KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

CW

Operating Notes: QRP signals, using the BK prosign, QSY protocol

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Does it seem to you that low power (QRP) signals are more affected by fading (QSB) than higher power signals? It does to me. If any of you know what mechanism is producing this effect, please let me know.

Speaking of QRP signals, I suggest that stations running QRP should follow the 3 x 3 protocol when responding to a CQ. By 3 x 3, I mean sending the CQing station’s call sign three times, then the QRP station’s call sign three times.

Several times lately, I’ve had a QRP station call me with only their call sign and only send it once or twice. The last time this happened, conditions were marginal, and I just wasn’t able to copy the other station’s call correctly. In addition to that, I’m never 100% sure that the station calling is calling me.

So, if you’re replying to my CQ, please send your call three times, followed by “DE” then your call three times. It doesn’t take that much extra time to send, and I’ll be sure that you’re calling me as well as copy your call sign properly.

QSY protocol

A couple of nights ago, I was working a station on 7028 kHz. He wasn’t very strong  and when another station popped up on frequency, I couldn’t copy him at all. I tried calling him 1 kHz up, but he didn’t follow me there.

With this in mind, I’d like to suggest the following protocol for dealing with this situation. First, tune up 1 kHz, and if the frequency is free, call the other station a couple of times. If no reply, listen 2 kHz down (1 kHz down from the original frequency), and if the frequency is free, call the other station a couple of times.

Having an agreed-upon protocol like this  might help stations reconnect when their QSO is interrupted by interference.

Using the BK prosign

I’ve noticed more stations using the BK prosign to denote that they’ve finished a transmission and to invite the other station to transmit. They’re using this instead of the more traditional “<your call> DE <my call> K,” or more simply “DE <my call> K”. I think that perhaps this is catching on because this is the accepted method for POTA contacts.

I think this is an entirely appropriate thing to do. The BK prosign is well understood, and the rules say that you only have to identify every ten minutes, so you’re not breaking the rules if you operate this way. And, in a ragchew, it might even be a more natural way for a conversation to flow.

I haven’t started doing this during all of my contacts, but I’m starting to do this more and more. If sending BK seems natural during a contact, I’ll just send it and let the other station take over. If it seems like it might be too abrupt, I might send “BTU BK” instead.

Operating Notes, January 5, 2026

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Screen shot of an IC-7610 band scope.
I’d recognize this signal anywhere.

It used to be that you could recognize an operator by the sound of their fist. That is to say the distinctive way that they sent dits and dahs while operating Morse Code. With the advent of the electronic keyer, fists have become less distinctive, but it’s still possible.

But, there’s another way you can now sometimes recognize an operator. You don’t even have to hear them send a single dit or dah. The key is what their signal looks like on your waterfall.

Yesterday, just after I turned on the radio, I saw a signal around 7022 kHz. Immediately, I knew who it was. I tuned it in, and sure enough I was right. This signal is a little more recognizable because it’s from a homebrew rig, but even so, other signals can probably be determined from how they look on the waterfall if they’re strong enough.

Straight Key Night 2026

As I’ve mentioned before, the only time I use a straight key on the air is Straight Key Night. This year, I only made four contacts before I put the Bunnel #9 back on the shelf. Even though I made only four contacts, two were notable:

  • I1MMR. If you live in the eastern U.S. and operate 40 meter CW at all, chances are you’ve worked Mauro, I1MMR. This was my 42nd contact with Mauro. This wasn’t strictly an SKN contact, but I’m counting it.
  • N0AX. Ward Silver is one of those hams that everyone seems to know. He’s the author of Ham Radio for Dummies and has edited the ARRL Handbook. Signals were S9 both ways and we had a nice chat before my wrist started to quit on me.

Short skip on 40 meters

Every once in a while, I get some really short skip on 40 meters in the evening. A couple of days ago, I worked a fellow who lives near Lansing, MI that QRZ.Com said was about 50 miles away. That’s gotta be too far away for ground wave, so it must be really short skip.

Right after that contact, I worked a guy near Bad Axe, MI, which is in “The Thumb.” (Take a look at a Michigan map, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.) He was only 110 miles away, according to QRZ.Com. Both stations were S9 here in Ann Arbor.

Margaret Atwood on CW?

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Older woman smiling.
Margaret Atwood.

I like to read nonfiction by great writers. So, when I found the book, Burning Questions and Occasional Pieces by Margaret Atwood on the shelf at the Ann Arbor District Library, I picked it up. Margaret Atwood–for those of you who don’t know her–is a renowned Canadian author, perhaps most well-known for her book, The Handmaid’s Tale, which has been adapted for both film and TV.

Burning Questions and Occasional Pieces is a collection of essays. In the essay, Five Visits to the Word-Hoard, Atwood talks about how she writes and what makes a successful writer. She says,

You can work at a thing, and you can learn it. But, only up to a point. Beyond that comes the talent, which is a given. It’s there or it isn’t there, in varying quantities, and it can’t be predicted or demanded, and it is not reasonable and predictable, and it can be with you at one point in your life and then vanish. Practising a craft can awaken a dormant talent. Conversely, too much practising can kill it. Such matters are incalculable, and much depends on coincidence and luck.

