NO HF SOTA operation unless you learn CW! (Part 1)

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I first got on the air in 1976 with a UK ‘class B’ G8 callsign that avoided morse but rrestricted me to 2m and above. I’d always wanted to get on HF so had to study for the 12wpm Post Office test. I was lucky that a local ham Reg G8QR was willing to spend the time (nearly every day) to get me to the required standard and I ended up with what appeared to be a rather insignificant piece of paper after a trip to London:

Jonathan_Post_Office_Morse_Certificate
Jonathan_Post_Office_Morse_Certificate750×528 63.4 KB

I did a little CW with a hand key but after university, work and life meant that I didn’t do any amateur radio until starting again last year, nearly 40 years later.

Whilst I hadn’t completely forgotten everything, its been almost like starting from scratch. I wanted to learn to use a paddle and thats been quite a battle. I’m sure its easier if you start younger.

The reason I wanted to post this is that I actually agree with both Tom and Victor. I hate using apps that spout out endless random letters - I find that totally uninspiring and lose interest very rapidly. What works for me is to get on the air with CW, the feeling of achievement is a real boost to continuing to study.

So I started using Tom’s approach: first I practised enough so that I could complete a CW chaser contact. Thats fairly easy and gets you some contacts in the log. I even made use of the rigs memory keyer to help get going.

Then recently, once my chasing was getting fairly error free and encouraged by Tom I did my first CW activations. This was very scary but having learnt its ok to make mistakes and ask ‘agn ?’ I made it ok. The one app that I can tolerate helped me here: Morse Runner, it does help practise head reading callsigns and prepared me for the pileup.

Now I’m at the stage where I want to be able to have proper CW QSOs. You don’t need to do this for SOTA but I’ve caught the bug now and want to do it. This I’ve found altogether another challenge and as Victor says it does need a lot of dedication to become really proficient. I joined the Long Island CW Club which has been a big help and very supportive. I’m only at the beginning of this journey, but I’ve just started making myself have a QSO a day. Some have been a bit of a car crash, but thanks to the friendlyness and patience of other CW ops its OK.

To answer Phil’s rhetorical question, no I don’t think CW should be mandatory for HF. But I am glad its there as I get a great buzz from making CW contacts. I’ve still got a long way to go to become proficient, some of my sending is still ropey, but I’m enjoying the journey. That’s what matters.

We’re lucky with SOTA that we have these different levels at which you can take part using CW, its not an ‘all or nothing’ thing.

Jonathan

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Do gateway requirements in amateur radio stimulate progress?

Yes and no.

Jimmy @M0HGY showed little interest in progressing beyond his Foundation licence until he had the prospect of activating SOTA on holidays outside the UK. With that “carrot”, after seven years as a FL, he did his 2E0 and M0 in seven months.

I was licensed as a class B in 2001. When I started SOTA in 2002, I could only activate on VHF/UHF. When the morse requirement for HF operation was lifted in 2003, HF activating still didn’t really interest me that much.

I wanted to learn CW for my own entertainment, and not to unlock new parts of the “game”. So I did. There was no requirement to have a CW test for anything I wanted to do. I just wanted to do it. Yet when doing it would have opened up HF privileges, I was not tempted!

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I suspect that the correlation of musical ability to morse code ability is apocryphal. I grew up playing musical instruments, starting with sight reading and then becoming proficient at playing by ear. Morse code was STILL hard for me to learn. Still IS hard for me to learn. I am trying to become proficient at 20 w.p.m. It just takes doing the work

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I take it that you mean that a morse code test was not required. An interesting bit of history: when the “B” licence was introduced in the summer of 1964 (I received mine in September of that year) it was restricted to phone only on 70cm and above, CW was forbidden. The RSGB and various other people complained that this was counter productive and the ability to use CW would aid in upgrading ones licence class. Evidently the GPO (responsible for issuing licenses back then) was convinced and a year later I got a new licence which authorised the use of CW. I’ve still got it somewhere - the original one had to be sent back, but when a third version was issued in 1968 authorising the use of 2m I forgot to send the second one back! :wink: Incidentally I was inactive when 6m was added to the “B” licence, can anyone remember the date when that happened?

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Well, there is already 30M, which is a cw/digital only band. Or is that a US-only band plan?

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Except for Australians!

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Yes sorry, although having just had a quick flick through my old logbooks I struggled to find any CW before and not much after the test, which is why I’m finding it a challenge now :slight_smile:

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The best advice I was ever given regarding SOTA was to activate in a manner that suits you. As long as you follow the laws governing your license and the basic rules of reasonable etiquette, then in the immortal words of Stevie Winwood: do what you like.

