I think the RSGB must be getting short of articles for RadCom.

Last month they reviewed a linear that cannot be legally used in the UK because of its high power. There were a couple of critical letters about this in the August RadCom. Why did the RSGB print this review at all? We, in the UK, have a power level of 400W pep on most bands and we should encourage UK amateurs to keep to this. I have rarely used more than 5-10W pep and even 100W sounds like incredibly high power! No, let us have more articles in the spirit of amateur radio. Not everyone is interested in big, overpriced radios, linears, towers and huge HF beams. Just a few watts is enough to span the globe.

Anyone can work the world with 1000W and an HF beam on a tower. You can also video conference world wide for free with Skype!

QRP is a real challenge. High power rigs, big HF beam and linears are more about egos. Personally they do little for me.

I have owned this rig for several months now but it hardly get used as I prefer, because of my poor voice, to run my WSPR beacon on 10m.  It certainly works well with my last QSO being a W8 on SSB.

In the picture, the small WSPR beacon is far left with the Lincoln  with green illumination on the left of the FT817s and to the right of the WSPR beacon.

[slickquiz id=2]

Last evening Dave K1SWL, Tim W3ATB and I were at Bailey’s Island in Maine. We were there for Lobstercon… an annual QRP gathering at Cooks Corner. After dinner we went to the shore at Lands End. I set up a quick wire and worked Italy, Greece, and the Czech Republic before the mosquitoes carried us away.

As the sun went down we ate dinner at Cook’s Lobster House. The view was the very best.

Then we drove a few miles east to where the sea meets the land… Tim parked the truck with the back toward the beach. The view is breathtaking.

We ran a wire from the tail gate down to the beach. At most the wire was only 3 or 4 feet off the ground. I put the KX3 on the rocks and stood on the sand. I tuned across 20 meters, but didn’t hear many stations… so I switched to 30 meters.

I1ULJ/8 in Italy was calling CQ. I answered Sal and he gave me a 559. I knew I wasn’t strong because I had to send my call a few times… but we completed a good exchange. I had smiles on my face and mosquito bites behind my ear. I didn’t care. Then I heard SV2/RW3AL in Greece finishing up a QSO and I called. This time I received a 339, but that was fine. Again we had a good exchange. The next QSO was the best.

Now I switched back to 20 meters to see if anything had changed. There was OK2RJC in the Czech Republic just booming in. Jiri was calling CQ and I knew he’d hear me. When I answered I received a 589 and I received a “congrats on UR QRP signal.” I folded up the log book and put everything back in the pack. The darker it got, the more mosquitoes showed up to feed. We were exuberant….. with the salt air, the smell of the sea, the view, and the cross-Atlantic QSOs.

Thanks to W3ATB and K1SWL for photos.

When Aaron Parks KC8FQD was having trouble learning Morse code, he complained about some of his frustrations to his wife, Dr. Jessica Parks. As an expert in memory and cognition with a PhD in experimental psychology, she immediately recognized a few ways he could dramatically improve his learning speed and retention.

Working together they created Skilman Introduction to Morse Code with a companion program called Morse Code Speed Builder: 5 to 12 Words Per Minute.

Based on the Farnsworth method, they designed it from the ground up to be different than other programs on the market. “The course is structured to walk you through the learning process step by step so you don’t get lost along the way. The individual exercises are designed to encourage engagement and participation,” he says.

Since launching the program this spring, they’ve already managed to create quite a buzz. “We’re pleased to have more than 150 happy customers so far and sales continue to accelerate,” he says. “So far, the feedback has been strongly positive.”

The program comes on 6 compact discs and the files can be loaded into an MP3 player for convenient playback. When you buy the program, you also get the digital files to use immediately if you don’t want to wait for your CDs to arrive.

Whether you decide to use their program or study on your own, they’ve put together a few tips to help you learn Morse code more effectively:

1) Divide your study into chunks that will fit into short-term memory

Eventually you’ll want to commit Morse code to your long-term memory, but before that it’ll have to go through your short-term memory. Work on 3-4 characters at a time. Once you think you have those committed to long-term memory, go on to the next group.

2) Practice meaningful rehearsal

This may sound obvious, but you won’t get far by putting a code tape on in the background and hoping to learn by osmosis. You’ve got to be an active participant in learning. Meaningful rehearsal is what moves those characters from short-term memory to long-term memory. So favor interactive exercises over passive ones.

3) Stay engaged by using a variety of exercises

If you do the same thing over and over, it’ll get boring and your eyes will glaze over. At the very least, mix up sending and receiving practice. They’re both important if you plan to get on the air and they’ll reinforce each other. If you zone out, you’re wasting your time.

4) Commit to a couple of short study sessions every day

A short study session is about 20-30 minutes. It may seem crazy, but it’s well known that human attention only holds up about that long. Once your attention falls off, you’re not getting a good return on the time you’re investing. Cramming works in the short-term, but for long-term retention, it’s better to space out your learning evenly over time. If you make it a part of your routine and work on it a little every day, you’ll get a little better every day — but one or two daily sessions is enough.

5) Don’t get discouraged by the interference effect

When you start out learning Morse code, the first several characters you learn will come pretty easy, but all of a sudden it changes. Everything slows down like it’s a struggle just to learn a single additional character. And what’s worse, it may seem like the ones you already know are getting harder to recall. Lots of people give up at this point.

Surprisingly, this sudden drop-off in apparent learning is actually good news. The reason why the new characters don’t come as easy is because the ones you already know are interfering with learning them. You have to have really learned those characters to have them interfere with learning more so you know that you must have already made significant progress.

Interference effect goes both ways, though. The new characters you’re learning interfere with the old ones. While it seems like all progress has ceased, you really must be learning the new characters to be experiencing this type of interference. This is the point where having a good attitude, a solid routine, and engaging exercises will really help.

Editor’s note:
Aaron and Jessica have graciously allowed AmateurRadio.com to give away the first hour of their Introduction to Morse Code course to our readers at no charge to help you get started. Good luck!

Skilman Introduction to Morse Code – Lesson 1 (24:02) Download
[sc_embed_player_template1 fileurl=”http://static.skilman.com/learn-1.mp3″]

Skilman Introduction to Morse Code – Lesson 2 (24:32) Download
[sc_embed_player_template1 fileurl=”http://static.skilman.com/learn-2.mp3″]