It is still used for casual contacts by people that enjoy it. It is used for various things that fall under the banner of "radiosport" -- for my part I enjoy Morse-code-only radio contests. It is used for identification beacons for repeaters or propagation beacons. And for radio experimenters, a Morse code transmitter makes a great first project since it is so simple and is foundational to everything that comes after it. Pretty much any transmitter that you build is just extra stuff on top of a Morse code transmitter in one form or another.
Morse code has a distinct signal-to-noise ratio advantage over any other simple modulation scheme, since the receiving filter can be so narrow, and 100% of the power is going into the carrier any time you are key-down. This is why Morse code is good for propagation beacons and also for other experiments. There are, of course, modern error-correcting codes that beat it, but then both the transmission and reception become much more complex. (See FT8 for a currently popular weak-signal mode).
I view Morse code radio contests much like a sail boat racing. Nobody moves containers of goods from China to LA on sail boats. But lots of people enjoy a good boat race on a sunny afternoon, and enjoy keeping the old marlin-spike seamanship skills alive. Likewise, ftp is a much smarter way to move a 3GB file from London to SF than using Morse code, but that doesn't mean that Morse code isn't good humor during a weekend radio contest.
It is still used for casual contacts by people that enjoy it. It is used for various things that fall under the banner of "radiosport" -- for my part I enjoy Morse-code-only radio contests. It is used for identification beacons for repeaters or propagation beacons. And for radio experimenters, a Morse code transmitter makes a great first project since it is so simple and is foundational to everything that comes after it. Pretty much any transmitter that you build is just extra stuff on top of a Morse code transmitter in one form or another.
Morse code has a distinct signal-to-noise ratio advantage over any other simple modulation scheme, since the receiving filter can be so narrow, and 100% of the power is going into the carrier any time you are key-down. This is why Morse code is good for propagation beacons and also for other experiments. There are, of course, modern error-correcting codes that beat it, but then both the transmission and reception become much more complex. (See FT8 for a currently popular weak-signal mode).
I view Morse code radio contests much like a sail boat racing. Nobody moves containers of goods from China to LA on sail boats. But lots of people enjoy a good boat race on a sunny afternoon, and enjoy keeping the old marlin-spike seamanship skills alive. Likewise, ftp is a much smarter way to move a 3GB file from London to SF than using Morse code, but that doesn't mean that Morse code isn't good humor during a weekend radio contest.