I clip mine to my log to get extra stability and rest the whole lot on my knee. It still doesn’t prevent me from sending utter gibberish at times, but that’s usually down to the cold.
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Is that like Andy’s anvil?
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HI John
Thanks for the info. A UK callbook is on my Xmas present list.
73 Phil G4OBK
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Nah, nothing like it. Andy’s anvil is Osmium mixed with Platinum, medical grade, the very best. I think he keeps it in his First Aid Kit. 
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Hi Ryuji I don’t use computor/phone logging on the hill and so I don’t always know whose calling me. I like to reply using chasers names, especially if they use mine, so the board has a list of most of the fairly regular SOTA chasers on it with the calls in alphabetical order along with the operator’s name.
The A4 sheet is covered with that clear sticky back clear plastic so the print doesn’t run when damp or wet…
The board is either very thin plywood or hardboard and also serves to support my log book if needs be - or my morse key if I can’t find a solid surface,
David
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Chasers, Please make sure the activator is answering using your correct call.
Occasionally I get the odd chaser send their call twice during an activation and both times differently -
Example:- I hear L9EIS the first time, L9ESS The second time? I reply by using L9ESS as i assume the 2nd call is correct and if it isn’t they’ll correct me. (Yes, it might be them it might be me making the mistake) Either way I respond:-
L9ESS RST 599 K and I receive a ’ R TU back.
I get home and find there is no such call as L9ESS but there is a L9EIS.
- Please make sure you send your call correctly BOTH times and if you make a mistake please correct it and
- Please ensure that my reply is using your correct call.
Thank You.
David
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Even when sent correctly, I would struggle with either of these callsigns if sent fast with no extra wide spacing between characters. It’s easy to miss the E especially in the audibly-challenging environment of a windy summit. I really appreciate it when chasers emphasize the E as does Manuel EA2DT by injecting a longer gap between the E and A. And actually, for regular chasers this very distinctive rhythm makes it easier to spot in a pile-up.
I’ve noticed some ops leave no gap between some of their callsign characters, a ‘blind spot’ that they don’t notice because of over-familiarity. Usually the rest of their sending is fine.
I deliberately add slightly-longer gaps in my callsign when sending CQ. This helps the less-experienced CW chasers who can copy my character speed but not the equivalent non-Koch word speed. I think ops who CQ their callsigns only at 25+wpm miss contacts. Maybe they don’t care and that’s not a problem for contests but SOTA has a wide range of CW ops including newbies, whose participation we want to encourage.
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Manuel’s call is sent so distinctively its one of the few activators `i’d recognise even if I only heard one or two letters.
What about these from my log book?
IX1IHR S57S, HB9EBE OR HB9IIO 
Try this then for practice :- TENNESSEE SISSIES ARE SISSIER THAN MISSISSIPPI SISSIES. 
Dave
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I’m sure I’ve been chased by EI5HJ.
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Amusing. I know this goes against your former RN Morse procedures but - for rx - one can mainly predict the correct forms of these plain-text words half way through each.
Encrypted messages or random sequence - and to a lesser extent, callsigns - are harder. I imagine one mistake in an encrypted message (without inbuilt redundancy) could have meant the ship going to the wrong [lat, long] location. No pressure!
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Hi Andy
The trouble with Tennessee sissies etc., is when it is sent the I’s and S’s are incredibly fast - much faster than the speed you would expect. In 1971, 4 of us who could easily read CW at 30 wpm were asked by our trainer (G3LIK/Mick Puttick SK), if we fancied doing an RSGB morse test. So off we trotted to the ham shack at HMS Mercury (the RN signal school nr Petersfield). Being quite confident of our abilities at 30wpm we decided 
not to chance our luck and took a really easy 25 wpm test. 3 of us - me included, cocked up as the word Mississippi was in the plain language - the dots came like machine gun bullets and 3 of us totally missed the word ---- and failed the test. 
5 ltr encrypted groups are nowhere as difficult as you might expect. Although I assume that might depend on how you learned or were taught morse. 5 letters followed by a space. 5 letters followed by a space, 5 letters followed by a face. and so on. No punctuation, no special characters, And of course no Mississippi’s etc., or fractions or mixed difficult words/combinations.
You are of course absolutely correct about predicting plain language text. However we were taught and trained not to anticipate - because you might wrongly guess whats coming next… Thats why we were trained on random groups., obscure texts (Shakespeare), & foreign language texts. Having said that, the ability to anticipate/guess is a great help - as long as you do not let it dictate what you actually hear.
**Encrypted text ** Assuming a few errors on reading a ‘grouper’, as long as you decrypted 5 letters AND a space every, time you normally would never get more than 1 or two letters wrong in a sequence. If you later discovered for one group you’d only got 4 characters, then you’d simply add a letter into the middle - that way you’d only get a max of 3 characters wrong. (Too difficult for me to explain why. here). And as a fail safe All numbers, punctuation etc., would be spelt out. ie " … All units to meet at reference Golf slant tango whiskey hyphen zero zero one" (Round Hill G/TW-001)
Dave
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Certainly I find sets of 5-number groups the easiest, and easier than 5-letter groups or mixed letters/numbers. You’re expecting only one of 10 Morse sounds (maybe with a prosign after each set) The pattern is very regular and each group has the same duration,
Nowadays, Morse apps can produce any of these combinations. In my day (early 90’s) I learnt from a pre-recorded C60 cassette tape of plain text, random numbers and letters, getting slowly faster as the tape progressed.
Very good. That’s an even better way of providing redundancy (to improve reliability of the recovered plain text) than simply repeating critical information like coordinates. Looking at the numbers 0 to 9 spelt out (in English), there could be one or two errors in any one of them and still they could be identical. Even the different word lengths help a bit.
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Back in the day EI5SH was rumoured to be the one to look out for although I don’t think the callsign was ever issued. My old pal W3EEE (ex G3YDV) spits out those three dits like a machine gun which is always fun to hear.
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