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There are all sorts of ways to teach Morse Code. There’s the old Army way (check out these youtube clips: part 1, part 2). Then there’s the way the ARRL taught me back in 1978 — with cassette tapes. And today, students can download software that will teach them Morse Code with the Farnsworth Method and the Koch Method. It all works, so long as the student sticks with it.

How do you get a student to stick with it? First and foremost, by cultivating within him an affection for Morse Code. As Antoine de Saint-Exupery purportedly said, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”¹ But since so many things can thwart this affection (from discouragement to competing interests), sometimes you simply need to come alongside the student and encourage him. This is where cassette tapes and computer programs usually fall short. There’s nothing like The Personal Method — a real, live Elmer teaching you Morse Code.

Just ask my son! A few days ago I purchased a nifty Nye Viking Speed-X straight key and code practice oscillator to begin teaching him Morse Code. I hooked up my own Speed-X to it so that we could both key the oscillator — him on one side of the table with his new practice set, and me on the other side of the table with my own key. Thus equipped, we had our first lesson before bedtime Wednesday night.

I was surprised by how hard the bug bit him. At first he wasn’t so sure about the whole thing, but by the end of the lesson he was so excited he said he wouldn’t be able to get to sleep. He even told me that he wouldn’t enjoy his classical guitar lesson and horse-riding lesson quite as much the next day because he just wanted to have the next Morse Code lesson! The next morning, he woke me up by sending “GM” outside my door with this practice set. And later in the day, he started sending me code as went down the road, saying “dit” and “dah” like a true CW operator.

So to my fellow CW operators who know somebody that wants to learn Morse Code, I say let’s try The Personal Method. And to those of you who do want to learn Morse Code, try to find an Elmer who is willing to spend some time with you. If you can’t find one who can meet with you, hang in there with your cassette tapes or your computer program until you know enough code to work with an Elmer on the air. As the SKCC website says, “If you can only key at 3 words per minute, so be it.” There are SKCC Elmers who are eager to work with you (http://www.skccgroup.com/elmers.php). You’ll be amazed at how quickly you build up your speed, and you’ll enjoy the experience a thousand times more than by trying to learn all by yourself.

¹ This quote is all over the Internet, but I’ve yet to see any citation for it. If you know where Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote this, please let me know!

George visits the Twit.tv studios and interviews Randy Hall, K7AGE. Tommy visits the Huntsville Hamfest. Jim builds an Audio Isolation Interface. Peter shows us the DATV QSO Party.

My friend is getting back into ham radio for the first time since he was a boy, and one of the first things he wants is a straight key. I’ve steered him toward the Nye Viking Speed-X key. You can spend lots of money on keys nowadays, and I admit that some of them are mighty pretty. But the eham reviews of the Speed-X key suggest that looks aren’t everything. Unless you’re willing to spend a fortune for a luxury-model, I say put your money on the Speed-X. It’s worth every penny.

Probably the best way to mount this key is to screw it down to your desk if you’re willing to. Or you can buy a nice heavy aluminum base for this key straight from Nye Viking. But here’s how you can make an attractive, heavy base for not a whole lot of money. Here’s the finished product (I made this years ago):

I found this inexpensive piece of wood at Michael’s (an arts and crafts store). It was unfinished with the edges already routed as shown. When you find your own piece of wood like this, figure out where you want to mount your key. I used nuts and bolts to mount my key, but wood screws probably would have been better (by the time you’re done with this project, you’ll have a hard time getting to any nuts on the underside because they will be covered with felt). If you do decide to use nuts and bolts, drill holes for the bolts now so that you know where those holes are in the next step.

Flip the piece of wood upside down and go to work hollowing out as much of it as you can, starting about a half inch in from each edge. I can’t remember if I used a chisel, a Dremel tool, or both, but either would work. Just be careful not to hollow out so much that you punch through to the other side! Leave enough wood in the spots where you’re going to bolt or screw down your key so that you have a good strong mount when you’re done.

Once you hollow out the underside of your piece of wood, take a hot glue gun and glue in as much lead shot as you can stuff in there. This is what makes the base nice and heavy so that your key doesn’t jump around while you’re pounding out CW.

Give the block of wood a quick sanding, stain it with your favorite stain, varnish it, and mount your key! If you are using nuts and bolts, I recommend using a bit of Locktite to keep them from coming loose.

