A reminder that the CQ World-Wide CW contest will take place this weekend from 0001 UTC on Saturday 24th to 2359 Sunday 25th November.
I would expect the first 100 KHz of the regular HF bands to be swamped with high power contest stations and anyone considering activating CW, SSB or PSK should bear this in mind.
40 metres in particular will probably be unusable for SOTA CW purposes. Only the WARC bands will be contest free. 30m is probably the best alternative to 40m CW.
I will keep a listening watch around 10.117 KHz to spot any SOTA activity over the weekend.
In reply to G4SSH:
Yes indeed Roy… and one can even embrace the opportunity (in between SOTA chasing on say 30m) to see how well you can do in the QRP category… and test your QRP set-up.
I worked 46 countries, including the US (although that is more likely the large antenna arrays at other end!) last year with 5 watts to a G5RV in just a few hours.
30m CW and 40m SSB were still FB for HF SOTA contacts this last weekend, as suggested above. What a massive (Massif?) signal from the ON activation - I just missed working them, for they went QRT while I was still in the queue, but a super signal, and another for the SWL log.
I had a few trawls around in the CQWW CW contest, and worked 45 DXCCs, including several new ones over the weekend. My speed was up to 18wpm by midnight last night, but whether that speed can be transferred to contacts more than the minimum exchange remains to be seen!
30m CW and 40m SSB were still FB for HF SOTA contacts this last
weekend, as suggested above. What a massive (Massif?) signal from the
ON activation - I just missed working them, for they went QRT while I
was still in the queue, but a super signal, and another for the SWL
log.
Likewise Tom - He was 59+20 here but coudn’t hear me in the qrm
I had a few trawls around in the CQWW CW contest, and worked 45 DXCCs,
including several new ones over the weekend. My speed was up to 18wpm
by midnight last night, but whether that speed can be transferred to
contacts more than the minimum exchange remains to be seen!
73, Tom
Had a couple of hours on 80m last night (50w to 60m doublet) only looking for dxcc’s - 21 in total but no new ones
As predicted Roy, 30m proved to be a winner with the contest in full swing over the weekend, a pity it’s not used more often for sota, although I note quite a few more stations seem to be using 30m now.
Indeed Mike, I would like to be able work the HA and OK QRP SOTA stations on 30m, who are inaudible to me on 40m at present.
Klaus DF2GN/p, Dan DH8DX/p, Lutz DJ3AX/p and Juerg HB9BAB/p all gave cracking signals on 30m over the weekend, whilst Dan & Juerg first cleared the more distant stations on 30m, then worked the reminder of the EU chasers on 7118 KHz
Tom
I heard you working the CW stations over the weekend and you have gained the confidence to jump in on the normal speed calls now.
If you continue to improve at this rate then Klaus will have to speed up to make the QSO.
I had a few trawls around in the CQWW CW contest, and worked 45 DXCCs,
including several new ones over the weekend. My speed was up to 18wpm
by midnight last night, but whether that speed can be transferred to
contacts more than the minimum exchange remains to be seen!
Well done Tom… good fun eh?
Amazingly in a few hours operating I ended up with exactly the same number of DXCC enities as last year without realising - 46… spooky!
I had a pang of guilt doing some S&P on 40M as I tuned though 7.032 to hear nothing but “TEST”. But hey, the really big CW contests don’t happen that often… and if it gets Tom up to 25wpm by the end of the year… it’s all good!
Thank you Roy. The CQWW CW was a really good training regime for me, and I could almost “feel” the speed increasing. I found myself increasing the keyer speed four times over the weekend, from 14wpm to 18wpm, as I kept irritating myself with what started to feel too slow! There were some incredibly fast stations in the contest that I had to give up with, because even after listening to several calls, I could still not be sure I had their callsign 100% correct.
Klaus didn’t reduce his speed for me as much as he normally does when I worked him, which was a good sign, and Dan didn’t seem significantly faster to me as he used to. There’s a lot more to CW than minimum SOTA or contest exchanges, so I have a long way to go yet, but my first obejctive - to be able to chase/activate SOTA CW - has been met.
Interestingly, my son Jimmy M3EYP, is starting to recognise words. He recognises:
M1EYP, M1EYP/P, M3EYP, M3EYP/P, SOTA, TEST, CQ, 599 and 73. He had a go on the Bencher paddle in the shack last night and was able to send CQ CQ at 10wpm after a bit of practice. I think we will stick to learning words rather than letters at the minute and build his vocab up. It would be nice if he furthered his current “passing interest” in CW.
Interestingly, my son Jimmy M3EYP, is starting to recognise words.
Sounds like a hardcore CW contester in the making… sign him up someone!
It’s so much easier to learn CW at that age (but I dont have to tell you that Tom)… I’m even trying to get my 5 year old daughter interested in CW although she still thinks it’s the computer that makes the noise and I have nothing to do with it!
