When I have lunch with my friends Paul, KW1L, and Rick, K8BMA, we inevitably start talking about CW at some point. Yesterday was no exception. After we had eaten our chicken chimichangas and shrimp burritos, somehow the new ARRL CW code proficiency certificates came up again.
Paul is still baffled as to how one can copy at 20 wpm “by hand,” much less at higher speeds. He says that he even went so far as to find a pen with the lowest friction so he could write faster. Alas, 20 wpm proved elusive with the low-friction writing implement, too.
I thought we had answered this question a month ago when the ARRL announced the new awards. At that time, I queried Norm, W3IZ, about this, and he replied that typing the copy was perfectly fine. Paul noted, however, that he can’t touch type.
At that point, the conversation took a different tack. We started talking about how one could cheat on the qualifying runs. You could, of course, record them and then play them back at a speed you can copy. You could also edit the copy before you send it in to the ARRL to catch any obvious mistakes. After several minutes of this, I quoted Norm, who said, “It’s not a contest but a personal achievement so, if a guy cheats, that’s on him.” I also noted that this isn’t DXCC!
Not being satisfied with that answer, one of us proposed that recipients of the code proficiency certificates should be randomly tested to ensure that they really can copy at 20 wpm, 30 wpm, or whatever speed they claim. To do this random testing, we will need to add this to the duties of the current Volunteer Examiner corps, or, as I proposed, set up a new CW Police Force (CWPF). Conceptually, the job of these CW cops will be to randomly choose and test recipients of the CW Proficiency Certificates, and should the recipient fail the check test, require the recipient to return the certificate or endorsements.
This proposal is not without its own challenges. For example, how will we ensure that the CWPF members are actually qualified to give the test? And, how will the CWPF retrieve CW proficiency certificates and endorsements if the cheaters don’t voluntarily give them up? It’s highly doubtful that any judge would issue a search warrant to the CWPF.
As if that weren’t enough, as we were leaving the restaurant, another issue came up. Paul said, “You know what. In all this talk about verifying whether or not someone can copy proficiently enough to earn a certificate, we haven’t discussed another very important issue.”
“What’s that?” I said.
“We haven’t said anything about whether or not someone can send proficiently,” he replied. After having a good laugh at that, we decided to table the motion, got in our cars, and went our merry ways. No doubt this will come up again when we next meet for chips and salsa.
This is a hobby, it is supposed to be fun. Who gets hurt if someone cheats on a proficiency certificate? So what if I have a certificate that says that I have copied 20 wpm in one instance of time and two years later I’m too rusty to do so?
Time for chill pill.
This was meant to be humorous, Ed.
CW Cops? forget about it, it’ll go the same way of the OO’s, I have heard first hand of OO’s that sent out notices and had the person actually call them and curse them out.
I have a code proficiency certificate from the 70’s for 25wpm, I used a typewriter, after all I had been a Radioman in the Navy and that was how I learned to copy code, that was the copy that was sent in, what I had typed, when I copy the Field Day messages I do it with my computer keyboard, although the arthritis is making it more difficult each year.
Before we make a big thing out of this Norm makes a good point, It’s not DXCC or a contest, it is the personal pride and integrity of the operator saying “I did this, this is my skill and I am proud of it”.
IMHO I wish they would bring back the Navy Fleet Broadcasts or the news broadcasts, W1AW comes close with their nightly code practice, instead of a minute they send several and reference the pages from QST, when I went for my 20wpm Extra I copied W1AW every evening with a pencil. At the time the receiving test for Extra was copying a couple of paragraphs and then taking a multiple question test on what they had sent, how many tubes were in the receiver, things like that. After passing that test you were allowed to take the written.
IMHO more concentration and emphasis should be placed on sending, your on the air voice for CW. Does anyone remember what the Japanese did before Pearl Harbor? They replaced the regular operators on their ships with different ones, Naval Intelligence was able to identify ships by their operators, the Japanese switched operators to fool observers that if they heard so and so, he was on such and such a ship and he was still in Japan, todays exception is keyers and canned contest messages.
As an additional note, when the Kenwood TS-480 first came out there were problems with the internal keyer, factory settings caused problems, adjustments were needed, one of the reasons I use a K!EL WinKeyer USB along with my Vibroplex bug.
For those that want to practice, code oscillator kits are out there, that’s right, build one, or if you already have a key and transceiver, practice sending into your dummy load rather than putting a signal on the air, yes dummy loads are still a must for any shack.
I’d be open for comments and suggestions, 73 John K2IZ
>Paul is still baffled as to how one can copy at 20 wpm “by hand,” much less at higher speeds.
At age 20 I took the Extra Class exam and had to copy 20 wpm, easily done at that age using a Scripto mechanical pencil. I can copy considerably faster than that now at age 84, in my head, but doubt I can write even 20 wpm any more. Of course if you can copy behind and hold a minute’s worth of copy in your head, you can take as long as you want to write it down. I could and still can copy behind, but not that far behind!
A group of hams I had lunch with had a similar conversation. The main difference is that we had a few beers with the burritos. I learned a long time ago I don’t copy cw as well after a couple beers.
Sounds like we ought to get your lunch group together with our lunch group. :)
I can’t copy code, but I don’t know if there is even a need for a proficiency award for it. They don’t give out phone or digital proficiency awards. Just my 2 cents. 😊
You have a point there, David. Maybe there should be proficiency awards for phone and digital. What would those consist of?
Any military radio operator should be eligible for a phone proficiency award, back in ’67 we had an EC-121 Hurricane Hunter inbound to NAF Lajes Field Azores, when they finally landed the radioman stopped by the shack, he apologized for the hard time we had, he had to send a long message, 5 letter code groups, and he had to do it on voice, he said the 121 was bouncing around so badly code was impossible, this was done between the 40 and 30 meter band, lots of QRN and QSB but he had to get the message out, they were not certain they were going to make it to our base.
Since code is no longer required, I had to pass it for my Extra, it’s kind of a nice piece of wall paper for the shack, along with my old ORS, OPS, OO, SCM/SM certificates, I’m the only one that sees them, brings back nice memories.
Dan,
You may need to put a *sarcasm alert* preface to your humorous pieces. Until you replied to another commenter that you were joking, I was more than half-inclined to take you seriously. You have a reputation for being a bit brusque in your commentary.
I guess that’s the problem with today’s world, it seems. Folks can propose what seems the most preposterous things, and it’s hard to tell if they are really serious or not. What’s worse, they frequently are.
73,
— Dave, N8SBE
Heh. I still get email about my April Fool’s post on the FCC bringing back the Morse Code test.