This is the final part of the chapter titled, “Getting on the Air” from my soon-to-be-released book, The CW Geek’s Guide to Having Fun with Morse Code….Dan
Starting the contact
Now that you’ve made contact, you need to know how and what to send to the other station. Most CW contacts follow a fairly simple protocol, at least on the first transmission. On the first transmission, most stations will send a signal report, the operator’s name, and the station’s location.
So, let’s say that I’ve just called CQ, and W1ABC has just returned that call. Here is an example of what I might send on that first transmission:
W1ABC DE KB6NU TNX FER CALL—UR RST RST 599 599—NAME DAN DAN—QTH ANN ARBOR MI ? ANN ARBOR MI—HW CPI? W1ABC DE KB6NU K
Let’s dissect this transmission. First, I send his call followed by my callsign. This confirms that I’ve received his callsign properly. If I’ve made a mistake, W1ABC can correct me when it’s his turn to transmit.
Then, I thank the other operator for his call. We try to be as polite as we can on CW. This helps us avoid some of the childishness that sometimes goes on on the phone portions of the ham bands.
Next, I send a signal report using the RST format. See the appendix for the meaning of each of the digits in an RST signal report. The signal report is followed by name and my location.
Note that I repeat the signal report, my name, and my location. It’s always a good practice to repeat these. Even if signals are very strong at the beginning of a contact, signals might fade, or the other operator may be distracted and not copy my information correctly. Repeating them helps ensure that he gets the information.
When I sent my location, I use the Q-signal QTH. Q-signals are three letter combinations that CW operators use in place of common phrases. In this case, QTH stands for “My location is _____.” So, when I send QTH ANN ARBOR MI I am telling the other operator that I am located in Ann Arbor, MI.
Note that I did not send the comma before MI. You will sometimes hear operators send the comma, but it’s really not necessary. The transmission is perfectly understandable without it.
Between each sentence, I send the BT prosign instead of a period. There’s no real reason for this, except that this is how CW operators do things. Sometimes, you will hear operators send the period, but in general, the use of BT is preferred.
Other prosigns that I used in this transmission include the ? and K. The question mark means that I am going to report some important information. I could have also used it when I repeated the signal report and my name, but because those strings are so short, you rarely hear a ? sent for those repeats. The K at the end of the transmission signifies that I am ending my transmission and inviting the other operator to begin his. A list of all the prosigns commonly used in CW contacts is found in the Appendix.
I also make use of a lot of CW abbreviations:
- DE—FROM
- TNX—THANKS
- FER—FOR
- UR—YOUR. Could also mean “you are,” but not in ths case.
- HW—HOW
- CPI—COPY
The use of abbreviations is encouraged when operating CW. This reduces the number of characters that you must send, meaning that you can send more information in a shorter time. This enables a CW contact to proceed more like a normal conversation. You’ll find a list of common CW abbreviations used on the ham bands in the Appendix
W1ABC’s turn
When W1ABC hears the K he knows that it’s his turn to transmit. He might send the following:
KB6NU DE W1ABC R TNX FER RPRT—UR RST RST 599 599—NAME JOE JOE—QTH BOSTON MA ? BOSTON MA—BTU KB6NU DE W1ABC K
This is very similar to my first transmission, but there are several differences. The R sent after his callsign denotes that he copied every thing I sent. Then, he’s thanking me for the signal report, not my call. Finally, instead of HW CPI?, he sends BTU, which means “back to you.”
In the second transmission, the stations often exchange descriptions of equipment and often a weather report. Being a technical hobby, I often enjoy hearing about what radios or what antennas the other station is using, but I find weather reports to be kind of boring, unless it’s some unusual weather event. I usually skip the weather report and try to move the discussion in another direction. This is especially true in the winter, when I’ve contacted someone in Florida or Texas, where the weather is much warmer than it is here.
