No, this isn’t a word ladder or anything like that. It’s a little random musing on the similarities between what I do with my Morse paddle and what my partner Dulcie does in her work from home transcription services business.
It struck me recently that the process by which I convert words and letters into left/right movements of my paddle, apparently without conscious effort but after a lot of practise and training, is very similar to the process by which Dulcie converts what she hears into key presses on her keyboard. I suspect it’s also very similar to the way in which musicians convert notes on the staff when sight reading into the appropriate hand/foot/lip/mouth movements to make their instrument produce the correct sound.
It’s amazing how these things come to you all of a sudden. Who’d have thought that my amateur radio hobby would be related in this way to Dulcie’s job as a self employed audio transcription typist.
Then again maybe it’s not so amazing after all and it was just me being a bit slow in seeing the similarities…? 
Dean Amateur Radio, Blog, Totally random audio transcription, morse code, transcription services
As of today I have 127 countries worked on CW. That’s about 127 more than I expected back when first licensed in 1991! Back then it was SSB all the way even though the 12 word per minute Morse test was still a requirement for access to the shortwave bands.
I do have a few Morse contacts in the log from those early days but they really were few and far between. The ease with which I could make contacts on 10m and 15m SSB meant that there was little incentive for me to knuckle down and spend time perfecting the fine art of CW and achieving CW DXCC seemed nigh on impossible.
Fast forward to June 2007 when, having been back on the bands for the best part of two years, I decided to dust off the cobwebs and get back on the bands with a bit of the old Morse code. I used a cheap old Chinese straight key for a while but then moved on to using the keyer in an Icom IC-703 working CW contests with about 8 watts output into my 20m dipole. I subsequently moved on to a K8RA iambic paddle (a beautifully engineered bit of kit which I am still trying to really become proficient with) and higher power levels (although always well under 100 watts). I also adopted computer keying for contests and DXpeditions where the exchanges are short and sharp.
The net result of all of this is that since June 2007 I have worked those 127 countries on CW. In the same time period I have worked 121 countries on RTTY and only worked 96 countries using SSB (where the overall country total is now at 112). A reflection of the relative levels of activity on the respective modes where, as you can see, SSB is currently my least used mode. How things have changed since those early days!
Dean Amateur Radio CW, DXCC, morse code, SSB
This weekend sees the annual 24 hour RSGB Commonwealth (BERU) contest on the air from 10:00 UTC Saturday the 13th of March to 10:00 UTC on Sunday the 14th of March 2010. This is a CW (Morse code) only contest for amateur radio stations located in member states of the British Commonwealth. This means it’s usually easier to work some nice DX because the DX isn’t working the whole world! Pile-ups (such as they occur) are considerably less intense.
Band conditions seem to have been pretty good with the sunspot number up at 32 as I write (Sunday 09:24 UTC). Solar cycle 24 certainly seems to be making a difference because I don’t remember hearing anything like the number of VK and ZL stations I’ve heard this year. Add to that the fact that I actually managed to work New Zealand on 20m for a new one, Australia on 20m and 40m and South Africa on 20m it was a lot of fun. An added bonus was picking up another new one on Saturday afternoon, 5H3EE (Tanzania) on 20m.
All in all it was a good weekend even if I was unable to spend as much time on the bands as I’d hoped. I worked stations in Australia, New Zealand, Tanzania, Cyprus, St Vincent, Montserrat, Canada and South Africa. Much improved from last year and certainly enough evidence to suggest that next years contest will be even better. See you in BERU 2011!
Dean Amateur Radio contest, CW, morse code, propagation, Solar Cycle 24
A bit of a mixed bag really with no new ones, not even one, but some nice DX worked, especially on 40m on the Sunday evening. Overall I made 85 contacts (a result of more tuning & listening than transmitting) with 48 DXCC entities logged over the weekend in several sessions on 15/20/40m bands. Details on a separate page which is here - CQWW CW contest 2009 - summary - or linked from the Radio menu above.
the 48 countries logged - CQWW CW Nov 2009
On a less serious note I have to award my ‘biggest signal on the band’ award to G3WW who was booming into Lichfield at S9+60db at very least. I’d be interested to know just what antenna was in use to get such a big intra UK signal.
Dean Amateur Radio antenna, contest, CW, DXCC, morse code, propagation
…this time from a new country for me, Bermuda. This is for a CW (morse code) contact with Yuri (as VE3DZ/VP9) in the CQWW WPX CW contest back in May.
The colourful VE3DZ/VP9 QSL card
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Here you can see the nice colourful card showing a nice view of the island basking in the sun. I sent my card direct to Yuri’s postal address (a PO box) in the USA soon after the contest in May so by my reckoning it’s taken about 4 months for the return card to reach me. That’s pretty good.
I send many direct QSL cards, usually to stations that either don’t have a bureau facility or choose not to QSL via a bureau. It can take years to get a reply and anything within 6 months is pretty good!
