Hooked on CW !!

Just a few weeks ago, QRZ published my article entitled "Forty Years is a Long Time," chronicling how, for the past 40 years, I never used, let along thought of CW, and have now discovered its virtues and benefits.

After nearly 40 postings to my article and as many personal messages, I am compelled to write a follow-up article. The temper of those messages are akin to Oprah’s personal message: "You go, Arnie," and "we’re behind you 100 percent."

I’ve returned to tell you that I’m hooked on CW!

Sure there is the thrill of working DX, calling that station on the other side of the globe and hearing your call letters spoken by someone of a different accent. And sure, there is the thrill of hearing a massive pile-up, calling that station with 100 watts and have your call answered.


But this does not prepare you for the thrill of sending out a CQ on 20 meters CW in the late evening and not knowing who will answer.

The thrill of sending that CQ with only 20 watts or less, followed by your call letters, waiting a short time and hearing your call letters in Morse Code coming back to you is an experience that doesn’t get any better, especially when you don’t know where it is coming from, 200 miles away or the other side of the world.

Those readers thinking of, getting back into CW after a hiatus, should ponder no more. As the athletic shoe manufacturer continues to say, "Just Do It!" After 40 years, I just did it!!

Except for the occasional DX and the skeds with friends, I have put away my microphones and purchased a new paddle that makes all the difference in the world. No longer practicing on the air every evening with N6DDF just a few miles away, we now venture onto the airways seeking our prey with a vengeance.

The other hams that I have met on CW are fantastic and most accommodating. You’d be surprised at the number of contacts that tell me that they have just gotten back into CW and are sending slower than I am!

For all those hams that have QRS’d when I have asked, I am proud to send slower in hopes that one more ham will embrace CW as have I.

The thrill I have experienced, as a new CW operator, when my call is answered by a JA3 or last night when I heard my call letters coming back followed by the call of an OK1, is an incredible experience.

No longer does the FCC require 13 words per minute, it has been reduced to 5. A piece of cake.

Those operators needing some code practice, just dial up the ARRL code practice on your radios and listen. The link for their on-the-air schedule is http://www.arrl.org/w1aw.html . The option is
also available to listen to the code practice from their web site or download some of the files for later practice. Look at http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/morse.html for additional information.

You can also purchase code practice tapes and listen to them as you drive down the crowded freeways. Be sure and find the tapes where the letters are sent at a high speed and there are long spaces between those letters, knows as the “farnsworth” method. As time goes by, you will be able to shorten those spaces and "voilà," your speed quickly improves.

Another method is to listen to the ARRL code practice and to other stations and simply be aware of the letters and begin to form some of the words without writing them down. You will be very surprised how much you are copying in your head.

These are by no means failsafe or guaranteed methods for learning or improving on the code, but I am here to tell you that all these methods have worked for me and in a short matter of time.

Come on, lay down those microphones and get out the paddles and straight keys. All you need is the will and if you have read this far, you are just about there!!
I’ll see you on the lower ends of the bands!!


Arnie
W7BIA
w7BIA@qsl.net

 

I have occasionally turned on the rig late at night and tuned around a nearly dead band to see what turned up.  The band was not crowded and there were no pile ups.  It was just a lot of fun seeing who was there.

But it has been a few years since I have tried that.  I spend more time working on RTTY, repeaters or computers.  And I often had problems getting on and making random contacts.  The good operators were going too fast and the slow ones would be so sloppy they were harder to copy than the fast ones.  I just kind of gave it up.

I am starting to think that there may be an unexpected benefit of having the Morse code testing reduced to insignificance.  Some guys just gripe about it, but others are doing something and making the process of learning and gaining proficiency more convenient and the bands more friendly.

Maybe this is the time to think about trying a little CW.  I am going to give it a try.

 

I tried PSK31, and it was entertaining for a few minutes.

Then I got back into CW. Somehow, PSK31 had the effect of bringing back my
appetite for it!

My suggestion: don't bother brushing up. Just jump in! There are plenty of
hams willing to have a QSO no matter how slow you need to go. Your speed
will come up as you go. Just go with the flow. The point is to have fun, not
sweat over how fast you can go. Speed will come if that's what you crave.

There's plenty of room too!

73, WA2IAC

 

I have to admit that CW does have many charms for me.

I'm 27 yrs old and am expecting my "New" IC-730 sometime this weekend. I bought a somewhat rusty Heathkit straight key since the rig doesn't have a keyer, it's a good start until I can find a used Bencher key (Yeah, right&#33 and a keyer.

