Old Spook seeking CW interactions

[WWredoux]

Yo!

I enjoy the amateur radio board that Wrightwoodcalif has.  Now that I'm living in WW (Well, Oak Springs area, anyway), I'm thinking about looking into amateur radio again.  Some years ago I worked as a CW intercept operator for the Army Security Agency (7th Radio Research Field Station "Ramasun" Thailand), and later for the NSA (contractor) on a lovely island named Shemya.  While on Shemya I would sometimes work the island's amateur station (KL7FBI) on our rare days off. 

Spying on the USSR's military CW nets (Strategic Rocket Forces) required a working code speed of about 30-35 wpm, so the code has always been easy.  Now, I still can copy CW at about 25 wpm, but no little of the theory.  As such, I'm thinking of getting a license.  Question: How much CW action is there these days?  Most, I believe, is copied and sent by machine.

[clint]

There is still lots of cw action out there. Serious DX'rs still use code because it will still get the signal out when nothing els will. It is not mostly done by machine but most serious cw folks use an iambic keyer and use some auto keying to send faster. There are currently three classes of license and if you want to work serious cw dx on the best parts of the bands reserved for cw you would need to go all the way to Amateur Extra.