Unfortunately not all chasers are as polite as they should be.
Ken
One in particular really rattled my cage today (again).
I don’t now whether his keyer is stuck to send everything 3 times in a continuous loop or not, but it wears everyone down. (I’m sure you know who I’m talking about)
The problem is if you ignore him it causes QRM for everyone else and if you work him he’s won the game. Saying that, today I woriked him straight away and he returned 5 minutes later to start all over again!
Any way I digress.
Well done Simon it only gets easier from here on in…
Simon, big congrats on the CW activation! That’s the hardest part over with, especially braving 40m!
You may be using these already but if not you might be interested in http://www.lcwo.net/ - it’s good for some receiving practice if you’re at the computer and it has some good challenges to stop any boredom.
For callsigns, contest-style QSOs and more realistic ‘real world’ operating conditions I also like Pileup Runner DX Atlas: Amateur Radio software which is a free program; you can set different levels of QRM, weak signals, fading signals, etc so there’s always a challenge. It takes a bit to learn the program but I think it’s well worth it.
Now you’ve taken that first step though just enjoy using it on the air. Don’t be afraid to key ‘QRS’ to get people to slow down. Even with the excitement of a SOTA activation very very few CW operators will mind one bit; bear in mind chasers will usually be warm and comfortable in their shacks with a perfectly set key on their desk as opposed to using a key balanced on the knee in the rain with half frozen fingers One of the most rewarding CW QSOs I’ve ever had in fact was with a UK station calling at about 1wpm on 80m. It took about an hour to complete but it was well worth it! The other thing to remember is that unless you’re pretty much world class (EHSC etc.) whatever level you get to there’ll always be someone who replies faster than you can copy. There’s no shame in asking to please QRS!
Thanks for the suggestions. I am working on LCWO but I was also desperate to get out on the hill…
Let me make it perfectly clear that my choice of 40M was not brave but entirely based upon lack of knowledge. there are many instances in history where ‘bravery’ can actually be attrubited to ‘being unaware of all the facts’
The KX3 does seem to be the tx of choice. I worked really hard last year (see the lack of SOTA) so this is my reward, all I have to do now is learn how to use it.
I did have a sly grin, as I tried to remember how to switch it on, that a KX3 will probably never have sent such poor CW before
I can’t wait to do it again but today is booked to goto the Park Hall County Park show near Stoke-on-Trent.
I agree with you Simon, the best kind of practice that gives the fastest improvement rate is real SOTA activating. So try to get a couple in every week and your receiving will come on quickly. The sending will take care of itself. I would always use a paddle for portable BTW. Straight key practice is definitely something for the comfort of the shack!
that I was then outside the VERY limited bolier plate that I had been
relying on and the reply was too much for me.
Yeah, that’s one of the problems I have with CW, too; someone comes back with name, location, rig, antenna, weather and RST all in one long stream, and I get lost really quickly.
Is there a handy Q-code for “Please keep it short and repeat important bits”?
if people slow right down to 8WPM or less it is actually harder to
read because I learned with 15WPM characters.
I am currently sticking to voice modes and perhaps the occasional data mode contact.
I learned CW back in 1986 purely to get access to HF - I found it hard to get to 12WPM doing just PL and separate Numbers (all that was required for the test at the time) on-air soon after that I found it virtually impossible to cope with mixed PL, numbers and other symbols etc (that I never learned) - I made just a few contacts on HF CW in 1986 and then never used CW again until about 2006 when I struggled to make 3 CW contacts with stations on 6m Sporadic (I cheated on Rx using the Computer and sent by hand, but only just managed to send enough of my Call,RST and locator to count as a contact).
Whilst I Know that I am missing out on quite a lot of possible contacts (SOTA and DX), as we all know there are lots of things that you can do with Ham Radio, but for me CW is not one that I am keen to resume.
Well done Simon, you’ve done the hardest thing… go on the air for your 1st SOTA CW contacts. Better still you succeeded. The next hardest thing to do is to go on the air again after your 1st time experiences!
40m SOTA CW is daunting because irrespective of skip length you either hit the UK which is full of chasers or Europe which is full of chasers or both which is double full of chasers. 20m is just as bad (or good depending on your viewpoint) as SOTA is more and more popular worldwide. Maybe 17/15m would be quieter for you but there you may be confused (as I have been) by hearing DX callsign prefixes which are probably outwith the callsigns you have practiced on.
My CW is not brilliant. I can do SOTA activations at 18-20wpm. I cannot ragchew. I just loose concentration and the will to live if someone starts sending me their life history. But that doesn’t really happen on SOTA as it’s akin to contest exchanges.
I understand what you say about 15wpm chars sounding better than 8wpm. But if you can’t cope with a run of chars at 15wpm without gaps then you probably need to grin and bear it and slow down to 11wpm and build up from there. Practice with lcwo.net, the callsign practice is great. Also I have Morserunner installed which is more realistic to being on air. The problem with computers is that they’re easy compared to the real world. You get people who send bad Morse, people who don’t listen, QSB, QRM and people who wont slow down. So you just have to learn to work through that by going on the air a lot.
It’s important you remember something that Roy G4SSH said. His words gave me the impetus to finally have a bash at SOTA CW. “The chasers don’t care how bad your Morse is and how often you ask for a repeat, they simply want the points and the summit.” Now that’s portrays them as mercenaries who would sell their mother for a QSO (some would!) But what it really means is that they will try their best to help you help them get the points.
And it’s fun. I can remember my first time calling CQ SOTA on 40m CW and working OK1KT. His Morse was effortlessly easy to copy. I can remember being on top of Stob a’Choire Odhair and working a pileup on 40m and announcing a QSY to 20m. I sent a few dits whilst checking the match on the antenna and hearing someone send SOTA MM0FMF?? in reply before I’d called CQ! Plus hearing people you’ve encouraged to have a bash at CW calling you. So many things that really make the effort worthwhile. So I look forward to working you on 40m sometime soon.
I try to resist making “I Agree” type posts, but I learned morse years ago to get on HF, and have only recently started using it regularly. I got great encouragement from the many CW operators on here, old and new. Chasers are brilliant, too.
Definitely stick with it, it will get easier. I don’t think anyone else has suggested chasing a few summits on CW. I found it much less stressful to operate in the comfort of the shack, where you can copy all the details before calling! Also, you can practice pulling callsigns (or fragments of callsigns) out of someone else’s pileup, and get used to some of the regular exchange formats. It can be a good confidence boost, and make it all sound familliar on a summit. It is far less pressured than calling contest stations who get tetchy if you are not bang on!
One of the most rewarding CW QSOs I’ve ever had in fact was with a UK station calling at about 1wpm on 80m. It took about an hour to complete but it was well worth it! The other thing to remember is that unless you’re pretty much world class (EHSC etc.) whatever level you get to there’ll always be someone who replies faster than you can copy. There’s no shame in asking to please QRS!
