Thursday, March 26, 2026

My quest to learn CW (28)

 And the CW quest goes on...


I take another approach now on LCWO. I deleted all previous training data to view only the data in the stats that I need to see for a specific speed I train on. Above shows the stats for 28/20 wpm code groups I do now. After 62 attemps in the last month I see a very tiny improvement.

I concentrate on the groups, the plain text training, word training (CW abbreviations on 25/25 wpm) and callsign training (speed about 40-42 wpm).


I don't see much improvement in plain text training at 28/22 wpm, it keeps going up and down around the same line. I score a average of 84,2%. I do english sentences since that is the language most used on the HAM bands.

I wish I had some more time to make more CW QSO's. If I have the time, most likely in the early evening, I'm still intimidated by the speed of most stations. I can do a short QSO with a DX station or a POTA/WWFF station. It goes like R GE UR 559 559 TU. But if I do hear some stations calling I'm always afraid they want to exchange more, like name QTH and whatever. I'm afraid of not decoding the important things the opposite station keys. I'm still not ready to do that at a higher speed as 16 wpm or so. I think the only way to improve that is to make skeds with known stations and just have a chat without worrying to make errors. In reality I see that most of my DX contacts are with FT8, the lazy mode. Although I try to break the CW pile-ups which is not easy with the bad propagation lately. I managed at least a 20m CW contact with CY0S.

I also managed to make some VBand QSOs which are easier to do, although keying on the computer feels different to keying on the radio. I have the idea sometimes there is kind of a delay (lag) which makes it more difficult. However, the ops on VBand are always very patient and kind which makes it encouraging to do your best.

Thursday, March 12, 2026

How I transfered CW into a mike

 


During the CWOps CWA Intermediate course I had trouble getting CW into the mike with the keyer of my IC-7300. During the video meetings my CW had some echo sound and it was difficult for the others to read. I still had an old K1EL keyer from the estate of PA3BCB. Had to find out how it should work. In the end I found some documentation and a power supply. I got the thing working but the sound was not too loud. I didn't want to dismantle to whole thing to solder the sounder off the printboard to extend or amplify it. So I drilled a hole just above the sounder and took a stiff hose which I put into the hole. At the other end of the hose I mounted a half part of an fuel filter to amplify the sound a bit. Then I put that on the mike as you can see. Everyone was happy now and this is how I transfered my CW sound into the mike for the video meetings.

Monday, March 9, 2026

#60m Maldives worked

 

Quite a strong signal on the band. Have seen 8Q7 before on 60m but never been able to contact this DXCC. Second new one on 60m this year.