Posts Tagged ‘CW’
Lightwave Article From ‘TCA’
January 15th, 2015 | 
Author:  |
| VE7SL Backyard Test |
Bugs: My New Fascination
LIDS_CW
Whilst twittering / tweeting / wasting time on twitter (delete as applicable) I came across a group @lids_cw . This is an informal twitter based group of CW and low impact data mode fans in the UK that seem to have their heads screwed on. The idea behind it is that the group encourages general radio chit chat then suckers you into having a go at CW.
Morse is not something I decided I wanted to do when I started out in radio, Hence the G7 callsign (For those unsure, G7’s in the 1990’s were VHF only because we couldn’t be bothered with CW. Hence the 19th Century rules at the time kept us away from HF as were weren’t proper or some such daftness). But over the years I’ve hankered after at least one QSO in CW. I’m only browsing, for research purposes, I wont be giving up VHF officer!
Sunday at 16:00hrs GMT see’s their net on 40m. I listened in and attempted to decode what was beeping through the speaker an got the occasional character. I cheated a bit and used HRD to decode some more of the text and fill in the gaps. It wasn’t until I let slip on Twitter I was listening in I heard my callsign being called by MW0IAN. Fortunately I had no way of returning the call (otherwise we might still be at it exchanging signal reports now!).
For those of us who struggle with CW but are too scared to admit it, there are others like you. For those of you who had the 5wpm RSGB cassette and never got further than ‘it’,’meant’,’mine’ and ‘nineteen’ but fancy spending hours listening to bleeps but secretly want to have a go. Watch out LIDS or Less Involved Data Society as it’s known will get you. Keyer at the ready for next Sunday. Snails will be faster.
Celebration of SKCC – K3Y Special Event
Special event, “K3Y,” the Straight Key Century Club’s annual January celebration, commemorates the Straight Key Century Club’s founding in 2006 following the American Radio Relay League’s “Straight Key Night” (SKN). A small group of participants wanted to extend the fun of SKN throughout the year. The Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) is the result.
For the first three years, the club’s founders used the special event callsigns of K1Y, K2A, and K3Y as the celebration’s special-event calls. But, someone cleverly noticed that a ‘3’ is nothing more than a backwards, curvaceous ‘E’. This “KEY” event has operated under the special event callsign of ‘K3Y’, ever since.
The on-air party is open to members and non-members alike. It runs from 0000 UTC Jan. 2 through 2359 UTC Jan. 31. It’s a great time to introduce others to the joys of hand-crafted Morse code using straight keys, bugs, and side swipers.
In this video, you can “sit in” with NW7US, the control operator of the regional activation of special event station, “K3Y/0”, during one of the many shifts during January (2015).
+ The SKCC website is at http://skccgroup.com
+ The K3Y special event page is http://www.skccgroup.com/k3y/index.php
+ The NW7US website is at http://NW7US.us
+ Some more CW/Morse code resources can be found at http://cw.hfradio.org
A New ‘VE’ on 630m!
Interest in Canada's newest ham band, 630m, continues to slowly grow. Toby (VE7CNF) in Burnaby, BC, has made his first and second CW contacts on the new band! Both myself and John (VE7BDQ) had the pleasure of working Toby on 473.000 CW on Thursday afternoon. Here is Toby's description of his station at present:
"I have put together a low-power 630m WSPR transmitter here. I have a USB-TG44A signal generator clocking a phasing-type SSB modulator with WSPR audio coming from a laptop. The modulator gives 45db suppression of the carrier and lower sideband. This drives a ZHL-32A 1-watt linear amplifier. I have a matching transformer and loading coil at the base of my 80-meter inverted-L antenna. Wire height is 10m.
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| Courtesy: VE7CNF |
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| Courtesy: VE7CNF |
Marketing With Morse Code
Code-is-not-dead prognosticators and hand-wringers will be happy to hear Asus is touting a new smartphone camera feature with Morse code. The smartphone feature has something to do with dual cameras and exceptional zoom capability but unfortunately appears to have no use of Morse code. But a tip of the hat to Asus marketing folks for using code!
1929 BK QSO Party Fun
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| Courtesy: http://www.spaceweatherlive.com |
Not to disappoint, the usual BK winds came up, right on schedule as well, almost coincidental with the start of the Party. Thankfully, weekend number two saw no wind whatsoever....a rare event in December....but, from the sound of many other notes, I wasn't the only one having windy weather.
DE6 2317 40 N1BUG 568 449 TNT 29 10 PAUL ME
DE6 2322 40 WA1JAS 569 559 HART 29 8 MIKE ME
DE6 2347 40 W7LNG 567 578 TNT 29 6 BUD OR
DE6 2352 40 VE7BDQ 599 599 COLP 29 10 JOHN BC
DE7 0014 40 K7SF 578 579 TNT 29 10 STEVE OR
DE7 0105 40 NE1S 449 449 TNT 29 9 LARRY ME
DE7 0120 40 WB2AWQ 579 569 HART 29 10 HOWIE NV
DE7 0133 40 K4JYS 449 449 TNT 29 10 BILL NC
DE7 0145 40 WB8APR 559 449 MOPA 29 5 JOHN MI
DE12 2257 40 K0KP 579 559 HART 29 9 REX MN
DE6 0202 80 AB0CW 559 549 HART 29 5 MARK CO
DE6 0317 80 KK7UV 599 599 HART 28 9 STEVE MT
DE6 0329 80 KE0Z 559 559 HART 29 8 WILL SD
DE6 0356 80 N1BUG 449 559 TNT 29 10 PAUL ME
DE6 0403 80 KC9WYV 579 539 MOPA 29 9 JOE MN
DE6 0415 80 VE7BDQ 599 599 COLP 29 10 JOHN BC
DE6 0422 80 AA2YV 439 449 HART 29 10 BILL NY
DE6 0438 80 N8YE 559 569 TPTG 25 9 STEVE OH
DE6 0442 80 W7LNG 578 588 TNT 29 9 BUD OR
DE6 0524 80 K0KP 599 589 HART 29 9 REX MN
DE6 0530 80 W2ICE/0 579 339 COLP 29 10 SCOTT MN
DE6 0539 80 VE3AWA 578 339 TNT 29 10 LOU ON
DE6 0548 80 KI0DB 559 579 MOPA 29 10 MARK MN
DE6 1229 80 W0LGU 559 559 MOPA 29 9 TOM MN
DE6 1240 80 K0KCY 559 449 MOPA 29 10 TONY MN
DE12 0352 80 KB0ROB 569 569 MOPA 29 9 HAROLD MN
DE12 0427 80 W8KGI 559 448 MOPA 29 10 JIM NM
DE12 0440 80 W0VLZ 559 339 TNT 29 10 NIEL MN
DE12 0509 80 K4JYS 559 559 HART 29 15 BILL NC
DE12 0512 80 WB9WHG 569 449 MOPA 29 20 DAVE WI
DE12 0524 80 W0LS 599 579 HART 29 9 HARRY MN
DE12 0401 160 KK7UV 579 559 HART 28 10 STEVE MT
DE12 0539 160 VE7BDQ 599 599 COLP 29 10 JOHN BC
DE12 0542 160 W0LS 559 559 HART 29 9 HARRY
More information on '29 building may be found here in previous "'29-style blogs" and good project discussions always abound at the Yahoo "AWA Group" builder's site.
It's really not too early to start building for next year's BK!
