I haven’t checked but I think it unlikely that I would make less than 4 QSOs in CW from a summit once I commenced using that mode as part of a multi-mode session, due to the efficiency of the mode for basic comms. Not just me indeed, but you also and 100s of others I think are in the same boat!
73 Phil
I know I’ve made fewer than four CW QSOs on some activations where I’ve used CW. On one occasion I think I made exactly 4 in total, split evenly between SSB and CW. On another I managed exactly 3, all CW. Still a bit sore about that one… 
Mind, I’m many miles short of MG…
My ¼ vertical for 10 m has been bringing me dx every time I’ve used it. I use a 7 m spiderbeams pole but leave the last theee sections collapsed. It jas three radials at 45° which double up as the guys. I can set it up in less than 5 minutes. So, no need for a large mast, a 5 or 6 m one would probably do.
Matthew
There doesn’t appear to be an easy way of doing this, but I’ve tried finding out how many other activators have ONLY used CW to get to MG.
By glancing through some of the “View Log” links for those who’ve achieved MG status, I can only find only 1 other activator who appear to have used no other modes other than CW, and that is Colin/M1BUU to get to 1000 points.
There are a couple of other activators who have used other modes but have big CW scores, but it difficult to see if they’ve got 1000 points without using any other mode.
As you say, This is purely for my own curiosity… 
…
I know some one on here who will know though… 
David
Thanks to Rob and Fraser for their suggestions. I think the commercial vertical plus tripod will weigh more than my “heavy” mast which is around 6m and so a bit short for a 20m vertical. The assembled mast and vertical wire with guy/radials worked quite well for the 12m challenge a few years back. I made one for 17m or 15m too (I forget which) so that might come out too. Still toying with the idea of a 50cm spike raised above the mast tip for 20m with the rest of the wire length and radials as for the shorter aerials. Not tried 10m yet.
73,
Rod
I just weighed mine, and they weigh 1000 grams together - the tripod 570g, the antenna 325g and a home-made mounting plate 100g. My two GF poles weigh 750g and 1100g each, both 7m long.
For me, the tripod+vertical combo is on the lightweight side of things, especially for an antenna that can tune 40m, 30m, 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m, 10m, 8m, 6m, 4m and 2m (and 80m if you include the loading coil at an extra 130g) - plus there’s the small size and convenience of the thing. And it works well enough to get dependably solid contacts on 40m (where the vertical is probably at its’ least efficient) as far afield as GM, GI, SV, EA, OH, LA, RA, etc. from Central Europe. For DX, you’d need something more substantial.
YMMV, as always - good luck with your choice!
Speaking as a CW-activator here. There are times some stations just blindly answer you and hope to pick up your report somehow. At first I was kind enough to keep replying, but then I realised some just send a blind reply. And if I keep responding, I am wasting my and everyone else’s precious time. So I try 2 times and then the caller gets in the back of the queue. I guess these are also some of the folks you refer to.
I think you are operating correctly Martin, I also do the same with the few chasers who operate that way, thankfully it is the very few and if you activate regularly it is always the same guys! You get to know their callsigns well, so they can easily be made to wait until the end or not be worked at all! I can probably count the number of offenders on one hand, it is a very small minority.
Unfortunately I have not had the pleasure of working you yet as a Chaser. I only have one QSO logged with you, but that was when I was activating OK/PL-028 on 01/07/22 with Victor GI4ONL.
I hope to work you as a Chaser from my home QTH soon.
73 Phil G4OBK
Edit: Correction - I have chased you as an activator at least once! This was when you were operating as EA4/PE1EEC/P activating EA4/CC-045 on 09/09/2022, a unique summit! 73
I was faced with the same delema 2 years ago. However there is an easy search option:
In my case it returns 1257 as points achieved on CW
BUU returns 1159.
Before I applied for the MG - CW and in agreement with Andy, I carried out a manual assessment. It returned the same numbers.
Regards
David
Unfortunately this doesn’t quite do the job. it shows you who could have applied for MG just on the basis of CW points but the calls that come up might have had points for other modes, too, thus earning their MG earlier. it would then be necessary to search these callsigns again in “All Modes” to find the ones that only used CW. Incidentally you can set the search for “all G”, “all W” etc.
In view of the advantage enjoyed by CW over phone, I think reaching MG using only phone might be the bigger achievement!
G0EVV MG using any mode achieved on 2018-09-11
G0EVV MG using only CW achieved 2021-04-20
G0EVV MG using only FM achieved on 2023-01-02
G0EVV MG using only SSB not achieved
There is no easy way to work this out from the DB because the queries are more expensive (in CPU and memory resources) and have not been implemented. We have a special tool that really was made for Barry alone that can do this so that he can confirm awards.
Maybe you were joking Brian but I think it’s invidious to suggest phone-MG is a bigger achievement than CW-only-MG. Most SSB operators use higher RF power to compensate.
CW mode has many challenges not often appreciated by non-CW activators and chasers. For instance, I can continue talking into a microphone long after my frozen fingers can no longer operate a Morse key properly.
Well it was intended in fun, Andy, but SSB ops using higher power to compensate is a bit dubious. An oft-quoted figure is that CW has a 20 dB advantage, so to get an advantage over a 5W CW signal an SSB op would have to run impracticably high power! I sometimes activate on SSB with 20 watts from my FT857D - as long as it isn’t too long a walk - with the advantage quoted a CW op would only need 200 mW for parity.
You’ll never know Brian.
I’m in the position where I am able to compare, because I do both. In most of the years gone by, CW had an advantage over phone. At present however, I am finding phone modes much easier to amass points, QSOs etc with.
20 db little gain in SSB instead of in CW is quite demonstrable. Even with best compressors, the mean power in SSB is 3-6db lower than in CW. The rest is taken care of by the significantly lower bandwidth caused by narrow CW filters. 250Hz bandwidth instead of 2.5KHz brings another 10db less noise compared to the signal. At 50Hz through SDR filters or selective listening it is even 17db.
Happy CW!
73 Chris
Hi Ed, in CW is quite similar or sometimes worst, in fact the last week when I started my activation on 14.057mhz as normal I sending QRL to check the frequency is free, but when I took half hour operating in CW someone beggun callin cq…cq… very strong in the same time when I was doing S2S with DL6FBK/P which made it quite difficult for me to hear him properly, then I barely received him but I was able to confirm our S2S qso, so this rude one kept transmitting CQ…CQ… so I had to stop my transmission and start sending QSY…QSY… fortunately he left me the frequency free, sometimes I have that turn off the rig. I have proposed not to go out in 40m for this type of reason, they all call at the same time and it makes it impossible for me to hear the callsign correctly, so in 20m I can work without many problems, but unfortunalety this happen frequently.
Manu EC7ZT
It’s hard to tell in my case, we need Andy @MM0FMF’s database enquiry tools to see when I hit CW Goat. I activated with modes other than CW for the first several years (5-6 years?). My score is a mix of FM, SSB and CW. I don’t think I’ve logged any data modes.
As stated several times, using the CW filter on the database only shows activations with at least one QSO, it doesn’t show the activations with at least 4 CW QSOs, which would qualify the summit.
73, Colin
This topic was automatically closed after reaching the maximum limit of 100 replies. Continue discussion at Today’s Pile-up on 40m. (Part 2).
