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So that’s it, I’ve broken my duck (I think those across the pond have something to do with cherries). Thanks to David, G7AGI I had an error and gap strewn QSO as part of the LIDS net. It took a little over 20 minutes to complete the basics and a bit of a rag chew at glacial speeds.

It took a lot of brain power but as I got into the QSO it got easier. The only sad point was some DQRM at the start which forced us to QSY.

A thoroughly enjoyable moment and something I’ll not forget in a hurry. Next stop the world at 50wpm!

To a novice it could sound worse. But to a seasoned operator I’ll bet is sounds like the equivalent of a rusty nail being used to score poorly formed tones in your ear hole. I’m referring to my CW style.

When I say amateurish I mean it in a couple of ways, firstly I am a radio amateur. This means I’m not getting paid for it (which, as my wife points out, is good as I would be bankrupt quickly). I’m also not a high performing (but talented amateur) mixing it with the pro’s. This means I’m somewhere down the peloton. Holding the latern rouge.

To carry on my cycling analogy. Mostly because I ride a bike as well. My gear isn’t a pinarello dogma, its not the latest shimano Di2. But its adequate, its circa 2007 and it works. My fitness is average but I can, when pushed, climb some steep hills.

The steepest hill I could find it morse code. So far I have spent nearly every lunch time since Christmas using LCWO to attempt to copy at 15wpm. This week marks the end of the letters. I can pretty much copy them all without too much trouble providing there is enough thinking gap.

I thought I’d have a go at sending tonight (Thanks Ian MW0IAN for the ear). CQ sounded like CQ in my head, but came out like QQ, T, K and a few other characters that I hadn’t intended to send but I’m hoping an operator on the other end will see through this. Just like when I hear bad practice or mistakes with SSB I hear operators ignoring their mistakes I’m hoping the same will happen with CW.

So forgive me. I have created some shocking characters. But stay with me because one day this year I will complete a QSO without making any mistakes. That much I promise! If you want to join me in rubbish CW then I can recommend it as a way to diet. I’ve enjoyed the learning so much I forgot to go for something to eat a couple of times. If you hear me calling CQ and respond only to get a seemigly random response, don’t worry its not you, its not me, its my novice brain not getting it right all the time.

Radio activity around here was asymptotically approaching zero until this past weekend when I managed to put about two hours into the ARRL January VHF contest.  In brief, here’s what’s happening around K8GU:

• 47Q x 17G on 6 (8/2), 2 (29/11), and 432 (10/4) in ARRL January VHF.  The 6-meter QSOs were all made with an HF antenna.  I ran 100 watts on 432 so I’m ineligible for the 3-band category.  Heard, but didn’t work, N1GC (EM59), K1TEO (FN31, whom I almost always work), and VE3??? (FN03, I had the whole call at the time but forgot, working K1RZ).
• I did not work EP6T on any bands and really don’t care.  I didn’t hear much of the jamming when I did listen (on 40 and 80).  To paraphrase KE9V quoting JA1NUT, “I’m kind of over DXing.” Who has time for this, anyway?
• Speaking of the seedy underbelly of DXing…do you know what a “QSL grubber” is?  I’ve experienced a couple of different variations on this in the past year and it’s disturbing.  One guy was asking about specific QSOs and provided detailed description of (my) signal characteristics.  Nevermind the fact that I never operated on the band he mentioned during that operation.  He sent similar e-mail to several friends.  As if DX operators don’t talk to each other?  The DXCC desk has been notified.  I wonder if anybody actually falls for it or gives in, though?
• I made token efforts in NAQP CW and Phone to chalk up a participation multiplier for PVRC in the three-way PVRC-SMC-NCCC competition.
• No homebrewing or repair work has been undertaken since the summer.
• The baby can crawl and wants to walk so badly she can’t stand it.  The end is near.
• I took Evan to the Odenton Hamfest on Sunday morning.  The highlight for him was stopping for donuts…and stopping at a playground on the way home.  Bought some Snap-N-Seal F-type compression connectors for a work project, part of my quest to find the perfect F-connector for the perfect RG-6 type cable (quad-shielded, flooded).  More on this in a future post.
• It seems there are plenty of Elecraft K2’s on the market these days.  As the price slips below 1000 USD for a loaded K2/100, this radio is becoming a good buy.  As a secondary note, they all seem to be “professionally constructed by a well-known builder.”  This leads me to wonder what fraction of K2s were built by someone other than the owner (I estimated this fraction once to be about 1/3 of them).  I also wonder if people who built their own K2s hold onto them longer?

