CW

Don’t wait for the CW test to be eliminated to upgrade. It’s really not that tough, and you can do it. On the SolidCpyCW mailing list, Greg O’Brien, NE1OB, a Volunteer Examiner, offered the following tips:

• Things to remember:
  • The format of the code sent is an exchange in a typical QSO.
  • After VVV VVV, the test will begin with callsign de callsign.
  • It will end with callsign de callsign plus appropriate prosigns. So, you will have two chances to get the callsigns correctly.
  • Usually one callsign will contain a “/”, for instance k1pid/7 or ne1ob/m.
  • Each exam will contain all 40 characters(A-Z, 0-9 ‘/’, ‘?’, ‘.’, ‘,’) and prosigns (‘AR’, ‘SK’, and sometimes ‘BT’).
  • You need 25 characters in a row BUT numbers and punctuation and prosigns count as two characters.
  • Spaces do not count.
• Other elements commonly included in the QSO exchange:
  • rig (so know the common manufacturers, including Icom, Yaesu, and Kenwood),
  • power (this is where the digits are used so it probably wont be 100),
  • type of antenna (dipole, loop, vee, yagi etc.),
  • antenna height (digits here),
  • QTH (Don’t count on the state matching the town, and the comma will probably be between the city and state),
  • caller and called ham’s names.
• The above elements plus the callsigns will be the basis of the 10 questions. When you answer the questions, enter the answer exactly like it was sent. If “California” was sent, don’t write “CA” or “Calif” as the answer.
• Things to study before the exam:
  • Practice numbers and punctuation and prosigns to death. They count double, you cannot usually figure them out from context, and you probably spent more time on the letters.
  • Practice callsigns – callsigns are hard. They contain numbers and ‘/’. They come at the beginning of the transmission and if you have trouble with them, it may wreck you confidence for a while.
  • Learn the common manufacturers and models.
  • Review the common antenna types.
• Key advice for the exam:
  • Relax. Take a deep breath. Shake it out. Just imagine you are in your normal practice environment. (I know that it’s easier to say then do .)
  • There will be a one minute warm-up before the 5 minute transmission. Make sure the volume is comfortable for you. Copy the warm-up to get loose.
  • When you miss a character, just leave a space or an underline. Don’t try to replay it in your mind. You can fill it in later.
  • At the end of the code sending, you will have time to review your copy and fill in those blanks you left. Use all your puzzle solving skills.
  • Do your best on the 10 questions even if you think there is no way.
• Remember, the VEs want you to pass.

Greg also notes, “for a detailed look at a sample exam and more tips see the AC6V website.”

In Sydney, Australia, the Powerhouse Museum staged a contest that pitted the oldest type of electronic text messages with the newest–Morse Code vs. instant messaging. Winning the race was 93-year-old telegraph operator Gordon Hill, who learned Morse Code in 1927 and worked for the Australian Post Office. He easily beat Brittany Devlin, his 13-year-old rival, , who used a mobile phone and text messaging shorthand. Mr Hill, whose messages were transcribed by another telegraph veteran, Jack Gibson, 82, then repeated the feat against three other children and teenagers with mobile phones.

Read the complete report at
http://www.160characters.org/news.php?action=view&nid=1541.

Well, for the past 24 hours, I have been masquerading as KN0WCW.

KN0WCW is the callsign, appropriately enough, of the Fists CW Club. I operated for approximately two and a half hours, making 12 contacts in 10 states. All of my contacts were on 40m, as that was the most appropriate band at the times I was on.

It was a lot of fun. Two of the 12 stations I’d worked before, one of them many times. He was quite surprised to hear that it was me using the Fists call. Conversely, I was quite surprised to find out that he was a Fists member. In the dozen or so previous QSOs, he’d never mentioned it, and I had never asked.

I would encourage all Fists members to take a turn as KN0WCW. Not only was it fun, but it does promote Fists and the use of CW.

In the late 1800s, if you wanted to chat online, you had to do it with Morse Code. In the novel, Wired Love, a telegraph operator named Ella Cheever Thayer describes not only chatting online via the telegraph, but also a romance that develops between a female operator and a male operator down the line. In this radio essay, writer Paul Collins describes how it was to work as a telegrapher at that time. It also includes a few excerpts from the novel. It’s very interesting.

As a followup, Dean Olscher interviews Mel Schneider K2KEY. Mel, who is vice president of the Kings County Radio Club, talks about ham radio and how hams communicate with Morse Code. The report describes the differences between American Morse Code, which was used by the landline telegraphers here in the U.S. and the International Morse Code, which was used by telegraphers elsewhere around the world and by the maritime operators.

Samuel F.B. Morse, for whom the Morse Code is named was born 214 years ago today. But we should perhaps be calling it the Vail Code instead, as Craig W3CRR recently pointed out on the ARRL’s PR Mailing List:

Curiously, Samuel F.B. Morse didn’t actually invent the “Morse” code. Alfred Vail did. Morse’s original idea was to assign discrete number codes to hundreds of commonly used words. Vail, after witnessing a telegraphy demonstration by Morse, befriended Samuel and worked out the far more practical code system whereby each letter of the alphabet is represented by a series of long and short closings of a switch (which became the famous Vail Correspondent telegraph key). The complexity of each letter’s code was determined in part by its frequency of use in written communications — which is why “e”, the most commonly used letter, is represented by a single “dit”.

So, actually, we should call our code the “Vail Code”.Vail, however, was generous and modest enough to allow Morse — who publicized his technology (greatly enhanced by Vail) and Vail’s Code — to take the credit. Vail did share in the considerable profits of their joint venture, though.

My source for this information is a wonderful book entitled “Signor Marconi’s Magic Box” by British journalist Gavin Weightman. It was published by Da Capo Press in 2003. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of wireless communications.

Recently, Ray Goff G4FON added MP3 generation to his brilliant Koch CW Trainer program. Now, Nigel Gunn G8IFF/KC8NHF is using that feature to make available the newsletter of the Flying Pigs QRP Club International–Bacon Bits Quarterly (BBQ)–in CW format. The files are a bit on the large side–part 1 of the April editorial was a bit over 20 Mbytes, but the code is beautiful. I’ve suggested to Nigel that he may want to zip the files as that makes them quite a bit smaller.

Try these to get a feel for how rhytmic CW can be:

• BENS BEST BENT WIRE
• BEST BEEF ESSENCE
• BEST BENT WIRE /5

I got all of these from the wonderful Elecraft mailing list. Just click on the list items to download a zipped mp3 file. I’m sorry about the zip, but it was the only way to make the file small enough to be easily downloadable. Zipped, these files are about 60 kbytes; unzipped, they’re over 2.5 Mbytes.