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All of us are at one place or another in our CW journey and with each path there are up and down times. Times when things connect and other times when there is a disconnect. If you think about it this is not just CW that operates this way. When you are learning to drive one day you can parallel park like a pro and the next day you could not do it if your life depended on it. Learning the times table back in school and you are great with the 9 times table....then in class, you are asked 9x7  and you go blank. Well, going beyond ICR can be the same way. Is there something beyond ICR you ask.....by golly Miss Mollie there is! 

Learning is an adventure no matter what you are challenging yourself with. I am a firm believer that to keep the mind, body and spirit healthy you need to be challenging yourself. This brings me to the next step beyond ICR.  It is the art of words and Q codes training and it is different from  ICR. In my humble opinion, I do feel you should master ICR before you jump into word and Q code recognition.
If you have ICR pretty much happening for you the next step is instant recognition but with a twist. Your brain is very powerful and I can't emphasize this enough. Now understand when I say powerful it does not necessarily mean this next step is going to be a breeze. Remember you have trained your brain to hear a letter or a number and recognize the sound and in a split second.
Now your brain is going to hear QTH, OP, WX, RIG and so on it has been conditioned to tell you Q  T  H. Well it is time to change it up again but not to worry your brain can compartmentalize things with practice. 

How does this new adventure work you ask? Let's go in reverse for a moment and go back to when you were learning ICR. You knew dit dit dit dah sound was "V" as you hear each dit and dah but for  ICR to work that was just too slow and you would get lost and get behind. Oh, which reminds me of the art of copying behind....but that is another post.... moving from copying each dit and dah to ICR you had to speed up the sending of each letter so it was impossible for you to hear each dit and dah but a sound. Learning the sound of each letter was the key.  The brain can handle that with no problem as you know if you have a grip on  ICR. 

Words and Q codes instant recognition is the same, you have to speed things up a little but just a little. Your brain has to hear what QTH sounds like and not Q  T  H. Impossible you say...I bet we all know CQ and 73 at any speed and don't hear the ICR equivalent of each letter. Your brain will put the new word and Q codes in a new compartment in your brain. Soon you will train your brain for words and Q codes. Keep reviewing your ICR as well and in time both will blend into one compartment in your brain.  The key to word and Q code instant recognition is speed up the sending just a bit. You want to hear the sound and each letter as ICR.

As for programs for learning words and Q codes, there are many programs out there that will send you anything a different speeds. If you have mastered ICR you will be aware of some programs that worked for you and chances are they also will function as word and Q code trainers as well. Just like with ICR work with some words or Q codes and then move on to more once those are familiar and then add more. Another excellent way to learn is to also turn the power on your rig to zero and practice sending the words and Q codes you are learning. The more involved your body is in learning the easier moving ahead will be.  

If you have any questions either leave a question in the comment section or email me and my email on my blog.

My contest contacts

 This weekend was the IARU contest and you can participate in CW, SSB or both. As for me, it was CW only....surprise surprise. The solar weather can affect how radio operations in both a good way and a bad way. This weekend it was a bad way but that is ok as I tell myself the solar weather does not discriminate it treats all operators the same way. The advanced solar forecast prepared contesters for a rough ride but to add to it the Bz index, something we don't hear much about in Solar weather circles was deep in the negative direction. When you have poor solar weather and add in a -Bz index it just makes things worse. What it sounds like to a CW contester is one moment a signal is very decent and then gone and in most cases gone for some time. 

This is a challenge for contesters as when you hear a call sign, come back to them and get a report you generally have no luxury for repeats. If the anomaly happens mid-contact well you most likely cannot log the contact. I find during these conditions you have more stations contacting you more than once on the same band (called a DUPE). Because of the changing condition, you may think the station heard your exchange but they did not and may be asking you for a repeat and you can't hear them asking. So due to the poor conditions, they are not able to log your contact that you think was a solid contact. Whenever I have a station call me that has called me before and is in the log (DUPE) I  always work them again as you are not penalized for it. But there are a few that send "QSO BEFORE" and will not log the contact. 

Anyway, I digress....this year I was able to log more contacts (56) during very poor conditions compared to last year and better yet I almost doubled my score. Last year's score was 69,484 compared to 130,130 this year.  This contest starts on Saturday at 9 am local time and ends on Sunday at 9 am local time. I was up early on Sunday (5:15) to keep adding to the log. I am a morning person and up each day at 6 am so I was not too far off from my normal time.

