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Comment by setquk | Hacker News Reader

This is a big problem. I find CW to be populated with less annoying people.

This reminds me: has anyone done a survey of the relative Democrat/Republican/Other distribution of voice hams vs CW HAMS?

I would be interested in the results.

In hundreds of contacts on CW I've never once talked politics with anyone. I understand that isn't your question but the bandwidth is too low to waste on useless garbage. That and CW operators are a tighter community so an opposing political opinion isn't as divisive with that much common ground.

That’s a broad and inaccurate generalization. You just need to find a niche that is more socially appealing to you if you want to use it to socialize. Sounds like common sense but it’s easy to be weirded out by the “pig farmers” or by listening to a chat where one of the parties expresses conservative views.

But overall hams embody the best aspects of science and engineering culture and DIY/maker culture.

Most of the subgroups bave active online communities and are more focused in their on the air activities, and a bit less inclined to shoot the breeze about Fox News talking points.

CW tends to be nice and some of the “rag chewing” (casual conversation) is remarkably thoughtful and there are some really interesting people. Doing conversation well on Morse is a bit of an art form.

I don't think it's inaccurate, just subjective. Yes it's the 80m and 2m local rag chew I avoid and the people spewing contests all over 40 and 20. I spend most of my time doing CW and with a soldering iron in my hand. Life is good there for me.

My point was that it may be accurate about a small percentage of the ham population, but it's not accurate about the majority of the population.

part of why i'm a fan of digital modes, short message ones like FT8 in particular. plus i've been getting lots of dx too! i really need to learn CW.

Sked? I'm just 15 wpm but if you need a VT ...

Thanks for offer. Minus an antenna at the moment unfortunately due to a tree attack. Maybe in a couple of weeks :)

Cool.

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