My quest to learn CW (31)

 

I'm proud of what I accomplished this month with plain text training. Last month I was on 86,1%, now I got a full percent increase. I want to increase speed from 28/20wpm to 28/22wpm as soon as I am on 90% average accuracy. In theory it would take another 3 months. I would be surprised when I will reach the 90% faster.

I still do random letters & numbers training which is very hard. But in the last week I see a huge improvement. As soon as I increase speed for the plain text training I will increase the speed for this as well to 28/24 wpm.

Anyway, it is not all about training of course. I made a few CW contacts on 6m which is different from HF since it is normal to send your QTH locator along the signal report. It goes surprisingly well. And on 6m the signal has often a very clear sound which is easier to copy.

I found an interesting site which is development. It is CL1ILT's callsign training platform. Obviously made with AI, but who cares. It is the result that counts. I and others have fun with it.

https://cw4ever.eu/trainer/

I saw a small video on facebook from someone that was training with 75wpm. It went very well but it is far beyond my abilities :-)

MeshCore DX

 

Since there are some differences between several MeshCore communities now there's more chance to see DX from the Netherlands. The majority of MeshCore stations here in the Netherlands has chosen for other (regional) settings and other SF/CR settings so they only have their small regional group they can see and chat with. Something I don't like. I prefer to see DX and luckily most European stations are still using the old settings. So last week I was chatting with someone in England. And also saw German and Danish text. It actually surprised me that so many other Dutch stations are still on the old settings and enjoy some DX as well.

I've been on MeshCore on and off. I wish this whole off grid mesh network was easier to setup with less hassle these days. In other words this is getting far too complicated to promote it as easy access mesh network. So I lost my interest a bit. Actually I don't think this network has much use during an emergency situation or a power outage. I think the role of the "roomserver" is underestimated. A roomserver (kind of BBS) is needed in this kind of network so if in an emergency someone can leave you messages and you can respond when you're not busy surviving. But in reality now 99% of the users doesn't have any roomserver running and only use this network to write/transmit unimportant things.

Well, if you see me in your list and you can't reach me. Try my roomserver and leave me a message. It is on 24/7. All DX is welcome ;-)

#6m Haiti worked

 

This was just on the edge from what is possible on FT8. But we managed to make a QSO. New band DXCC for me. It was a very warm day with excellent propagation on 6m. In the morning plenty of Japan and South Korea, some China seen. Others saw northern Australia and Hong Kong. I've seen some in the Netherlands making a QSO with Alaska. I "only" managed to work AA7A from New Mexico.

#6m St.Martin worked

 

Was chasing this station for a while and noticed that some PA Hams had seen him this evening. And just at the greyline John appeared with 2 streams and worked some European stations. The contact was made second  try. I didn't catch the RR73 the first time due to QSB.

#6m ZL1RS received?

Spot on 075745 GMT

    My initial thought was that this has to be a pirate. There was no evidence of any propagation in the direction of New Zealand here. However my antenna was pointed into the direction of ZL and I was not the only one that saw ZL1RS. Checking PSK reporter, ZL1RS was active. However, what made this suspicious is the time ZL1RS was only receiving stations in Europe at around 05:45 GMT. Now, PSKreporter does not plot everything, so it is still possible this was the real ZL1RS.

Received by ZL1RS

ZL1RS received by

Above ZL1RS antennas with free sight over sea into the direction of Europe. More info can be found on his website: https://www.qsl.net/zl1rs/index.html

Update 16 June 2026: After other HAMs did e-mail ZL1RS about this "issue" we definitely know now this was a pirate station joking. Location probabely south part of the Netherlands or north part of Belgium.

#6m very spotty propagation across the Atlantic ocean

 

Very spotty propagation across the Atlantic Ocean. Signals fading in and out with lots of QSB. But at least I was heard in east coast Canada and Florida USA. Made only 1 QSO to WB2REM. Other stations I saw have already been worked B4.

#4m Austria worked

 

    Franz OE3FVU is actually also Dutch. Spoke to him many times. I knew he was active on 4m and my wish was to get him for a new 4m DXCC. Put the call in HAM Alert and waited. Saw him spotted several times but couldn't see him. Until this evening it was. Suddenly his signal came up long enough to make a QSO. Thanks for the new one Franz.

#6m propagation to South America

 

Earlier this week I've seen some Argentinian stations. This time there were plenty PY stations with signals till +1dB on FT8 at sunset. I've also been spotted at D4 (Cape Verde). Of course it was very busy with a lot of callers. I've managed just one QSO with PY and one with CU2 (Azores). This is the time you should monitor the magic band more often, especially in the greyline times. I hope some propagation to the USA/Canada will occur soon.

#CQ WPX CW contest 2026 review

   Unfortunately this contest is held at an inconvenient time of the year. Propagation on HF at this time of the year is not that good and there is lots of noise all around. Besides that there are many chores in and around the house, mostly garden work and maintenance of the house. So, I didn't want to spend much time in this contest. At saturday I had the radiomarket in Beetsterzwaag and when I came back my sister visited us when she juist arrived back with her camper in the Netherlands after she spend a long time in Hungary. After all that I was tired and didn't want to setup for the contest. Sunday morning I managed to setup N1MM for the WPX CW contest and immidiatly got intimidated by the high speed CW calls. But I managed to make a few QSOs after all. Then other chores needed to be done and I returned late in the afternoon just before dinner. I decided to make it till 75 QSO's after dinner and stopped. Overall propagation was not to good. It was difficult or impossible to hear any cluster spots at all so I went back to tuning by hand, real S&P. DX was rarely heard, most of the contacts were inside Europe. I think it was a good decision to spend limited time at this contest.

All the contacts made. After all some DX was workable.