I wanted to share with the users my (and a couple of others) infiltration of CW. Myself, Jay, and now Brad have decided to take up this ancient art for the fun of it. Now, a few years ago, at least 2 of us wouldn’t have considered CW fun!CW for myself and Jay was more of an obstacle than a mode of choice. We had to learn it to upgrade to General in order to obtain HF privledges. Now, I have heard the “oldtimers” talk about how much fun CW was. Bah, I said, just CW propaganda. These folks just wanted to make sure everybody had to learn it because they had to back in the day.
In 2002, when I learned the required 5 wpm for my code test, something happened. I became intrigued. But I knew better at the time, so I promised myself that one day when I was a little older and a little more patient, I would try this mess out. That day came quite unexpectedly in November of 2006. I can’t say why, but I was sitting at work and thought it was time to give it a shot. So, I downloaded the G4FON software, read about differeny learning methods, found some other software and audio cd’s, and went to work. When I started, I could only remember a few letters. Within a couple of weeks I was copying most of the alphabet decently.
I then let Jay in on what I was doing. I knew he was just coming off learning the code for his upgrade and that if it was going to happen, now was the time. For those that don’t know, Jay was always strong against learning the code. He had no interest in it and thought it was silly that he be made to learn it in order to operate HF SSB. I saw his argument, but always remained neutral in the know-code/no-code debate. I really didn’t care one way or another.
My timing was perfect it seems. Jay, although a little resistant at first, brushed up a little and we started practicing on air. We decided 2 meters would be the safest place. It was quiet, we had great signals, and there was nobody to make fun of our sloppy fists. The first practice session went very well. We started at 10 wpm. We also had AIM up on each end, sending each other words and verifying them through AIM. My favortie game at the time was for one of us to send a word, and the other had to send a related word. For example, Jay would send “birthday” and I would send “party”. After a couple of sessions, we dropped AIM and mindless chatter and actually had a conversation. I don’t have to tell most of you that a 60 minute conversation at 10 wpm is no more than a few lines. Not efficient, but it was actually fun.
We kept it up usually about once a week. If we went 2 weeks in between, we suffered. After a couple of months, I knew that once a week was just not enough. For a month I wanted so bad to call CQ and talk to a stranger. I had been reading that the best way to learn to use CW efficiently was to practice on air. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Jay had a couple of “stranger QSOs” as I started to call them. He encouraged me like Nike, Just do it. Finally, one night I did it. I called CQ. Almost immediately I got an answer. The fella on the other end was sending a little too fast for me. I managed to get his call and asked him to QRS. He did, kind of. Although his “dahs” slowed down, his “dits” were just as fast. So I asked again, and again the “dahs” slowed down, but not the “dits”. (Later I found out that he was using a bug which apparenlty is easy to slow down “dahs”, but “dits” take more work.) So, I made do. It went rather well.
After that, I tried to make at least one QSO every night. Although I don’t make one every night, I usually get 4-5 in a week.
I’ll leave it at that for now. To come: Jay and I talk Brad into joining into the fun and I improve more than I though I would.
Stay tuned…