I am a digital freak. I love RTTY and have yet to try PSK31. However, in order to use these modes, you really need a decent rig with IF Notch and Shift filters in it.

However, with CW, all you need is something that can recieve and anything that emits RF w/ a crystal or VFO to transmit. (Heck, I remember seeing an article in CQ a on how to build a QRP 20m CW xmitter with 74LS00 TTL logic IC's.. Wish I could find it, I'd build one&#33 I think that my IC-730 will be more than adequate! hi

I'm proud that I managed to drum up an entire HF station on $1000 Canadian. If I homebrewed, God knows how much I could have saved. I suspect that if I wanted to work hardcore phone and digital, I'd need to spend at least another $1000.

I live in a Condo complex so I don't have the luxury of putting up a beam or a decently sized vertical. I purchased an MFJ Apartment antenna, we'll see how much luck I have with that. I have a feeling that most of my success will happen on CW however.

What I admire most about CW though is that some CW ops are willing ragchew at 5 WPM for almost four hours, like what one op did! God, I wish I could remember his call!

Someday I dream about getting my speed up to at least 20 WPM... maybe 25 or 30 and getting a few RAC CW qualification certificates. Some Hams in Canada I know find that seeing "5 WPM" on their station license is almost insulting when they can easily do 25-30 WPM.

Gotta keep studying! There's something really satisfying about being able to listen to Morse and have a friend ask you, "What did that say?" and be able to tell them.

Thanks for the topic post!

 

I've had my ticket for 2 years + one week, I'm 49 years old and an old SWLer - waited too long to get my ticket, just afraid of the CW, I guess. On X-mas morning 1999, I awoke and said to myself "If a 7 year old kid can do it, so can I". five weeks later 5WPM no problem, three written exams - no problems... One month after the first test session 13WPM no probelms- Advance exam perfect score.... two weeks before the day the music died, passed the Extra exam & flunked to 20 WPM by one question. Went crazy trying to find a test site to give me the code test before April 15, 2000. No luck....

Now CW is a joy - CW contesting is great fun.

While I still feel cheated (not passing the 20 WPM) I truly love the music.
Here's hoping many new guys & gals will experience the joy of meeting the greatest people in Ham Radio - on the air - Via CW....
73 to all - keep the music alive....

Bill Hannon, N8PW

 

This is an outstanding thread. Congrats, Arnie, and to the rest of you who are coming back to CW. I am hopelessly addicted to CW, to the degree that if I go for more than two or three hours without a contact, I start twitching.  Not really, but you get the idea. If you are very active on CW you will run into a jerk or two, but my experience is that, generally speaking, CW ops are courteous, polite, and patient to a fault. Like a couple of posters hinted at, speed just isn't a big deal. If you stay on the air, and work on your fist, you get better with time. It is no harder than that. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen. You have to put in your time. The key to developing CW skill, and having fun is getting on the air. If you don't copy everything, don't worry about it. Do the best you can, and keep after it. What is really satisfying is the realization that your skills are improving. When I first started, I told myself that I was going to make one or two contacts a day, at least, for a month or two before I decided if I liked CW or not. At the end of the first month, when I could see that I had improved, I was hooked. You pick up a word or two a minute here and there, and six or seven months later, you are doing pretty well, and the next thing you know, you've been at it a year and doing nicely, thank you. You don't have to be a high speed CW op to enjoy it, or to have a respectable fist, and be sure to remember that, when the shoe is on the other foot, and you are faced with a new CW op who needs you to slow down for them, DO IT! That's what Nike needs...an ad for CW...JUST DO IT! In a couple of months I will have been doing CW for three years, and I've enjoyed every minute of it, and it is the best thing in Ham Radio I've ever done, and I'm darn proud to be 99% CW, and I don't think there's a darn thing wrong with phone. I'd just rather be doing CW. Simple as that.

 

          Hey these smile doo-dats are pretty nifty-

CW- I LLLLLLLlOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEE

cw!!!! I am so glad many are coming to it- hey it's fun, and if you're passing someone witha vanity plate and don't have one yourself or if you do, you can

toot out   "dah dah di di dit     di di di dah dah"

or use your headlights, that's kind of fun...  could whislte it but liable to get back 569C in response.

I have been actually having my stomach hurt thinking about possibly 20 years from now but no one to qrq with, I aspire to be able to ear copy 30wpm and up... but I was so fearful of that if/when the code reqs are completely dropped no one would do such an "outmoded" art form anymore!  

I'll be first to admit, phone is the way to go to get the info across fastest, faster than typing w/psk31 even, and I can't wait to try psk31, but- code is just- in your head; so Morse is simply just a real blast for me anyway!

