My quest to learn CW (23)

 And steady we go...

Have been training with 28/22 wpm but it was just a step to far I think. So I train with 28/20 wpm now. I do mostly plain text training which shows between 60-100% accuracy depending on how long the sentence is and what words are used. Words like "the", "you", "it", "in" and "is" are now easy. But words like "sometimes" or "something" are hard to decode. Anyway it is fun to try and get better every time. Do one lesson per day,  random code groups of 5 with 28/20wpm. I score about 60-80% now and think it is not bad compared to what I did last month.

CWOPS intermediate course

However I miss the interaction. I need feedback on my learning. And although a few people motivate me through the comments on this blog. I miss the contact with people that want the same as me and are beginners as well. Learning the code and make real QSOs on air. So, I wrote PE2V Vincent for information because he's one of the volunteers at CWops. He kindly send me an e-mail with all the links to the pages for application. So I did, and I will start with a CWops intermediate course in January 2026. In the mean time I already started with some homework assignments and already am at session 8 day 2.  

Of course I will continue writing about my learning experience on this blog!

#CQWW DX SSB 2025 review

Contest: CQWW DX SSB 2025

Category: SO AB LP

TRX: IC-7300 100W

Antennas: 4 el 10m LFA, Inv-V 2x22m, 3-band Halo.
 

Well, I'm still recovering of this weekend. The CQWW contest was a blast. I could not be on the radio the whole weekend due to other obligations. But still I managed to make 900 QSOs in total. I stopped early Sunday evening because I was very tired, otherwise I could certainly make 1K QSOs. However, what is the benefit of an extra few QSOs against some rest before the new work week?

This was also the first time I used my contestcall PA6G. I really liked it. No mix up with EA4BAS anymore, the short callsign is easy to call after every exchange. When calling S&P I noticed that calling Papa Alfa Six Germany instead of Golf in the end helps a lot. In short: it was a very good choice to have a contestcall, it has a lot of benefits. I still have to get used to it in CW though.

Propagation was very good this weekend. On 10m I managed a few small pile-ups with Japan in the morning and USA/Canada in the afternoon, rate about 80 QS/hr. On 80m I was spotted several times, rate was about 120 Qs/hr. I think that is not bad for a modest station with only 100W. As a matter of fact, I think if I would be able to be on for the whole weekend I could get a score like a high powered station. It is all a matter of get the right (free) spot on the band to run and get spotted by others. You need to a little bit lucky as well, but it is also operating practice. Some think it is just a matter of being the strongest but I disagree. You can't beat propagation, even not with large antennas and a lot of power. Although a good station helps of course.

Still can't find a reasonable mapper. This map is made with Global Overlay Mapping by EI8IC. I wanted to make a map at the worldradioleague site I previously noted but it seems those 900 QSOs are just too much and the map is not showing. But below are at least some statistics from that site.

I really miss the adventureradio site for this. It was a really good site but the creator had to stop because of map issues. The site is still online but is not loading the map. 

Anyway, I had great fun. I didn't do as well as last year due to other obligations. But there will always be a next one. It was a nice experience to work with my new contestcall for the first time. I'm certainly very happy with it. Till next year. 73 and good DX.

#60m Angola worked

 

I guess D2A has a lot of static on his side. I got the idea his receive is being disturbed. This one took me 1,5 hours of calling. It was also difficult at times to receive D2A due to nearby signals from Europe. But in the end I made the QSO.

Superstation - A new VarAC game

 

Not yet out! But currently in progress. I'm on the beta team. I think this will be a nice addition to VarAC. VarAC is a great way to communicate but it needs something like this to get more populair. People want to play games, compete and collect things. All people are collectors in some way.

What is Superstation?

Superstation is Global VarAC Game that is played over an extended time frame. Everyone in the world participates on an equal footing.

The purpose of the SUPERSTATION game is to increase the number of VarAC QSOs and to encourage more DX activity. A typical game will run over multiple weeks although a game can be run at any length.

SUPERSTATION is different from any other amateur radio “contest.” There is an element of a card & dice game, promoting QSOs that are more than simple exchanges, and demonstrating the DX capabilities of the mode. All amateurs around the world are invited to participate.

https://www.varacwednesday.net/superstation

I can't go in more detail is the game is not yet there. But I'm excited!

Update 29-Oktober-2025: After I discovered on social media the beta is already been out I asked why I didn't get the software to test as beta tester. Now one of the developers told me that he never saw my application as betatester. But I have an e-mail with all the documentation and a welcome from the same person? It seems they just forgot me. I'm really disappointed. But at least we will soon get the public beta software.

NTC partake with N1MM logger

   Last thursday it was time again for the NTC QSO party. And despite I wrote in the last post about this that I didn't want to use N1MM+ logger with all its features I just did. I wanted to know if it would help me making more QSOs. And actually, yes it did. I made 6 QSOs on 80m and 7 on 40m. It helped that I already had a name through the logger. Although I worked a NM (Non Member) which name I copied well. Not really important for me but I ended 10th of 17 participants in the electronic section. Not bad at all. I have to say I copied the contest exchanges well but some also keyed text to me which I didn't understand. I guess it was something like "have fun" or "tnx for the QSO". I even dared to call CQ NTC on 80m a few times. I got some stations back to me, actually I found it easier to "run" (call CQ)  compared to "S&P" (Search & Pounce). I did the keying myself and didn't use the automatic keyer from N1MM. I messed up a few times, but I guess every beginner has this and no one gets angry about this with CW. Looking forward to the next NTCQP. 

Upgrading Windows

 I'm shure there are more Hamradio operators out there that had the same issue as me. You got a good computer but it won't upgrade to Windows 11 because the system seems not to be compatible. I have been looking for a solution for quite a while since I was aware that Microsoft would not forever support W10. Now with the upcoming end of support the 14th of Oktober I really need to upgrade. But how? And would I loose my software? 

Well to make a long story short. You need a 8Gb USB stick which is capable of format to NFTS. You can download the lastest W11 for free from Microsoft. Download the ISO version for your language. You also download a tiny piece of software called Rufus. This Rufus program basically changes something in the installation file so you can install W11 on most computers with W10 without loosing anything. To see how it works just look for in on YouTube.

It works wel for me and upgraded 4 PCs including the shack PC without loosing anything.

#6m Mali worked

  Didn't feel well today and stayed at home. It gets better now. I noticed some spots from TZ4AM Jeff who is in Mali, Africa. As far as I know Jeff is only doing CW/SSB. So it is difficult to get him. You need more luck compared to FT8. I did hear him a few weeks ago for a short time on SSB but never on CW. This time I got lucky and worked him after a few calls. Just in time because he faded fast into the noise keying 73..

PA6G contestcall

 

Announcement: From today on I will use the callsign PA6G in contests. It is shorter and especially for CW much easier to decode. 

Many know about our efforts with PA6AA as contestgroup. We did the first historical "explorer" section in the CQWW SSB 2023 in the Netherlands. The explorer section is now called multi-distributed like in the CQWW WPX contest. This also led to a discussion if this was a legal way to use one callsign on several locations. At first we had permission. But later on we got the message that it was illigal. Unfortunately this led to many discussions and some cancellations which also involved other special event- and conteststations. We still try to convince our government to change the rules. 

PA6AA still exists and is the contest callsign of PB7Z. Another member PA5OES now has the contest callsign PA6F. Since I noticed some stations have trouble with my callsign in CW I thought of a shorter call for contesting. PA6G is sounding nice in CW in my opinion. G is the first letter of my province Groningen. As written on the QRZ page of PA6G I will only do digital QSL for this callsign.