And so it goes, time to punch my card…

• WE'RE BACK!
• Michigan gets its own PRB One antenna law
• A launch date for the Fox 1 hamsat is announced
• ARES called out in Ohio to assist after phone outage
• The flight of the V-K around-the-world floater balloon falls short of its round-the-world trip
• The K-one-N Nevassa Island DXpedition will be on the S-Oh 50 ham radio satellite
• And old Sol is at it again!

THIS WEEK'S NEWSCAST

Script

Audio

How about that: It's the first episode of Linux in the Ham Shack for 2015! We hope everyone is having a great new year so far. In this episode, we talk with David Rowe, VK5DGR, of Adelaide, South Australia. David is an audio engineer, Ph.D. scholar, inventor of Codec2 and co-author of FreeDV, among his many accolades. We talk to David about his projects, Linux, amateur radio, life in Australia, LinuxConf AU, the new SM1000 FreeDV device, the amount of energy it takes to make a Krispy Kreme donut, home built electric cars, and much more. Until next time...

73 de The LHS Guys

Whilst twittering / tweeting / wasting time on twitter (delete as applicable) I came across a group @lids_cw . This is an informal twitter based group of CW and low impact data mode fans in the UK that seem to have their heads screwed on. The idea behind it is that the group encourages general radio chit chat then suckers you into having a go at CW.

Morse is not something I decided I wanted to do when I started out in radio, Hence the G7 callsign (For those unsure, G7’s in the 1990’s were VHF only because we couldn’t be bothered with CW. Hence the 19th Century rules at the time kept us away from HF as were weren’t proper or some such daftness). But over the years I’ve hankered after at least one QSO in CW. I’m only browsing, for research purposes, I wont be giving up VHF officer!

Sunday at 16:00hrs GMT see’s their net on 40m. I listened in and attempted to decode what was beeping through the speaker an got the occasional character. I cheated a bit and used HRD to decode some more of the text and fill in the gaps. It wasn’t until I let slip on Twitter I was listening in I heard my callsign being called by MW0IAN. Fortunately I had no way of returning the call (otherwise we might still be at it exchanging signal reports now!).

For those of us who struggle with CW but are too scared to admit it, there are others like you. For those of you who had the 5wpm RSGB cassette and never got further than ‘it’,’meant’,’mine’ and ‘nineteen’ but fancy spending hours listening to bleeps but secretly want to have a go. Watch out LIDS  or Less Involved Data Society as it’s known will get you. Keyer at the ready for next Sunday. Snails will be faster.

Special event, “K3Y,” the Straight Key Century Club’s annual January celebration, commemorates the Straight Key Century Club’s founding in 2006 following the American Radio Relay League’s “Straight Key Night” (SKN). A small group of participants wanted to extend the fun of SKN throughout the year. The Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) is the result.

For the first three years, the club’s founders used the special event callsigns of K1Y, K2A, and K3Y as the celebration’s special-event calls. But, someone cleverly noticed that a ‘3’ is nothing more than a backwards, curvaceous ‘E’. This “KEY” event has operated under the special event callsign of ‘K3Y’, ever since.

The on-air party is open to members and non-members alike. It runs from 0000 UTC Jan. 2 through 2359 UTC Jan. 31. It’s a great time to introduce others to the joys of hand-crafted Morse code using straight keys, bugs, and side swipers.

In this video, you can “sit in” with NW7US, the control operator of the regional activation of special event station, “K3Y/0”, during one of the many shifts during January (2015).

+ The SKCC website is at http://skccgroup.com

+ The K3Y special event page is http://www.skccgroup.com/k3y/index.php

+ The NW7US website is at http://NW7US.us

+ Some more CW/Morse code resources can be found at http://cw.hfradio.org