It took a while for me to learn it when I was 9 or 10, but what happens is, once you get 5wpm, if you keep listening to speeds just above your 100% copy level sooner than you'd believe you'll be bumping along faster than you might have thought possible.  Believe it and it will be true!


              dcy.

 

I bought my first key this past Saturday at a local hamfest and wired it in on Monday. A General only since early January, I was apprehensive about keying up the transmitter for the first time, but I eventually worked up the courage and sent out a few tentative CQ's. No luck.
  So, I started thinking and realized that I didn't have the rig properly tuned for CW! After a bit of adjusting, the next night on Tuesday I tried again. When I heard my own callsign coming back to me, though, I got what hunters call "buck fever." I call it "Code Fever." I started shaking all over and went completely blank.
  "Di dah dah"? Duh. What is that? Did I hear a Q? Was that a one? Uh...Morse Code? What's Morse Code? What are these noises coming out of my radio?!
  After a deep breath, I managed to get control enough of my nerves to send a QRZ, but forgot to put the question mark on it. The call came back again. I'm better now. W...1...?...P. I managed to send that back and remembered to add the question mark.
  Again the call came back. W...6 (ah....6, not 1)...Q...P.
I think this actually went on for about five minutes. The two of us just exchanging callsigns until I got his right! I can only remember about three things from the exchange:
  1) The gentleman on the other end was truly a gentleman and obviously as anxious as I that I make this contact.
  2) At the end of the exchange (which lasted the better part of an hour), I was wrung out...exhausted.
  3) I've never been more excited about anything I've done in radio!
  Today, I received my first cw qsl card in the mail from Howard, W6QP. You'd better believe that one gets a place of honor in the shack!
  Thanks to Howard for not giving up on me. Guys like him are my idols.
  I made a couple of other brief, but broken contacts after that when "code fever" set in again, compounded by QRN and QRM. I was about to get discouraged. Then, just last night, my CQ was answered at least as slowly as I had sent it...maybe slower. I thought, "Wow...another guy who's going to be super patient with me."
  I managed to get his callsign right after only two or three attempts. I sent: "new cw op. vry nrvs." What I got back was: "also new cw op. u r first call." Colin, N0YGY and I had a nice, long, slow QSO, and we have plans to meet again on the air.
  Folks, if you haven't tried cw, JUST DO IT! When I made my first SSB contact into Europe, I was beside myself. When I pushed 100 watts on a dipole through a pileup to KC4AAA at the South Pole, I thought, "Man, this is the contact of a lifetime!" But my first CW QSO with Howard means far more to me than either of those other firsts. I can think of only one word to describe it: Magic.
  If you've never tried it, be prepared. On the air isn't like the tapes or the computer programs, or even the test. Tapes and software offer nice, clear, loud tones and the opportunity to rewind or replay. On the air, there's static, heterodyning, other signals in the way, and signal fade. Then, of course, there's "Code Fever."
  I've still got a long way to go, and if any of you more experienced ops out there hear me on 20 meters, please go easy on me!
 
  Just with the few contacts I've made, though, I've already noticed a marked improvement in my ability to both send and receive. As a teacher by trade, I often tell my students the old cliche that "we learn by doing." Nothing could be truer when it comes to cw.
  Get a key. Unplug the mike. Catch your own case of Code Fever!

 

a short note. (i hate reading long posts hihi) got my ticket in the early 70's...  have not done cw since 77..  on a whim started up two months ago..  was at 4 1/2 wpm..   now back up to  a respectable rate..  its just tons of fun, and have been buying all sorts of cw toys that didnt exist back then... have not used the mic for the past 2 months..  just cw and enjoying it..  by the way there is a terrific new toy out there that is the best i have ever seen for learning cw or getting the dust off of the old brain...   i picked up a used mfj-418...   fantastic toy, however the person who designed the carry case deserves a darwin award..  i wont tell you why .. if you get one you will understand..  the unit is fantastic..  the leather case is  murphy's law at its finest..  73 de paul w8jn

 

WOW What a GREAT Post !!  Just my 2-cents worth.
    I've been an avid CW opr for 40 years and love it.  Just as an invite to all you up and coming CW ops, young and old alike.
    I want to invite you to look into joining the fastest growing group of CW Operators IN THE WORLD. Take a peak at our website at www.FISTS.org .
    Also, if you are interested in QRP or QRPP, there are many operators who run both and are active in the FISTS organization.
    Check-out the suggested FISTS' frequencies and you'll hear all kinds of CW operators, old timers as well as beginners.
We all work together and enjoy a good rag chew, not just swapping numbers..      "Accuracy Transcends Speed"
    Check it out and Join us.  
                            Vy 73's                    de TexA
 

 

Welcome to the group, amigo!

