WSPR 10m 1st of Feb. 2025

Transmitting 1W WSPR-2 in a 1/2 wave gainmaster at a height of 16m above the ground.

First new one on WSPR in 2025. ZD7BG from st. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Above my RX efforts.

My quest to learn CW (14)

 Slow it goes. But the rate is going faster. To learn ICR I increased the speed to 30wpm after I got this advice from several people. 30wpm is just slightly faster as 28wpm so there is no trouble at all to decode for me. However it is all about the real speed...

I'm trying to do training outside of my comfort zone. So that's plain text training with 30/20wpm. It is a ridiculous fast speed and I got only 70% right on average. But it helps me decoding lower speed after I did this training a few times. The lower speed is 30/14wpm which I use for callsign, word and figure (numbers) training.

The initial plan was to make a CW QSO everyday. But unfortunatly that's impossible for me. It was a good plan but in real life I have not enough time. However I made a few POTA hunting QSOs and a few with the WWA stations. Just exchanging reports that is, and even that I screw up. But it seems that doesn't matter. At least I'm on the air with CW. The goal is to make a decent QSO in the future but that will take a long time I think. I'm trying to decode CW that's on the bands. I found some nice slow CW on 80m on several days. But even that is difficult to follow. Yes I do hear some letters and abbreviations but I can't really figure out what it is all about. I really have respect for those people that make CW QSOs like it is their second language. But hey, learning English was not a matter of days or a year for me. It took at least 10 years of school before I mastered it. My daughter picks up english from the internet, she learns fast, at least understanding and speaking it. But grammar is a whole other story, she really needs to learn that on school. And after that, exercise in real life. Just like learning morsecode...

I also have fun with CW. I try to decode the word from morsle.fun everyday. Here are my stats so far:

The PACC contest is in 2 weeks. Since I partake in the QRP section, which is a mixed section, I really need to train CW for that to gain some extra points. I have no illusion I will ever win this section since the top contesters in this section will use 2 radios at the same time. But at least I'll do my best to get as high place as possible.

CQ World Wide 160-Meter Contest participation

 Last participation in this contest was in the winter of 2023. Since time is an issue right now I just participated in the early morning of Saturday and Sunday before I had to go. Main goal was training my CW skills. I was using the IC-7300 @100W and my inverted-L with autotuner. Of course I only used my ears and brain to decode. I even called CQ a few times with some success. Average transmission speed at my side was 20wpm. I'm not able yet to decode a complete callsign the first time I hear it but after repeating two or three times I'm able to complete the callsign. Even with speeds up to 30wpm or higher.

The PACC will be more difficult as the DX is sending progressive numbers. Of course I'm training numbers as well as the abbreviated ones like T for 0, A for 1 and N for 9. But if it goes too fast I will not be able to decode, that will be my worst nightmare in the contest. Anyway, I should relax, it is just a game...