I think that operating Morse Code is kind of like this. Most everyone can learn how to send and receive the code, but not everyone is going to be able to operate at 50+ words per minute. To do that, it takes some talent. But, even if you have a talent for the code, you need to practice to realize that talent.

As for awakening a dormant talent, you may never know that you have a talent for Morse Code unless you try it. Back in the 1970s, we didn’t have a choice as to whether we wanted to try it or not. That’s not the case today, so if you’re a licensed radio amateur, I’d encourage you to give it a try. It might wake up that CW operator inside you.

As far as too much practice killing your desire to operate Morse Code, I’d say that there’s some truth in that, too. If you think that you’re overdoing it, back off a little. Knowing Morse Code is not a matter of life and death, after all. It’s just another part of our hobby, and hobbies are supposed to be fun.

Stuff I’ve been meaning to read/watch: The Divided Dial, portable antennas, head copy

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Here are three things that I’ve had open tabs for in my browser for a week or more…….Dan

WNYC: Tuning into The Divided Dial

The Divided Dial is a podcast whose second season discusses the current state of the shortwave bands. This video is a look behind the scenes and a recap of the season.

Portable-Antennas.Com

portable-antennas.com is a non-commercial collection of easy-to-use online tools to develop and analyze wire antennas that are especially suitable for portable use. The tools were developed by Rob, DM1CM. I haven’t used many of the tools yet, but I’m certainly going to be analyzing my 66-ft. doublet with the tools on this site.

Antenna pattern diagrams.
Here are a couple of antenna patterns generated by the tools on portable-antennas.com

Head Copy CW, An Alternative Method: “Phonic Copy”

To copy Morse Code at speeds above 18-20 words per minute, you have to be able to copy code in your head. Most people simply can’t write faster than that. So, the question is how does one learn how to head copy?

In this article, Paul, N6EV, proposes the “phonic copy” method.  He writes:

Code is an aural representation of a phonic sound.” Each Morse Code element represents the phonic sound of a corresponding letter, not the letter itself.  This means, as elements (letters / numbers) are received, they are phonically pronounced in the speech / aural portion of the mind (the auditory cortex) rather than visualized graphically as letters or  whole words in the written / visual portion of the mind (the visual cortex).

I like this approach. I think it most closely represents the process that I use.

Two operating tips for new POTA CW Ops

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Parks on the Air (POTA) logoOne of the cool things about Parks on the Air (POTA) is that the simple exchange  and lack of rules is encouraging some operators to try their hand at CW. Not only are some of newer operators working POTA, they’re also making regular CW QSOs as well. This is great for all CW ops as it increases activity on the bands.

The problem is that newer ops are not often familiar with common operating procedures, and the lack of rules can be confusing to new ops. For example, the POTA protocol is for “hunters” to send their call once when responding to a CQ POTA. Most of the time, the activators are able to get the call the first time, but if there is some fading or several stations call at the same, they might miss the call or not get the complete call.

When that happens, the protocol is for the CQing station to send “?” or “QRZ?” This means that the hunter should repeat their call sign. Many newer operators don’t seem to understand this, though, and they get confused. So, if you’re hunting, and you hear “?” or “QRZ?” jump right in there again with your call sign.

If the activator sends a partial call sign followed by a question mark, only reply if that partial call sign matches your call sign. For example, if an activator sent “KEB?” I’d know not to respond because that string isn’t part of my call sign. On the other hand, if the activator sent “KB6?” I’d know that they heard me, and I’d’ jump right in and send my call sign again. I’d maybe even send it twice for good measure.

Be patient

My second tip is to be patient with an activator. If they don’t reply to you on the first call, try again. Any number of things might cause an activator to not hear you, or they may hear you, but decide to reply to someone else first. Don’t disappear on the activator. Just wait till they’ve completed the QSO and try again. The activator wants to work you as much as you want to contact them.

When you call the second time, maybe try sending a little slower. That might help the activator pick you out of the noise or the pileup.

These are some tips that I’ve picked up over the years. I hope that you found them useful, and that they will help you make more CW POTA contacts.

 

Instant Character Recognition is the key to CW speed

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My friend, Rick, K8BMA, sent me an email this morning that included Nancy, WZ8C’s, article on instant character recognition. This article is often cited as gospel when it comes to learning Morse Code. While I agree with her thesis that instant character recognition (ICR), I’m not sure that her advice to “overlearn” Morse Code is any better than my mantra, which is “practice, practice, practice.”

I replied to Rick, “While I agree that instant character recognition is the key, the question is how to learn how to do that? I’m not sure that WZ8C’s approach will really do the trick. You’ve done a lot of code-practice type programs, perhaps you could write a program inspired by her comments. If you really wanted to get fancy, you could even incorporate speech recognition so that that program recognizes what the student is saying. And, once the student achieves ICR for the entire alphabet, you can move on to words.”

