How to develop skills for beyond the rubber-stamp QSOs

Slow down your sending, and if the other guy is still too fast, send "QRS PSE, ENGLISH NOT MY LANGUAGE". Then maybe echo back something that you partially received, and let him fill it in. If he doesn't slow down for you, say 73 and move on to someone who will.

While different people have different preferences, I know I'm not alone in preferring a slow "rag chew" conversation on random topics over a fast "rubber stamp" QSO. You will find plenty of people to talk to if you slow down and/or ask them to slow down. And I believe you will be admired much more for attempting to communicate in Morse code using a language that is not your native language.

The W1AW practice sessions have English text at various speeds. I don't know how well you can receive them over the air at your location, but they're available online at http://www.arrl.org/code-practice-files .

 

マークさん、こんばんは。私は日本語が苦手です。なぜなら、いろんな文字があって混乱するからです。
Give me a litte English lesson, please. You use "it" as an object to make it mean the following if-clause. This usage is new to me. I would say insted like, "I'd love to converse a bit if we could." Is that a common practice among the native speakers?

The problem is that I can QRV on the 40mB only, and what is worse, my legal power is barefoot and the antenna is an "inverted Vee".

Thus, the other station's signal is usually as weak as to be barely read, and that QSB prevents me from steady reception.

I'll ask the operator to be considerate to me next time. I think I should remember English is my secondary language. Thanks.
Dan JL1DCA

 

I understood your Japanese just fine.

It's a regional thing....some folks say "I'd love it if you'd do something or other, and some would say "I would love to converse a bit if we could". Your version is more grammatically correct. Depending on where in the US we're from, the tendency to use "it" as an object may or may not be common.

I'm running barefoot as well, with a HexBeam at 30' and have been able to hear and converse with Japanese stations in the past. Hope I hear you soon!

またね、ダヌさん。

 

「ダン」の方がいいです。「タヌキ」かと思いました。
The Japanese second-class licensee is allowed up to 200 watts, to be exact.
My rig is 100-watt.

Dan "Bookish"　Suzuki　JL1DCA

 

Hee hee! We've all been there. The trick is to never transmit any faster than you can comfortably receive.

Fortunately, as a Novice, I was FORCED to learn how to do conversational CW. But I had a like-minded friend with whom I had long QSOs every night. I think that's the best way.....set up a regular sked with another CW op and go for it.

Eric

 

I'm aware of it that in case of that-clause "it" is used as an object to form a sentence.

Taihei "Dan" Suzuki JL1DCA

 

Dan-san, I teach conversational English sometimes. Even my XYL who is very fluent in English, has a big problem using the pronoun "it", and usually leaves it out of the sentence ("The tea is in the refrigerator, would you please bring -- to the table?"). I always understand what she means but it sounds wrong. I suspect it comes from the teaching materials in the schools because my middle-school daughter also makes the same mistake.

I can meet you on 40 meter CW any time. I also run "barefoot" 100 watts and a dipole but get good reports from the Tokyo area. I would enjoy it because except for JA1NUT I have not found many locals who enjoy English CW QSOs.

Steve JS6TMW (Naha City)

 

I use a program called CWtype for practice receiving. Best of all it's FREE. It is for sending morse via a computer with the keyboard, has type ahead buffer, and memory's but it doesn't copy. That doesn't matter because the whole point of morse , in my opinion, is the copy part and that's what your goal is. The audio comes from the computer sound card. You can go to File and open a text document on your computer such as a readme.txt or any .txt file or just go to a web page, copy some text and paste the text in the Cwtype "Buffer" window. Click the TX button in the tool bar and it will send the code over your computer speakers. Make sure the Speaker button (beside the TX) button is active because mine for some reason is off when I open the program. Under settings you can set the pitch of the tone , Window text size and colors for text and background. In the tool bar at the top you can set the speed and the CW keying "weight".

It is a simple program to use and it really helps to just copy text that isn't cookie cutter. I like to copy and paste text in it about something that I'm interested in and I can Practice CW and learn something at the same time.

Iv'e been a ham since 1964 and 95% CW operator. I enjoy conversations in CW.
I also found an article, I'll attach a link, which shows how to build a little simple sound to relay circuit that you can hook to a speaker output of your sound card and it will key a relay from the sound card which in turn you can use the program as a cw keyboard. The article will help explain the program and It is self explanatory if you play with it.

http://www.polar-electric.com/Morse/TX_via_Soundcard.pdf

73

 

Thanks for info anyway. But, your language and technical directions are hard to understand.

JL1DCA Dan

 

Sorry Dan, I didn't mean to be insensitive of the language barrier. I wasn't thinking. I know what you mean about technical directions. Sometime I feel that I'm reading a foreign language even though they are in English. I'm like K7MEM post 2, I have problems with the English language myself and I started learning it 65 years ago! I envy you for knowing a second language even if it is limited ,and a third MORSE CODE.

You said in post 1 you are having QSO's at 22 wpm, that's is fast for most people maybe slowing down a little would give you a little time to process the letters and words. I copy in my head 25 WPM and above. Thirty WPM is about my limit with 95% copy. My brain can't hear the letter and then write it on paper fast enough to catch the next letter write it and so on. I start getting behind in my copy if that makes sense. There was a time when I would write down what I was hearing. I found it was better if I wrote down the letters without looking so I wouldn't try to read what was being sent until I got a breather. What I wrote looked bad but I could read it. Everyone has a limit and can progress with the next level giving enough time but you know that.
Morse code Should be considered a language shouldn't it?
Good Luck.