I passed the code requirement to get my license back when it was required. However operating CW was always a white-knuckle experience for me. I exhaled a sigh of relief when the QSO was over. In short: not a lot of fun. I sometimes wish that weren’t the case, but I also don’t want to fly in the face of reality. People have different interests and aptitudes. I’m pretty artistic, I know that many hams come from a technical background and can’t claim any artistic skill whatsoever. That’s just the way it is, no bad on any of us.

Some people like slow scan TV or operating boat anchors on regularly scheduled AM ragchews with the same gang every night. Terrific. More power to them. Not my thing, but I think their passion is a fine thing. It certainly doesn’t detract from my pleasure in the hobby.

I reserve the right to change my mind in the future, but nobody is going to make me feel like a second class citizen of the amateur radio universe just because my interests don’t coincide with theirs.

Another country heard from,
73 Eric KG6MZS

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I should not have said “equate it” with learning a language. I should have said “compare it” with learning a language. It is nowhere near as demanding as learning a language.

Only 26 letters and 10 digits and say 10 essential prosigns or punctuation to learn.

Then gain speed by using those 46 symbols at a slowly increasing speed.

That is nothing like as difficult as learning a language, you can’t even order a coffee without knowing 10 or 15 words, book a hotel room takes another 10 different words, provided the responses are words you know (add another 20 words). Oh, and learn to pronounce the words in the other language rather than your own, or you won’t be understood. Overall, probably 300 words plus pronunciation are required to “have a QSO” with someone at a shop, hotel, post office or just asking the way to the post office, where is the toilet, which road leads to town X, I’d like two of those sandwiches please, what is the time. Oh yes, numbers, how to express phone numbers, etc. Currency. And drive on the other side of the road. And walk on the other side too.

I bought a SIM card for my Nokia phone in 2010 at Schipol airport. A few days later I had to add some credit to it and the number I had to call had a voice menu. In Dutch. It was only the slight similarity to German (which I studied at school in 1963, just yesterday really) that allowed me to recognise some numbers and other words and finally get some credit added. That was more difficult than a SOTA CW contact by a factor of oh, neunsehn hundert.

It’s not equivalent to learning a language. More like learning the resistor colour code several times and how to count, but not as difficult as how to use the clutch on a car with a manual gearbox. Nobody was born knowing those things, and they were not included in infant or even early school. But the majority of people learn how to drive a car and count change in a shop. Most radio amateurs learn the resistor colour code and reinforce their learning by repetition. They don’t see it as practice and repetition but they do learn it and no longer need to look at a chart to decode a brown black red to 1k. But if after seeing the resistor colour code once, they failed to recognise that green was 5 the next day, they didn’t just stop using resistors. They kept on looking at the colour chart and by day 5 they just knew it.

In the sense that it’s like learning a language, you do have to get your brain to hear and recognise new things and if you aren’t in the habit of doing that, it won’t be immediate. As an infant we all learn a complete language. We don’t give up when it’s too difficult, we just keep going because it’s essential. And as a species we have the advantage of a brain that can continue to learn new things every day. See recent books on brain plasticity.

I’ve used hundreds of words in writing this, congrats to anyone who learned enough words in this language to understand it and decide whether to ignore it, understand it and decide whether to agree or otherwise. And extra congrats to those for whom this is not their everyday language. Much admiration from me.

73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA

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Thanks you very much for the QSO on Saturday, and glad to have helped you on your CW journey. Hope to have another CW QSO with you in the future.

73’s
David

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I’m not convinced that becoming proficient at CW is equally hard or easy for us all, indeed having spent most of my working life explaining things to people I know that some people find some things very hard and other things very easy. Teaching primary teachers basic programming to deliver to kids (Scratch) very quickly demonstrates that not everyone has an aptitude and what some find easy or obvious others - who could probably beat me hands down at a language find really difficult. For me Morse fits alongside ballroom dancing, technical climbing and probably rolling a kayak all of which I have done, none of which I have found easy or enjoyable and are all white knuckle rides… which I have tried and may attempt occasionally … if nothing else to find out that I still can’t get it… 73 Paul

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… like reading and writing in first-grade/primary-school. :wink:

… and some learn more than one. If you leave it til you’re older, however, learning another language becomes less easy.

Exactly.

Yeah, I’ve encountered fine musicians who’ve struggled to learn Morse.

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I never, ever, ever, heard of a case of an Amateur answering an SOS call.

SOS calls were only sent on 500khz as you mentioned. To facilitate sending/hearing SOSs there were two X 3minute ‘silent’, periods every hour when ALL communications on 500khz stopped.

