Hello all,
Worth mentioning, for activations by yet-to-develop CW speed folks: Put in a “Pse QRS 10 WPM”, etc., on both alerts and spots. Hang in there; speed will come!
Best, Ken
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Got my homebrew paddle finished, I used “phone a friend” and exchanged call signs. My sending was awful! We pre arranged that we exchanged call signs, if you want to have a basic QSO ie exchange call signs, let me know. As long as you give your call sign that’s all that matters.
Sean
M0GIA
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That’s a wonderfully industrial looking paddle Sean. Perhaps you could call it the “B&Q Special” 
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I can’t get the scale right…does it go between your knees when you sat down on the summit? 
Actually Sean, 
from me for home brewing a paddle.
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Reckon the base is a piece of 4x1 PAR Andy. Would suit you - a hefty G cramp to clamp it to your Lucky Anvil and it wouldn’t skid far even if you got a bit excited in a pile-up
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Can I have some warning next time Paul. I have just inhaled tea resulting in choking and coughing when reading that. I now need to clean the monitor!
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It cost me nearly £5 to build my paddle, works great and yes it does look very industrial. It’s base is three pieces of wood and the lever is a stainless steel 6in ruler.
Sean
M0GIA
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Nice one Sean was wondering what that was! Very clever use of readily available components to make a rugged, effective and economical piece of kit. Epitomises the amateur spirit 
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Hi James,
Your theory about phrases is correct.
See my High Speed Morse article at
https://www.eham.net/articles/41222
Paul w0rw
Yet another damn post on another damn thread ;-).
Came across this info on the First Class Operator’s (FOC) website: FOC - Improving Your CW. The page has links to various resources for improving your CW skills.
73 Paula k9ir
I may take you up on that offer. I will be away from home for a few days, and would probably like another week or so to brush up first!!!
My antennas are a bit limited at the moment and I have around S7-S8 noise floor, so not sure how well it will work but worth a try. I guess a WebSDR could be a work around on that one if needed (let’s not start another debate on WebSDR’s please)!!!
I haven’t really got anything suitable for 80m (which is probably be the most reliable band given our locations).
I have got 40m here but I think we’re a bit close together for that to work. Our signals will probably fly straight over each other’s heads and end up somewhere in Europe
60m might work (maximum of 10 watts my end though)?
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I agree with Andy to wait until the pileup is over. I had a recent activation where a chaser was sending at maybe 8 wpm at most and it covered up most signals. The problem is it takes so long to send that it is difficult to follow and a couple exchanges could be completed with others. I’m still learning myself and appreciate the patience and would absolutely work a qrs station after a pileup. I also have a qrp right that is very slow to change speed so I add space between characters.
Good luck and just do it.
James I’ve sent you a message, or I think I have! Let me know when you are ready.
Sean
Hi Sean,
I don’t appear to have anything in my messages, so I don’t think that it came through.
I’m away from home with work for a couple of days, so if we say maybe towards the tail end of the week?
Drop me a line on email if you wish:-
jamesday5…at…virginmedia.com
Obviously I’ve tweaked that email slightly so that I don’t get spammed with rubbish by any automated systems that might pick my email address up off of the internet. I think you can figure out the obvious changes that need to be made to make that email address work!!!
James.
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I’ve emailed you James.
Sean
M0GIA
Because I send fairly slowly, I wait until the crowd of chasers is thinning.
Early on in chasing, I could recognize my callsign easily enough, but wasn’t ready to recognize and respond to fragments of it, e.g. “OB?” , or partially incorrect fragments “KB0?” when the activator needed a repeat. I think this comes easy enough after a few times.
Peter KD0YOB
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Another one to add to the SOTA CW phrasebook: S2S (Summit to summit). If I’m shack chasing and hear an S2S thrown into the pileup, I will back off calling to make sure the activator can hear it too. If the activator is asking “S2S?”, I will wait until they give a new CQ or QRZ in the clear before I call, because they probably heard an S2S that I didn’t.
Don’t be afraid to chase without knowing code perfectly. Phrase recognition is sufficient most of the time, and activators are very forgiving. Plus the joy of making a few CW chase contacts will be enough encouragement to keep learning; it has been for me.
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Thanks Brian. Really obvious when you think about it, but that’s one which I hadn’t considered!!!
There are 3 different and commonly used abbreviations for Thank you:
1- TNX
2- TKS
3- TU
In my early years on CW I used TNX but nowadays I rarely use it and stick solely to TKS and TU.
73 and GL with your CW,
Guru
P.D. I’ll be looking forward to having a CW QSO with you whenever you feel ready.
Anybody wanting to learn CW I highly recommend Code Quick:
Code Quick - The Fastest Way To Master Morse Code Since 1980
73 Km5hg