Of course, that got me thinking that this has probably already been done before, so I did an internet search and came up with the following:

  • Morse Code World: Instant Character Recognition. This online tool seems to be very comprehensive. It allows you to choose character sets from several different code courses (CWops, LICW, LCWO, and Koch) and different feedback methods. It also lets you set the recognition time (WZ8C suggests 500 ms).
  • WA7PGE: Instant Character Recognition. This is a command-line driven tool. If you’re not familiar with using the command line to run programs, you might want to skip this one.
  • Morse Code Ninja Modern Code Course. Kurt, ADoWE’s code course contains both instant character recognition and instant word recognition.

If you use any of these programs, let me know how you like it. Either comment below or email me directly.

Operating Notes: Why do people tune up on your frequency?

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A couple of days ago, I was calling CQ on 40 meters, when someone decided they wanted to tune up on my frequency. He had a very strong signal, so it was unlikely that he hadn’t heard me calling CQ. The band wasn’t crowded, so I simply moved up a kHz and began calling again, but I just don’t understand why people do that.

After one or two calls on my new frequency, I get a call from the guy who tuned up on top of me earlier. I know this because he told me that if I’d waited another 10 seconds, he would have answered my CQ earlier.

I explained to him that there was no way for me to know if he was going to call me or not, and that more often than not, stations tuning up tend to just disappear. All I knew is that there was a strong station tuning up on my frequency, and not only that, his tuning up was preventing other stations from calling me.

He seemed to get the idea and apologized.

Ham radio is no place for politics

We proceeded to have a generally nice contact. At one point, however, he mentioned that he had watched Trump’s speech earlier, and while I forget his exact words, I got the impression that he generally approved of the speech. I was a bit taken aback at this. It’s just not good practice to discuss politics on the air, especially on CW!

I simply ignored the comment and moved on to other topics. I’d suggest that you do the same, whether these comments are made on 40-meter CW or 2-meter FM.

CQ SALK

On Mastodon last night, I saw a post from N3VEM about the Narwhal Amateur Radio Society’s Polio on the Air operating event. According to the NARS website, the operating event is a  “celebration of the 70th anniversary of the April 12, 1955 US approval of the Salk polio vaccine.” It will run from April 5 – 19, 2025.

Being a member of a Rotary club here in Ann Arbor, this really piqued my interest. Rotary International has been working to eradicate polio for nearly 40 years now, and as a result of our efforts to vaccinate children all over the world, we’re very close to doing so. And, in the past, I’ve set up and operated a special event station to commemorate the founding of Rotary and make people aware of our End Polio Now project.

NARS will be operating five special event stations—W7P, W7O, W7L, W7I, and W0O—during that time. They also say, “Make contact with one, get a QSL card. Make contact with all five, get five QSL cards—and something really neat happens if you collect all five!”

One of the unique aspects of this special operating event is that you can sign up to use one of the special event callsigns as well as hunt the special event stations. See the Polio on the Air web page for details on how to do so. I plan to sign up for several hours and operate CW, of course.

Operating notes: Straight Key Night 2025, freezing rain halts operation, are end-feds poor receiving antennas?

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First of all, Happy New Year to everyone!

Straight Key Night 2025: 10 QSOs

I was going to start this portion of my blog post with a little of the history of Straight Key Night (SKN). Unfortunately, there is none to be found on the internet. Perhaps that’s some thing that someone at the ARRL can remedy by the time SKN rolls around next year.

A Bunnel #9 straight key, like the one on I used for this year’s Straight Key Night.

This year, I operated SKN with my Bunnell #9 key (see right). This is a great little key, with a very nice action. I’m not sure how old my key is, but it still operates flawlessly.

First, I had to find a cable for it. Fortunately, I already had a two-conductor cable with a 1/4-in. phone plug on it, so all I had to do was crimp a couple of terminal onto the bare wires at the cable’s other end. In about 15 minutes, I was on the air.

Conditions were a little up and down on 40 meters, due to a geomagnetic storm, but even so, I managed to make eight contacts Tuesday night. I even “ran” the frequency I was on for a bit. Twice I called “QRZ?” after ending a contact and had someone come back to me. Wednesday morning, I got on again and made two contacts before deciding to call it quits.

The highlight of SKN for me was my contact with KE4GBE. He said that listening to my previous QSO had prompted him to dig out his straight key and that it was his first straight key QSO in over 25 years!

Freezing rain halts operation

About a week ago, we had some freezing rain here in southeast Michigan. Normally, when my 450 Ω window line feedline gets wet, I have to adjust my antenna tuner. This time, though, I couldn’t get SWR down enough to be comfortable operating. I just shut things down for the night.

Several years ago, I purchased a 43-ft. vertical antenna, but never did put it up. I’m going to have to set that up, so that I can get on the air even when there’s freezing rain.

Are end-feds poor receiving antennas?

I’ve never been a big fan of end-fed antennas, but I can certainly see their appeal. They are easy to set up, don’t require a long feedline, and can be quite stealthy.

I think that one disadvantage might be that they don’t receive as well as center-fed antennas. I have no science to back this up, but more times than not, when someone gives me a report where my signal strength is less than what I give the other station, they’re using an end-fed half-wave antenna or an end-fed random wire antenna.

I’d be interested in hearing what your experience has been. Does this hold true for you, too?