Really making contact
Now that the formalities are out of the way, you can really make contact. By that I mean really have a conversation with the other operator. There are some interesting people out there, but you’ll never know that, if you don’t make an effort to really talk to them.
One trick that I use to get the ball rolling sometimes is to look them up on QRZ.Com and read their profile. Often, operators will describe their activities and interests, not only in amateur radio, but outside of the hobby as well. For example, one time I looked up a guy, saw that he’d posted several photos of him on a bicycle, and since I’ve done some biking myself, we had a nice chat about bicycling.
Others will post pictures of their children and grandchildren, or even their pets. Asking about them is a great conversation starter, and you often hear great stories about them.
Even if they don’t have any personal information on QRZ.Com, you can still have a great conversation. For example, if they live in a town with an interesting name, I’ll ask them if they know the history of that name. One time, I worked a guy in Toad Suck, AR, and asked him about the origin of that name. That was a fun conversation.
There are many other ways to start a conversation, and I’d encourage you to do so. Just think about how you would start up a conversation with a stranger at a football game or a party or some other gathering. Ask them about what they do for a living or what got them interested in amateur radio or what projects that they’re working on currently. If you do this, you’ll be rewarded many times over.
Special events, contests, and working DX
There are occasions when really short contacts are more appropriate than long contacts. This is when making contact with special event stations and DX stations, or when participating in a contest. Short contacts are more appropriate in these cases, and there’s even a different protocol for making contact.
To make contact with a DX station or a special event station that has many stations trying to contact him, you would normally only send your callsign a single time and then listen to see if the DX station heard you or not. If they did hear you, they will send your callsign, followed by a signal report (usually 599, whether you are actually 599 or not). In reply, you send TU 599. That ends the contact. If the DX station did not copy your callsign correctly you might also send your callsign again once or twice. This ensures that they’ve gotten it correctly.
In a contest, you generally have to also exchange some other kind of information. For example, in some contests, you have to also exchange your ARRL section. In others, you might have to exchange a serial number. Check the rules for each contest to make sure that you exchange the correct information.
Operating “split”
Sometimes you’ll hear a DX or special even station append the word UP to their CQs. This means that they are “operating split” and want you to call them on a frequency higher than the frequency they are calling on. What this does is allows other stations to hear F1XYZ clearly, while at the same time allows F1XYZ to pick and choose the stations he wants to reply to. When there are many stations calling a single stations (this is often referred to as a “pileup”), it helps the DX station or special event station make as many contacts as possible.
For example, F1XYZ might send:
CQ DX CQ DX F1XYZ F1XYZ UP
That means he will be listening for calls at least 1 kHz above the frequency that he is on.
To contact this station, you will have to set up your radio to operate in split-frequency mode. That is, you’ll have to set it up so that it transmits a kHz or two above the frequency on the main dial, which is the frequency of the DX station. You can use the SPLIT function or the XIT function of your radio to do this.
This chapter just scratches the surface of CW operating, but it should be enough to get you started. Getting on the air and practicing is the most important thing now. As you make contacts, you’ll gain experience and confidence and become a better operator.
Dale Martin says
Hi. I’m NCS for a local club’s weekly (Tuesday night) VHF net.
I’m writing to ask for permission to read from your guide over the next few weeks. Most of the net members are Novices to the extreme in their on-the-air experience (VHF and HF, especially) . Your guide is excellent and I’d like to share it with them. I will definitely give you credit at the beginning and ending of each reading.
I would also like to provide a link to your website on our club’s website (w5rrr.org) for further reading.
Thanks for your guides; they’re great reading.
73,
dale, kg5u
Houston, TX
Dan KB6NU says
Please feel free, Dale. No need for two credits, though. Once is enough. :)
Theodore e.Dean says
Looking forward to reading more I am slowly getting in to CW operation I have the sending down just need to work on my copy of CW QSO’S thank for the on line information available Ted KD2ARD.
Dan KB6NU says
My pleasure. If you ever hear me on the air, please give me a call.