it might be slightly more productive
to show them why fly fishing is so danged neat and help them learn it.
If we are successful in communicating the joys of CW, including and
especially CW contesting (obligatory contest content), I see no reason why
it will not continue to attract a large number of aficionados that find
typing to each other too much like a regular job :-)
73, Ward N0AX
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