Telegraphie beginner has some questions

I am a beginner in telegraphy, especially in decoding. To overcome my shyness for this mode of operation, I have confirmed a few sota activators as a chaser. I kept my text as simple as possible. Here’s an example:
A: CQ Sota call …
C: DL1CR
A: DL1CR … RST 599 … BK
C: BK RST 599 73 e e
A: 73 e e … CQ Sota call …
is this a valid Sota QSO and acceptable?
73 Chris, DL1CR

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Hi Chris, in short, Yes, but giving the summit reference occasionally would be good.
73 Neil

I recommend sending the caller’s callsign at least once so everyone listening knows who the report is sent to and who is to respond.

CQ DL1CR k
VK1DA
VK1DA de DL1CR 559 bk
R ur 559 559 BK
R 73 TU

This can be expanded as you get more familiar with it. Dots and decorations at the end are optional but not required.

Thanks for using CW.

73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH

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Hi Chris,
I find your example OK but I’d suggest a couple of modifications which you’ll find in bold.
A: CQ Sota call SOTA K
C: DL1CR
A: DL1CR GM/GA/GE UR 599 (DL1CR*) BK (*activator should better send chaser callsign at the begining AND at the end of his transmission when the pile up is big and/or when he noticed other chasers were still sending their call when he started responding to his chaser, as they may be unable to copy the chaser callsign sent by the activator in the begining due to being doubling and they won’t know who the activator is talking to until they hear him repeat the chaser callsign again at the end of his transmission. This practice is redundant and can be abandoned when the number of chasers in the pile-up decreases and the activator sees no risk of doubling yourself with other chasers)

We CWers usually say UR 599 instead of RST 599.
C: QSL UR 599 DE DL1CR 73 TU e e (I think it’s good to say QSL confirming good reception of the information sent by the other station. After the report, I think it’s good practice saying DE DL1CR as this lets everybody know that it’s DL1CR who is transmitting and not somebody else who wrongly believed the activator was talking to him. Which is a quite frequent situation. TU means Thank YoU and I think it’s good practice sending it at the end of the QSO)

A: 73 TU e e … CQ Sota call …
[/quote]

I hope this is of help.
73,

Guru

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Hi Guru,
that is a great help and i can understand everything. Only the term GM/GA/GE tell me nothing.

73,

Chris

hi chris,
it meens good morning, good evening and last but not least good afternoon.
Hope to hear you soon on cw!!
üben üben üben

vy 73 DK1HW
ps mikrofon zu Hause lassen

Hi Wolf,
tnx for your answer. I will stick to your often heard advice. Every day at least one cw qso.
Best wishes

73,

Chris

GM Good morning
GA Good Afternoon
GE Good Evening


73 from the beach,

Guru

Doing BOTA (Beaches on the Air), Guru?

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ps mikrofon zu Hause lassen

Bloß nich! :scream:
Ich will doch auch mit Chris funken.:wink:

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Not really. Actually spending good time with my family to have my xyl happy in order to get a SOTA pass soon :wink:
Hopefully tomorrow morning :slight_smile:
Cheers,

Guru

I see. Actually, doing something similar right now. All that in order to make my yl stay as long as possible with me on top of a non-sota summit tomorrow. Planning on taking part in the Alpe-Adria VHF contest… Good luck with your activation tomorrow morning, old man :smiley:
Best 73 to u and urs,
Zoran
P.S:
Sorry Christoph for hijacking your thread. Your initial post has it all. What Guru, Andrew and others suggested are all good and valuable additions. And, yes, welcome to SOTA CW family…

Gerne :grinning:

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[quote=“EA2IF, post:4, topic:18173”] … activator should better send chaser callsign at the begining AND at the end of his transmission when the pile up is big and/or when he noticed other chasers were still sending their call when he started responding to his chaser, as they may be unable to copy the chaser callsign
[/quote]

Excellent advice Guru. Personally I tend to send the chaser callisign twice at the beginning of my response to let the chaser that I am working a better chance of knowing it is he/she that I am working so indicating they should be listening for their report. I also tend to delay my response until the hubbub dies down.

73, Gerald G4OIG

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… indeed a very good hint, Guru! I also tried repeating the chaser’s call sign twice in the beginning but still could hear people sending their call sometimes. Whereas by the end of the activator’s transmission everybody is supposed to be listening.

Good luck and hope to cu soon on cw, Chris!

Roman - DL3TU

One thing I have learned is that including “SOTA” in the CQ can discourage stations not participating in SOTA in answering your call. They might think that this was a special contest and you were not interested in working them. So I now omit “SOTA” in my CQ sequence, at least until I will have bagged my four QSOs.

73 de Martin, DK3IT

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Hi Martin,
As an activator, I always call CQ SOTA and have never got short of chasers to qualify for the summit points except in one single occasion where I activated late in the evening with just a HH and its rubber antenna.
Whenever I’ve activated on HF, I’ve got several chasers responding to my CQ SOTA call. However, let me tell you that I nearly always raise an alert before the activation, so either RBNhole, some kind chasers or myself raise a spot for me on SOTAwatch, which is a key help to get chasers.
As a chaser, since I got into SOTA, I always listen for CQ SOTA calls to respond to and often, if not almost always, ignore CQ calls which are not followed by SOTA.
For the above explainef reasons, my advise is for any activator to always call CQ SOTA.
73,

Guru
73,

Guru

I always call CQ SOTA trying to discourage non-SOTA operators from calling me. These guys like to exchange info about QTH, weather, antennas, and all kind of other stuff that I do not have time and battery capacity for.

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Hi Chris,

There is time to close this topic I guess.
Many thanks for your chasing me today and successful S2S QSO.
Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

Chapeau bas :muscle:

73, Jarek

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Hi Jarek,
my pleasure to qso you in cw today.
Without cw, Sota is only half the fun.
73 Chris

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