Just getting back into Ham Radio after a 15-18 year break... I am CFO #88 and wondering if there are any members lurking on here. After trying most all the modes over the years since 1958, CW is still my favorite. Really looking forward to getting an antenna up and back on the bands again before long.
You can start out with just 80, 40, 30, and 20, and 17m right now. Probably seventy-five percent of the action is on 40 and 20m. You could just throw up a two-band parallel ("fan") dipole for 20 and 40 and have at it while planning something more elaborate. 15, 12, and 10m are open occasionally, but nobody is up there listening and so most of the openings go unnoticed. It seems like there aren't as many beacons as there used to be, and there's no RBN skimmers at those wavelengths. I worked an LU on 10m on the seventh of this month; I couldn't hear any beacons at all before I heard him and had thought the band was dead; after he worked me he called and called, but nobody else came back. Currently 15m is open to Central/South America from here.
I've been in/out of ham all my life, but I remember fondly some years back hearing some of the CW traffic handlers doing the 'cluck cluck' and the exit call of the CFO. Sometimes could hear higher speed, bug mostly, ragchews ending the same way. Got back in ham late 2015 and gravitated back to CW. Didn't take long to notice the 'clucking' was mostly missing, then one day I heard it. "Blast from the past." Some of those guys were and are above my head on CW, but I sure would like to hear more 'clucking'. Lots of slow out there, lots of high speed contesting, but I sure miss that 'cluck'.
I'm not nearly fast enuff to qualify for a CFO Membership... Likely you'll find the speedway is below 7040 es 3540. Welcome bk home OM!
I’m still trying to figure out what CFO means (and what’s on the web isn’t very explanatory). So, Grand Poobahs of CFO, please enlighten me!