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Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures Bermuda, contest, CW, morse code, QSL, WPX
Advocates of CW (Morse code) will often cite its advantages over other modes like phone (by which they usually mean single sideband (SSB) these days). One of those advantages, a side effect of it’s narrow bandwidth (meaning that the transmitted energy is ‘focused’ into a narrow signal), is its ability to ‘get through’ when other modes can’t. They’ll tell you that CW will get you the QSO more times than any other mode, such as for instance when conditions just won’t allow you to conduct a phone contact.
Case in point - this years RSGB (radio society of Great Britain) IOTA (islands on the air) contest, held this past weekend from noon UTC Saturday to noon UTC Sunday. It’s usually a good measure of both your antenna and conditions because many of the participating stations on islands will be running modest power with simple antennas (unlike other major contests where the ‘big guns’ are out with their huge antenna systems and powerful amplifiers). Bottom line is, in the IOTA contest your station needs two basic attributes - good ears and a good radiated signal. This boils down to one fundamental component - your antenna (or antennas). If you can’t hear them you can’t work them and if you can’t make them hear you you also can’t work them.
What I found when trying to work a few of the stations was that more often than not it was VERY difficult getting them to hear my SSB signal (and even those who could hear me were reporting me as ‘weak’). Using CW on the other hand usually resulted in them replying to my first or second call.
Over the weekend I worked around twice as many stations on CW as I did on SSB (all of them European stations on either 20m or 40m) and all of the SSB contacts were hard work! Not to mention those SSB stations I tried to contact and just didn’t get through (after calling several times even when there were no other apparent callers). A very clear demonstration that, all else being equal, CW will get you the QSO where SSB might not.
Dean Amateur Radio antenna, CW, IOTA, morse code, RSGB, SSB
Following the recent post regarding countries worked since moving to Lichfield, I had a quick check last night to see what progress I’d made towards my DXCC objectives.
Just to recap - I aim to work at least 100 countries on SSB, CW and datamodes (RTTY and PSK31). I also want to work 100 countries on each of 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 30 and 40m bands (basically all the bands where my antenna works).
In the first instance I’m concentrating on getting the 100 countries on each mode and the scores to date are:-
- 109 countries on SSB
- 116 countries on CW (morse code)
- 129 countries on datamodes (117 RTTY, 74 PSK31)
- 168 countries worked in total
Of the 168 countries worked I have 151 confirmed (QSL received) with 146 by paper card and 110 LOTW (Logbook of The World).
Dean Amateur Radio DXCC, G0RIF, morse code, PSK31, QSL, RTTY, SSB
Mindful of being out for much of the day it was an early start for day 2 of my contest effort. They say that the early bird catches the worm and it was oh so true on this occasion when I snagged KL7RA in Alaska for another all time new one at 06:33 UTC followed by KH6MB in Hawaii a few minutes later.
I managed about 4 hours in total, on and off through the day, finally shutting down around 21:30 UTC mindful of work the next morning. In total over the two days I logged 122 contacts in 52 countries with 3 all time new ones and 1 new US state (Idaho), not bad for a seriously compromised antenna and no more than 75 watts output.
the 52 countries worked - CQWW WPX (CW) 2009
Dean Amateur Radio contest, CW, morse code, WPX
Clear blue skies & soaring temperatures outside but I managed several hours on 20m with brief excursions to 15 and 40m. I managed to work 2 all time new ones in the form of A62A (UAE) and VE3DZ/VP9 (Bermuda) and the overall QSO/country count for my modest first day effort was 91 contacts in 43 different countries.
Day two is now well underway but as it’s another beautiful day we’re off visiting family for a BBQ so not sure at this stage if I’ll add to my day 1 numbers. Even so, I’m very pleased with the haul so far especially after a little antenna surgery immediately prior to the contest…of which more in a later post.
Dean Amateur Radio, Blog BBQ, contest, morse code, WPX
I mentioned in an earlier post that I was hoping to work YS1G on CW (morse code) this week for an all time new one in the form of El Salvador. It’s looking very much like that will be a lot more difficult than I expected.
I have so far heard them on 17m late into my evening and on 40m early my morning. I’ve not yet heard them fully readable and there is deep fading on their signal. At best they are peaking 475 on my random wire antenna but only for a few seconds at a time. Most of the time they are inaudible down in the noise.
I will listen in a few more late evenings in the hope propagation peaks on one of those nights. Early mornings are more difficult but I might get one last chance early morning on Saturday the 23rd when they report that they will be on air ‘early GMT’ before packing up to head back to the UK.
I’ll keep fingers crossed but for now my expectations are revised to a ‘nice if it happens’ rather than the ‘expecting to work them’ of previous weeks.
Dean Amateur Radio, Life... antenna, morse code, propagation, YS1G