Buddy,
You can make CW contacts faster *if* you know CW *and *there are stations
on CW. The move to no code licensing started 28 years ago, February 14,
1991 to be exact. That trend ended with the complete elimination of the
code requirement on February 23, 2007, some 12 tears ago. We can argue all
day (we have) as to whether or not it was the right thing to do but the
point is, that is what happened.
My point is there are fewer and fewer CW contest operators. We are
planning to run 3A with two full-time CW HF stations. Keeping those two
chairs filled for 24 hours has been a bit of a challenge. Moving someone
over to 6m CW if there happens to be an opening could be an extra big
challenge.
FT8 has provided an alternative to phone for hundreds of ops who simply do
not know or are not comfortable with contest CW. So while what you say is
true many hams now have a third choice. Using FT8 seems to be a popular
choice.
Respectfully,
John
On Sun, Jun 16, 2019 at 1:54 PM Buddy Morgan via VHFcontesting <
vhfcontesting@contesting.com> wrote:
> It appears that every radio club, in the country is going to have FT 8
> stations, for Field Day, this year. The Lakeland (Florida) Amateur Radio
> Club asked me to "handle" the 6M FT 8 station. Something that I noticed, in
> last week's VHF Contest is that people were operating FT 8 and totally
> neglecting CW and to a certain extent, SSB. Even with NA Contest mode, you
> can still make contacts much faster using CW. When signals get strong,
> switch from FT 8 to CW. This will help everybody's score. Also, remember
> there are two 6M FT 8 frequencies. During the VHF Contest, everybody was on
> .313.
>
> Buddy WB4OMG
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