Lots of hams bemoan the aging of the hobby, and I suppose rightly so. If hams in general are getting older, then it’s even worse for CW operators. I’m 65 years old, and it seems that I rarely work anyone younger than me. Sometimes I wonder if there will be anyone to work in 10 – 12 years as we all age.
In the last week, though, I’ve worked a couple of guys in their 40s. So, maybe there’s some hope after all. At least I’ll be able to find CW QSOs for the foreseeable future.
Get rid of the long 0?
It’s a common practice when sending CW with a bug or a straight key to send a long dah instead of five dahs to send a 0. When using a paddle, however, that’s impossible to do, so many operators just send a single dah. So, instead of sending, “RIG HR FLEX 6400,” I would send “RIG HR FLEX 64TT.”
Lately, though, I’ve started to dislike doing that. So, from now on, I’m going to send all five dahs for a 0. Sending a single dah doesn’t really save all that much time and could be confusing to the other operator.
#16 in Field Day!
The ARRL has posted results for Field Day 2020, and I placed #16 in the U.S. in Category 1B – 1 Operator Battery. I’m quite happy with that result, but I know that I could have done better. For one thing, I should have figured out how to get on 80m. I also could have operated longer. I was only on the air for about 12 of the 24 possible hours.
I’m hoping, however, that I don’t need to do this again next year, though. I’d much rather have the big club Field Day that we’ve had in the past.
Grover K7TP says
The long O is from landline days, i.e. American Morse, where zero was a long dash. I like it.
Rick Barnich says
If used in context, I don’t have a problem with cut numbers. I would much rather receive 73TT instead of 7300 any day.
Rick K8BMA
Jeff, KE9V says
I think I prefer the T to 0 so long as the context is understandable. “1TT watts” seems preferable but I can see it either way.
Now if we really want to improve CW procedures, let’s outlaw “ABT”. Telling me your dipole is “ABT 30 FEET” off the ground is just wishy-washy. If it’s actually 28 feet or 32 feet I’ll never know and don’t care so just lie to me, call it 30 and lets be done with “ABT”.
Maybe we should be selling “Death to ABT” shirts? :-)
Dan KB6NU says
Well, I never give the height of my antenna, and if you ever saw my lot, then you’d know why. It’s just “ANT IS DOUBLET.”
Aaron says
I’m a 39 year old new ham. I was not aware of the demographics of the hobby before I got my ticket. I now have have a few hundred CW QSOs. Seems I’ve worked maybe two or three guys younger than me and one guy my exact age. I’ve also worked only one YL and I’m pretty sure she was not “young”. There seem to be a good number of young operators but they don’t seem to be on CW.