I went through your experiences a few (&#33 years back. I put off getting my ham ticket because of the CW and swore once I passed the test, I'd never pick up a key again. My first call (WN5CLS) came with a CW-only, 75 watt limit. I finally got the nerve to get on the air (no Elmers around then) and made my first CW QSO at somewhere around 2 or 3 WPM, I think, and sweating to copy and not screw up too bad.

That one QSO hooked me. I later passed the 13 WPM code test, of course, after practicing only on the air - I never could copy practice tapes, etc. Interestingly, after upgrading from Novice to General and Advanced, it was about 3 years before I actually bought a microphone.

Of course, I use SSB, PSK31, Packet, RTTY, FM and any other mode that strikes my fancy. But CW is still my favorite after 30+ years.

I've had several hams tell me they want to get on CW, but lack the needed skills. My advice:

"Screw the skills - just grab a key and get on." The skills will come with practice and any ham that isn't understanding and willing to QRS and offer advice, isn't worth rag chewing with anyway. Many have had (and still do&#33 have patience with me.

So, if you hear YV1/KE5WJ on 10-12-15-17-20-30-40 meters CW, give me a yell. It will be a privelidge.

Walt
KE5WJ

 

I agree! CW is one of the most wonderful modes I have ever worked! I have only had my liscence for about 7 months now and I was so taken by the fun of morse that i quickly worked my speed up to about 15 wpm.
and in that time of the first 2 months of my liscence when I held my Tech w/ HF I upgraded to general for the simple hunger of wanting more of the CW spectrum on HF. I hope you have a lot of fun and I will continue to have mone

Joe,
KC2IRV

 

Arnie --

Great Post !!

The thrill of sending out a CQ on 15 or 10 CW on a cold winter's morning with a hot cup of coffee nearby, and the B&W 5100B and SX-101A heating the room is an experience that can't be beat !!

73 Mark K3ZX

 

This thread has been music to my ears!  It's also confirming to me that there are more people intersted in CW than I originally thought when I got started with it 3 months ago.

I got my Technician ticket a little over a year ago and worked my way up to an Extra class operator in 4 months under the 5 wpm plan.  But, to be quite honest, I soon became embarrassed to let anyone know that I was an Extra class operator after I became "schooled" in the understanding that there were many Extra class operators who wouldn't approve of my "Extra" class status.

I bought my first rig about 3 months ago from Richard, N5XM, and pretty much made a promise to myself that I would NOT use the mic except for very rare and special circumstances.  I was determined to learn CW and to become proficient at it.  In 3 months, I've learned to love CW and have made it my primary mode of operation.  The mic still seldom gets used.  But, instead of avoiding the temptation to use it, the temptation is gone.  Sure, I do use it once in awhile just for something different, and I do enjoy it, but I would have to admit that the thrill of CW has me hooked!

I've averaged more than one contact a day for the past 3 months and I just can't get enough of it.  Many special thanks to Richard, N5XM for his constant encouragement to me when I first got started, and still today.  He never once looked down on me, but encouraged me to give CW a fair try.  Boy am I glad I did!  I'm still plugging away at around 13 wpm, but I've vowed to NEVER forget where I came from.  Someday, when I'm a true QRQ operator, I want to take the favor that N5XM passed along to me and fan the CW "flame" in another new CW operator ... and another ... and another ...

Michael ABØQU
ab0qu@arrl.net

 

This thread hit the nail square on the head!! I believe I am seeing more CW activity, not less in the last five years of my 30 years total. As a tech in the early 70's, I didn't much like it, but CW is both challenge and thrill. Oh,sure you can work DX on any mode you like, but CW lets you do it without depending on the PC and it always cuts through QRM like a knife, even with homebrew QRP.
  I have gotten requests recently for teaching amateur radio courses, not for the written, but for code! Five WPM  is so doable, that all these people need is a little CW help and they will pass the General and Extra. And slow CW will get lots of patient replies if you call CQ.
  It is amazing to see a 'digital' mode, invented by Morse and Vail some 150 years ago, still have such utility. Myself (and others) write programs to send and receive CW by computer, so it is far from obsolete. Who can say which modes presently used on the bands will still be popular 20 years from now? I think CW will be in common use in 2022!
                        Mike, WN2A
My Webpage