Good to hear that that CW is gaining ground in another household Tom and good to read the comments regarding the contest.
Having only returned to the bands in August this year after a 30 year layoff, I am still at the lower end of the learning curve following all the changes. Being on the extreme East Coast in Ipswich, I find inter G working very difficult. I know my antennas are pretty basic and will improve them next spring. Just purchased a Comet CHA-250B because I only have a 65ft garden and dipoles are bent in a 'Z’shape. Because of the high noise level, just purchased the BHI NEIM1031 noise limiter which is brilliant, albeit better on SSB than CW. The Comet is currently at ground level but needs raising to 35ft.
Had to break my run of 40m SOTA contacts to work Dan on TH-528 this weekend on 30m, so will have a better chance of catching Roy on his all-CW list!
Regarding the contest, I was amazed at the amount of activity, showing that CW is still strong world-wide. I only managed 40 DXCC countries, but there were 4 new ones in there. The speeds that some stations were working was counter-productive in many ways because the slower stations were not bothering with them. It must be an ego trip for some! Did anyone manage to work Denmark/OZ? I never heard one all weekend. A plethora of Scandinavians and Eastern Europeans and even a couple of good IOTA stations. All in all, the biggest contest brought out the contacts.
Good to be back to SOTA next weekend and the Winter Bonus as well!!
Did anyone manage to work Denmark/OZ? I never heard one all
weekend.
I worked OZ5E 18:18z Sunday on 80m. They were very active all weekend. Andrew (old school pal)who holds the call says they had many visiting operators. He sent me the station claim today.
Callsign : OZ5E
Mode : CW
Category : Multi Operator - Two Transmitter (M2)
Overlay : Radio club
Band(s) : All bands (AB)
Class : High Power (HP)
Zone/State/… : 14
Locator : JN56VC
Operating time : 47h23
Very effective training software for increasing cw-speed (listening
callsigns) is “RUFZXP”
Yes Dan… and Morse Runner is good for contest style CW training too… slightly less stress than RUFZXP gives you but more sustained if you run it for a hour or so.
My “best” were really my new ones - CN, 5B4, EA6, EA8, IS0, plus USA (1st time on CW; wkd it on 20 and 10 SSB before) and ZB (only worked on 6 before).
I do have RUFZ Dan, but haven’t had a go for a while. It will be interesting to see what speed I can reach on it now.
I too was impressed at the sheer amount of activity in this contest. CW appears to be enjoying something of a renaissance - I don’t know if there are any worldwide figures to back this up (or disprove it). When the RSGB President visited the Macc club back in April, he showed us some UK figures that indicated a growth in use of CW since it was removed as a requirement for access to HF.
Morseitis - I got some of that last night. After spending most of two days camped in the shack working contest stations, I emerged through the kitchen, in which the dishwasher was mid-cycle. Harmonic type noises coming from the appliance were sending a steady and constant “T U T U T U” … Nurse! …
Yes contests are a great training ground for building up morse speed. I recall in 1982 a month after I got my ticket going in for the RSGB 1.8 MHz Summer Contest (no longer held) and being beaten by the speed of the operators, missing the numbers that were being sent to me. I was annoyed by this but bitten by the bug so I persisted and within a few years built up my speed and my station and then started to win the occasional domestic CW Contest. My learning curve to enable me to pass the 12 wpm test was in 1981 when I spent 5 months of 30 minutes daily practice with a Datong Morse Tutor (no computers then) and also tuned in to the RSGB Slow Morse Transmissions. So that gives an idea what the average self taught guy can achieve.
I spent about 12 hours in the CQWW Contest myself staggered throughout last weekend and only made 167 QSOs, however quality was evident with 89 DXCC worked. The highspots being VK9AA Cocos Keeling on 10m, 3X5A on all 6 bands, S79 Seychelles on 80m and VK2M Montserrat on 160m. Try doing that on SSB - no way! OZ was pretty rare in the contest and whilst looking for band slots for the John Linford G3WGV CW Annual Table http://g3wgv.com/cw/Results.htm
I only found one OZ which was 5P3WW on 40m.
If you need further CW practice Tom try some of the RSGB domestic contests - the Ropoco is the real test. Rotating postcodes. Top prize is not the highest score - it’s the operator with the most accurate log. This test is held twice a year but so you will have to wait until April to put yourself through the 2 hours of anguish. AFS on a Sunday afternoon in Janaury is a real scramble for bandspace and I would not recommend it unless you have at least a 500 HZ filter in your rig. There is a QRS Corral at the top end of the band as well for the 12-18 wpm guys.
I had forgotten about the G3WGV table! I must submit an update tonight. Wonder if John can be persuaded to add a 2m column, 'cos I have another 3 in there!
The 500Hz filter I fitted in the 897 still seems quite wide. Does anyone use a narrower one?
