This is the second 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
Making contact
Now that you know how to tune your radio properly, you are ready to make contact. You can do this in several ways: listen for someone calling CQ, call CQ yourself, wait until an ongoing contact ends and then call one of stations, or break into an ongoing contact.
When an operator wants to make a contact, he or she will “call CQ.” What this means is that he or she is looking for a contact. A station calling CQ will send something like the following:
CQ CQ CQ CQ DE KB6NU KB6NU KB6NU K
CQ means exactly what it sounds like, that is “seek you.” The K sent at the end of the call is a prosign that signifies that you’ve finished your transmission and that you’re inviting other stations to call you now.
To reply to a station calling CQ, you send the other station’s callsign, followed by “de,” then your callsign. For example, if I heard W1ABC calling CQ, and I wanted to contact him, I would send:
W1ABC W1ABC W1ABC DE KB6NU KB6NU KB6NU K
If signals were very strong, I might send W1ABC’s call only once or twice, and my call maybe only twice, but when replying to a CQ, you should always send both the calling station’s callsign and your callsign. This procedure eliminates any confusion. The calling station knows that you are calling him, and repeating your callsign at least once helps the other stationbe sure that he received your callsign correctly.
It is becoming more common for stations responding to a CQ to send only their call, and to only send it a single time. While this is the norm when operating contests, or a DX pileup, it IS NOT, and SHOULD NOT be the norm, for most contacts. Unless you send the calling station’s callsign, he cannot be sure that you are calling him, and if you don’t repeat your callsign at least once, there’s a better chance that he will not copy your call correctly. There’s no reason to do this for most contacts, so just don’t do it.
Different types of CQs
Sometimes you’ll hear a station using what’s called a “directional CQ.” In addtion to “CQ,” the station will include a location or maybe a group name. For example, if W1ABC wanted to contact someone in New York, I might send:
CQ NY CQ NY CQ NY DE W1ABC W1ABC W1ABC K
This tells me that W1ABC wants to find someone in New York. Since I live in Michigan, I should not reply to that call
Sometimes, stations want to work only “DX” stations. DX stations are stations that are not in the same country, or in nearby countries, as the calling station. So, for example, if I hear:
CQ DX CQ DX CQ DX DE W1ABC W1ABC W1ABC K
I know not to reply to that CQ because W1ABC is looking to contact stations outside of the U.S. Chances are he doesn’t want to talk to anyone in Canada either, as Canada borders the U.S. and is not really considered DX.
On the other hand, if you hear F1XYZ call CQ DX, feel free to answer. The prefix F1 signifies that the station is in France, and he would probably be glad to hear you call him.
Danny says
I was a radioman in the Navy in the 60s and used the morse code even in Vietnam. I still remember it well. I am looking for a place on the internet where we can use the keyboard as a key and send/receive messages with other people who love the code.
Is this the place??
Dan KB6NU says
No, I don’t offer that service here. You might try morsecode.me or iCW