The final results

I did a part-time effort in the Canada Day contest on the weekend. I  wanted to take it easy as I just had minor surgery and sitting in one spot for long periods hurts. The contest was from Sunday at 00:00 or 9 pm local time until 00:00 Monday. I was on and off during the day Monday and noticed the number of contesters was on the low side. I attribute this to Monday only being a holiday in Canada and most others were working. In the Canada Day contest you have the option of CW and SSB or a combination of both. As you may have guessed I was CW-only and unassisted. 

The solar forecast was predicting a Kp index maxing at 4 but the good news was the maxed at Kp2. I still found deep QSB (fading) on all bands (for me 10m-40m). I did manage to beat last year's score and total contacts. As always I found this contest more relaxed CW speed-wise, I was calling CQ in around 30wpm but dropped it to 26-28wpm. I found at times I would be calling CQ RAC for 5 or minutes without an answer. Because of this I had some web pages up on my other monitor and was doing some reading. Funny when an answer to my CQ did come back to me it would startle me out of my reading trance. 

This years score

My contacts during the contest

Turning back time to virtually witness a critical historic method of shortwave communication using the fundamental mode of continuous wave modulation. This is a film from 1944, teaching the basics of Morse code, for military comms.

What is the proper (and most efficient) technique for creating Morse code by hand, using a manual Morse code key? Ham radio operators find Morse code (and the ‘CW’ mode, or ‘Continuous Wave’ keying mode) very useful, even though Morse code is no longer required as part of the licensing process. Morse code is highly effective in weak-signal radio work. And, preppers love Morse code because it is the most efficient way to communicate when there is a major disaster that could wipe out the communications infrastructure.

While this military film is antique, the vintage information is timeless, as the material is applicable to Morse code, even today.

Credits: National Archives and Records Administration

Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Chief Signal Officer. (09/18/1947 – 02/28/1964)

ARC Identifier 36813 / Local Identifier 111-TF-3697. PRINCIPLES AND BASIC TECHNIQUE FOR GOOD, RHYTHMIC SENDING 0F MORSE CODE BY OPERATING THE HAND KEY.

Made possible by a donation from Mary Neff.

Before modern radio broadcasting, the trails were being blazed both in public broadcast, but also critical links out of the local area. Here’s a side-look back in time…. in this 1939 Film: New Zealand Shortwave Communications; Morse code (CW)

The romance of the radiotelegraph service (in this video, the service in New Zealand) is a fascinating aspect of communication history. The use of shortwave, longwave, and medium frequency spectrum for communication, particularly through Morse code, played a significant role in connecting people across vast distances. This service utilized the high-frequency spectrum known as “shortwave” (from 3 MHz up to 30 MHz) as well as the longwave (30 kHz to 300 kHz) and medium frequency spectrum (300 kHz to 3 MHz).

This short film is from 1939, and captures the essence of communication at that time in history, to and from New Zealand using shortwaves and Morse code. It showcases the importance of the radiotelegraph service in enabling long-distance communication during that era. The transition from Morse code via spark-gap communications to continuous wave (CW) modulation marked a significant advancement in the technology and efficiency of radio communication.

It’s incredible to see how technology has evolved over the years, transforming the way we communicate and connect with each other globally. Films like these provide a glimpse into the past and remind us of the ingenuity and dedication of those who worked in the radiotelegraph service to ensure effective communication across the seas.

This film is a 1939 Government film scanned to 2K from a 16mm combined B/W reduction print.

 The other day I joined the 21st century loaded Ham Alert on my iPhone and set up Easter Island.  On the first attempt to enter 3G0YA into HamAlert, I did not add a CW only and was flooded with digi and SSB spots. I managed to check out some YouTube videos and got that organized. Up to this point, I have been hit and miss using the DXheat cluster with no luck. I have never been able to hear them just the pileup they were working. Well, yesterday morning Ham Alert told me to head over the 20m, I did that and there they were but only at S1. I waited and then they bumped up to S4 and away my call went out onto the waves of opportunity.

In the past, I have been hoping so badly for a DXpedition station to hear me so felt I somehow heard part or all of my call. To only let down that I was not actually in the log once I checked.  Hearing my call was only my ambitious imagination. This time when I dropped my call I was not sure if I heard or maybe imagined I heard my call. As Murphy would have it they went from S4 to S1 with their comeback to me.  I listened and maybe heard again VE9KK 5NN.....so what the heck I tossed out my 5NN TU. 

I continued to listen and wow for a few moments they were S6 or more so I tried again and this time I was sure I made it in the log. They called back "VE9", I tossed my call again and they came back "VE9KK 5NN" The funny thing was when I checked Clublog I found I was in the log the first time and it was not Murphy playing with me.