CW

If you’ve read this blog at all, you know I’m a big proponent of CW. For me, it’s just a lot of fun. I ragchew, work DX, and participate in contests using CW.

One thing I have not done yet with CW is to operate in a net. So, I’m making it a goal to regularly participate in one or more CW nets. Now, the next question is how to find them. Well, one resource is the KI8DU CW Nets page. It seems reasonably up-to-date, although a few of the links to net webpages were broken.

One drawback is that most of the nets are on 80m, and I don’t have an antenna for 80m. (I guess I need to make that a goal for myself, too). There are, however, a few on 40 m, including:

• Hit and Bounce Net (HBN): 7.042 MHz @ 8:30 am EST
• Sunrise Net (SRN): 7.148 MHz @ 8am EST
• K9YA Fast Net: first Wednesday of the month at 7:00 pm on 7.137 MHz. They also have a slow net on the second, third, and fourth Wednesday of each month.

Update 2-3-05: I’ve now checked into the Sunrise Net a couple of times, and can report that they are a nice bunch of people. The Sunrise Net is a ragchew net, meaning that formal operating procedures are at a minimum. You check in when the net control station (NCS) calls for check-ins, and then when he or she calls you, you swap a transmission or two with them. I suppose that the NCS goes around the list a second time, but I checked out after my first transmission.

Tuesday morning, Dortha N4SHE was net control (another one to add to my collection of QSLS from stations whose calls spell words). She was 599 here in Ann Arbor. This morning, Ralph K8KQ, was NCS. He was more difficult to copy as the skip was longer than usual in the morning.

Wednesday morning, I monitored the Hit and Bounce Net for a while. This is a formal, traffic-handling net. Not being that familiar with the protocol, and not having any traffic to pass, I did not check in to this net. I will continue to monitor it from time to time, though, and maybe jump in there one day.

I really should put up some kind of antenna for 80m. Not only are there many more nets on 80m, conditions on 80m are much better in the evenings than they are on 40m at this time of year. Late last night, I heard next to nothing on 40m, but plenty on 80m. I guess the skip is just too long on 40m.

The latest addition to my arsenal of CW-sending implements is a Vibroplex VibroKeyer. It’s used, but it works like a champ. Mine is somewhat different from the current production model. Instead of a shiny chrome base, mine is painted beige. Also, the nameplate is mounted so that it faces the right side of the base instead of being mounted in the middle.

The guy who sold me the VibroKeyer did not know how old it was, but by going to the Dating Your Vibroplex page, it appears that the VibroKeyer was first made in 1960, and my unit–s/n 260,385–was made in 1969. It’s still in pretty good shape for a 35 year old paddle. Aside from some scratches on the base, it looks almost brand new. The deluxe version has a jewelled movement and the action of the paddle is still quite smooth.

The VibroKeyer is not a bug, as you might think, but instead a single-lever paddle to be used with a keyer. That’s one of the reasons it wasn’t made until 1960. This is when electronic keyers were starting to become more popular.

The single-lever paddle differs from the iambic paddle in that only one contact can be closed at any one time. That’s kind of a negative if you’re used to operating in iambic mode, but since I’ve only been able to master the iambic mode when sending Q and Y, it’s not that big a deal.

Overall, I’m quite happy with my purchase. I paid $60 for a paddle that currently costs about $150 new, and it works really well. You can’t beat that.

I spent a lot of the years I was inactive as a ham riding a bicycle, racking up close to 1,000 miles every year. I did many of those miles with the Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society (AABTS). On a typical AABTS ride, you’ll find riders at all levels: speedsters, plodders, and all those in-between. You often hear the slower riders wondering, “Why do those guys ride so fast, anyway? What’s their hurry”? The answer always given is “We ride fast because we can.”

Now, I was never a true “A” rider, but at one point, I was just good enough to hang with the big boys for a little while, anyway, and I can understand that answer. It’s a real rush when your muscles mesh with your machine and you find yourself flying along at 20+ miles per hour in a paceline.

What does this have to do with ham radio? Well, working CW is kind of the same thing. First of all those that don’t work CW are always wondering why we even bother. In the bike world, the answer is, “Because it’s fun.” It’s the same with CW. We use Morse code it because it’s fun.

Once you get past that, the next thing some CW ops hear is, “What’s the sense in operating so fast?” To that, the only answer is, “We do it because we can.” Just as it makes little sense to ride a bicycle at 20+ miles per hour, there aren’t that many good reasons to operate CW at 20+ words per minute, but the QRQ CW ops do it because they can.

Just as I don’t pretend to have been an “A” bike rider, I don’t pretend to be a QRQ CW operator. At best, I’m currently running at 25 wpm.

I do have flashes, though, of what it must be like to go really fast. Sometimes, I’ll tune into a QSO proceeding at perhaps 30 words per minute, and I’ll actually be able to copy a sentence or two of it. Maybe I’ll even get most of a transmission. I feel like I’m actually copying words and not characters. When I can do that, I get the same kind of rush that I get when I’m on the back of a fast paceline.

Even though I never quite made it as an A rider, I still have hopes of making it as a QRQ CW operator. Becoming an A rider means spending a lot of time on the bike. Becoming a QRQ CW operator means spending a lot of time wearing headphones and banging on a paddle. The question is whether or not I have the time or the desire to it.

A couple of days ago, I had a contact that I could only describe as “macho CW.” We were both using keyers at 20+ wpm, and it was clear that neither of us was copying the other 100%, but neither of us would ask the other to slow down. The one doing that would be, of course, admitting that the other was the better operator.

Something similar happens in the cycling world. Sometimes two or more riders will be in a pack, cranking along at a pace that none of them can really sustain, but none of them wants to be the wimp that asks the group to slow down. What usually happens in that case is that the slower riders eventually just give up as they tire out.

Since operating CW isn’t such a physically tiring activity, what usually happens is that one of the operators says something like, “SRI OM, MUST QRT NW” or “XYL CALLING ME TO DINNER.” It’s a way of saving face. The contact ends with neither operator admitting defeat.

This is, of course, poor operating practice, and I won’t try to justify my behavior, except to say, that if it were an emergency situation, I doubt that I would have been so stupid. If the communication definitely had to be made, I would not have been too proud to ask the other op to QRS. At least I think so….

In ham radio parlance, someone is said to have a “good fist” when they send code properly. Today, I worked a guy with a great fist — KB5AA.

It’s really a joy to work an operator with a good fist. You can concentrate on the message and not the code, and you can copy a lot faster, too, meaning more information flows in a shorter period of time.

I think the essence of a good fist is proper spacing, both of the character elements and of the characters and words themselves. Poor ops will “slur” characters together. You find yourself wondering, “Was that a ‘K’ or ‘NT'”? The problem is that ops who send like this make you think of the code and not the message. Once you’ve deciphered the code, you then have to read the message.

Proper spacing is also important for words. If you want the op at the other end to copy, “THE NEW,” for example, make sure to include a word space between the first E and the N. If you don’t do this, the op might copy your code as “THEN EW…”

It is also, of course, important to make as few mistakes as possible, but imho, proper spacing is more important. Just as a reader will automatically correct misspellings, so will an op correct missent characters as long as the characters themselves are sent properly. The reason for this is that the receiving op doesn’t have to decipher the characters you sent, but can instead concentrate on the message you’re trying to get across.

Would you like to recognize an op with a good fist? Just add a comment below. Tnx & 73!