This is the third 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
Calling CQ
If you don’t hear anyone calling CQ and you still want to make a contact, you can call CQ yourself. The first thing that you need to do is to find a clear frequency. Tune around and find a spot at least 1 kHz away from the nearest station. Then, before you actually send CQ, send the Q-signal QRL? QRL is a Q-signal that means, “Is this frequency in use?” (For a list of other Q-signals commonly used in amateur radio contacts, refer to the Appendix.)
If no one responds to your QRL? with “QRL” or “C” or “YES” or a callsign, you can then start calling CQ. Some books advise using the “3 x 3 x3” method. This consists of sending CQ three times, followed by sending your call three times, and repeating this entire process three times:
CQ CQ CQ DE KB6NU KB6NU KB6NU CQ CQ CQ DE KB6NU KB6NU KB6NU CQ CQ CQ DE KB6NU KB6NU KB6NU K
I find this to be entirely too long. Instead, I send CQ four times, followed by my callsign three times:
CQ CQ CQ CQ DE KB6NU KB6NU KB6NU K
After sending this, pause to listen for replies. Keep in mind that a station replying to your CQ may not be exactly on the same frequency that you transmitted on. Tune up and down a few kHz, listening for replies to your CQ.
Tail-ending
Another way to make contact with another station is “tail-ending.” To tail-end a contact, simply wait until two stations that are conversing have finished their contact, then call one or the other. If the station you called can hear you, and is available for another contact, chances are he will reply to your call.
You should not call a station, if he or she ended his final transmission with the prosign “CL.” This prosign means that the station is closing down, or in other words going off the air.
Breaking in
Another way to make contact is to break into an existing contact. You would do this in much the same way that you break into a voice contact. That is, you would send the prosign BK or your callsign when one of the stations has turned it over to the other station. Then, wait for one of the stations already engaged in the contact to acknowledge you.
While this is a perfectly appropriate thing to do, it rarely happens in CW operation, certainly much less often than say 2m FM operation. I’m not exactly sure why this is the case. Perhaps one reason for this is that when most hams had separate transmitters and receivers, break-in operation was not a common practice, and this practice simply continued on to this day.
Whatever the reason, the point I’m trying to make is that should you try to break into a contact, don’t be surprised if you’re not acknowledged and asked to join the contact. It’s not that the two operators are shunning you. They may just not have experienced someone trying to break into a contact and not know how to respond.
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