The last step is to glue a piece of felt to the underside of the block of wood. This hides the unsightly gob of lead shot and glue you’ve put in there, and it lets you slide the thing around on your desk smoothly. Don’t worry, it won’t make it too slippery. If you’ve put enough lead shot in there it will stay put just fine while you’re pounding brass. Here’s a look at the underside of mine:

If you build one of these yourself, let me know! I’d love to hear from you.

Items required:
Wooden base (available from craft store)
Felt (also available from craft store)
Lead shot (available from sporting goods store)
Nuts & bolts (or wood screws) to mount key
Dremel tool and/or wood-chisel
Hot glue gun
Wood Stain
Varnish

Made one of those last minute decisions to go out and operate in the last minute announced QRP-ARCI Welcome to QRP Event. Packed my trusty Sierra and End Fed Half Wave with Stuner (ala Stu KI6J) and went down to the lake park to take over the shelter. Hurricane Irene’s leftover wind gusts of up to 30 mph made the launching of antenna supports a bit more challenging than normal, but I used a bit heavier sinker than normal and only need one do-over shot to get my two lines in the air.

K4UPG setup for QRP ARCI Welcome to QRP Event 2011

Ran my EFHW in a L configuration with the vertical side up to about 33 feet and the horizontal side going to a nearby tree that was well placed for hanging my antenna. I started on 40 m and shortly after light off worked QRP contest regular W4BAI and felt good about the day. But either the band or the connection quickly began to let me down with signals diminishing quickly into the noise floor. Reluctantly shortened the antenna to switch to 20m and for some reason signals there were even lower in strength… and the antenna was not loading. Hmmmm! Could not get the LED to even dim–what could cause that? Changed my coax from rig to tuner, double checked the banana plugs and all seemed well there, but no match and the signals I heard were WAY down in the mud. I tried to check freq with a QRL? on several spots and called CQ until I was tired of pounding brass with no response heard. No fun…

Then the DUH-tective showed up and solved the problem.

Seems I had not switched the band module in the Sierra and it was still on 40m but the antenna was a 20m EFHW. DUH… my sincere apologies to anyone that got qrm’ed by my QRL’s and CQ’s into a mis-matched antenna. This is one time that I was glad to be running QRP at only 2.4 watts out. A quick band switch and I worked another contest regular K0ZK and then in the next QSO worked NE5DL for both QRP ARCI and SKCC number exchanges in two different QSO’s. Had a bit of distraction in the middle of our first QSO as the rain started and was pounding into my back as the 30 mph winds sent the rain horizontally! A bit more with Dave and I called it a day before the rig got wet. Good thing the DUH-tective showed up.

My sole visitor was a Black Racer about 4 ft away from me!

Hey, I was outdoors, saw a nice looking 3+ft long Black Racer snake about 4 feet from my operating position and made a couple QSO’s despite the goof ups. Who could ask for more?

Another QRP To The Field is in the books. Some may wonder why we do it…why spend the time and energy to take our rigs outdoors and operate? Guess if you have never done it, you will never know! The weather made things tough for many parts of the country, but it was sure sweet to live in Florida for this one. Sunny and a warm 87F with a bit of breeze down by the lake made my day a very special one.

K4UPG QRP TTF Lake Fredrica 2011

The bands were fair to poor, but who cared? I was enjoying my hobby, making a few contacts, giving out points to the more serious contesters and spending time in the outdoors. It is a bunch of fun to make contacts with 2 watts and change, use a straight key and launch an antenna up about 35-40 feet in the pine trees.

Between QSO’s the ospreys provided some entertainment as they swooped down into the lake to snag a fish for their dinner while 4 guys on jet skis raced around our little lake. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon. That’s why I do it! How about you?

For my friends celebrating Passover, here are the four questions in CW. First the “intro” question:

And the other four questions, a bit faster (so you can get on with the seder):

Text to Morse translation courtesy of Learn CW Online. The first part is at 20 wpm, the main four questions are at 50 wpm. (And no, I can’t decode that by ear either.)

Happy Passover!

The player embedded here requires HTML 5, which means you’ll need a pretty recent browser. If you don’t have one, you can right-click and save the intro and the questions.