CW activations?

THIS IS THE WAY! :raised_fist::clap: :100: :united_kingdom: :ireland: :united_states: :european_union: :globe_showing_europe_africa:

BKPAIV

I only do HF CW activations.

. (I have two UHF/VHF radios one of which was given to me by the RSGB when I joined, the other is a cheap Baofang ) They are, in any case both heavier than the Venus sw-3b hf radio. I havenโ€™t used them for years.

SW-3B QRP CW transceiver โ€“ Venus Information Technology Co., Ltd. plus a 2amp battery lasts me a few hours on the summit with absolutely no problems. This is pretty good and is very light, well made and is an excellent cw transceiver.

This is my other radio , and the 1st portable HF radio I bought. You-Kits hb-1b, but o longer made though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3pUlDKco-M

Coupled with a SOTA Beams 3 or 4 band linked dipole, they do extremely well and of course you donโ€™t need to lug a tuner around either.

Good luck

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One of my projects has been to qualify my activations on cw and ssb or fm.

Many of the stations worked on hf use both modes but if you start on a phone mode there is no incentive for the chaser to wait for you to arrive on ssb. So my strategy has been to start on cw and then move to ssb after making 4 cw contacts or more. Your cw spots wake up the herd and even if they arenโ€™t interested in cw they will mostly wait to make a ssb contact. This approach could work on vhf bands too. Start on cw, then move to ssb or fm.

Many ops donโ€™t really know how to tune in ssb signals so they receive voices as horribly off tune despite being abnormally high pitched or less often, low pitched. So they prefer fm because itโ€™s automatically tuned correctly. This is due partly to never learning how to distinguish correct tuning in which the ssb signals are indistinguishable from the fm voice sound, ie natural voice sounds. To some extent the modern rigs address this by making it convenient to tune across the band in exact 1khz steps.

So where am I going with this? To increase use of cw, start your activations on cw.

When you run out of callers on cw, move to ssb. This approach will actually increase the number of listeners to the cw contacts, even if they arenโ€™t ready to try a contact, due to rusty skills or other reasons. However in general I think youโ€™ll find this works well.

73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA

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Amen! Goals/Resolutions for 2026?

Stuff a modified Quannie (or an All Mode-er) in your pack and a key. Hammer out some sweet CW on 2 and 70.

Even if nobody answers at least you gave it a try. Move on then to your next mode/band per your activation plan.

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