500khz was monitored by all larger warships and by EVERY coastal station around the world. There were around 10 - 12 of these stationed around the UK alone. And by the 1960s or earlier most commercial shipping was fitted with an auto-alarm which would alert an off-watch or absent RO to an SOS being sent whether the RO was in the Radio Office or not.

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I believe more operators have learned morse voluntarily since the requirement was removed. To suggest making it a requirement for SOTA would be a backward step.

I supported the removal of the requirement for a morse test when the debate was raging. The proponents were really only saying “you have to do what I had to” which is illogical and counterproductive.

Thanks David @M6GYU for confirming what I thought was happening re 500 khz.

Perhaps the man (edit; Arthur Moore see link below) who heard the SOS from the Titanic in his headphones was the start of it all?

73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA

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“…more operators have learned morse voluntarily…”
That’s also my subjective impression. When I took my test CW was mandatory. After the test one guy said: “Ok, the microphone was invented, no morse code any more”.
Now you hear: " Morse code ‘sounds’ interesting, I give it a try."
It is my guess that the percentage of OP’s that do CW is slightly increasing since the requirement was removed :slight_smile:
Whatever your preferred mode is, have fun.

73 de Gerald
HB9iRF

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Look at ITU/IARU region 3 - where SSB is used legally on 30m in Australia and it’s a great band for Inter-VK communication given the size of the continent.

Given how much smaller 60m is than 30m, it’s weird that the reason for no SSB on 30m is that the band is “too small” while it is allowed on the WRC15 60m band.

Actually, while the IARU R1 band plan does not allow SSB on 30m, not all country licences in European countries legally restrict its use. Take a look at this document: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj-rufA9q73AhWDSfEDHTiGDPcQFnoECCcQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iaru-r1.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F01%2FCept-Laenderliste.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1cpSc8jBN09AjjQl_eO-fc

Both Austria and the UK for example are listed as allowing any mode, any bandwidth for the 10MHz (30m) band in this DARC/CEPT document. (Germany is restricted to modes of 800Hz and less on 10MHz unfortunately).

It’s more of a Gentlemen’s agreement that IARU R1 hams don’t use SSB on 30m.

73 Ed DD5LP/VK2JI/G8GLM

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My perception too. (But not evidenced with any data).

Certainly for me, thinking back to 2001-2003, the idea of learning morse in order to access HF bands created zero motivation to do so. Whereas, come 2007, the idea of learning morse so I could join in the fun activating and chasing SOTA on CW, caused massive motivation.

Further motivation comes purely from the sheer enjoyment and exhilaration of using CW. I remember SOTA’s founders @G3CWI and @G3WGV telling me that CW was a “very satisfying” mode to use - and it is. It remains my favourite of all modes.

I am firmly opposed to any requirement of proficiency in CW in order to access parts of the spectrum or any aspect of the hobby. Learning CW only needs to be done if you want to use CW and enjoy the mode.

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I wish I had more information about this, but here goes: On 31st Jan 1953 a storm in the North sea created a storm surge which coincided with a spring tide, overwhelming sea defences and causing disasterous floods from Humberside to Essex and a serious inundation in the Netherlands. 300 people died in England, 3,000 in the Netherlands, in England 30,000 people had to be evacuated. At that time 2.185 MHz was used for ship to shore communications. A radio amateur (who’s call I can’t remember) was listening on 2.185 and heard a vessel with some problem trying to contact Humberside Radio, which was off the air due to the floods. Eventually he tuned down his Top Band rig and answered the vessel, and passed on a message via the police. The police then asked hams to assist with emergency communications until the land lines were repaired - apparently the police had no radio coms at that time. Ironically the GPO wanted to take the hams to court for violating the terms of their licences but were persuaded not to by the Home Secretary. The Radio Amateur Emergency Network was formed as a result of this event. My memory may be at fault but that is what I remember reading. Not a 500 kHz emergency but certainly a case of an assist, and not CW because 2.185 was an AM channel, I used to listen to it as a teenager and learned some interesting new words from the trawler guys!

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The document you linked is a little over-generous on the use of 60 metres in the UK, where some of the bandlets are less than 6 kHz wide, so you couldn’t use the quoted 6 kHz bandwidth without breaking the licence conditions. For all other bands, the UK licence is pretty much mode-agnostic, and only mentions limiting bandwidth to “ensure the most efficient utilisation of the spectrum”. The UK band-plan is rather more specific, but doesn’t have legal force. For 30 metres, it says “SSB may be used on the 10 MHz band during emergencies involving the immediate safety of life and property, and only by stations actually involved with the handling of emergency traffic.”

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Looks like a ham did manage to copy the distress traffic though but I can’t post the link on my phone at the moment.

Here’s the link:-Artie Moore - Wikipedia

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