Posts Tagged ‘Morse Code’
CW decoder – Introduction
July 30th, 2015 | 
Author: 
If you do follow me on twitter (and if you don’t – you really should) you will have no doubt seen my recent tweets about constructing a CW decoder. After a number of retweets, and favorites from other very interested hams – I did promise that I would collate all my knowledge into a blog posts and share the details with you all.
So, for those who have not been following me on twitter – here is the sales pitch. I recently started looking at some projects that I could get my Arduino Uno involved in with the radio hobby. I have a number of reasons why I want to combine radio, Arduino and some electronics – more about this later.
I stumbled across a video on YouTube where Budd Churchward showed his Arduino copying and decoding CW straight off the HF band and at a reasonably high speed. I ventured further and wanted to know what electronics Budd was using to achieve this excellent little project.
I used the limited shared knowledge and discovered that the electronics is basally a LM567 – Tone decoder chip that (I have since discovered the chip is used in the ARRL book for Arduino Projects) I discovered takes an audio input and converts this to a HIGH / LOW output suitable for the Arduino to use as a signal for decoding.
Finding a suitable project for the LM567 and trying to work out how fellow constructors had configured their LM567s was not an easy task. This did indeed take quite a lot of chasing and head scratching. I will go into more technical detail on the next post – but for the reason why I wanted to complete this ? very simple. I w
ant to create a project that would “inspire” young electronically minded students that might have an interest in radio – (i.e the morse code) some coding experience and some construction / electronic interest. This project covers all 3 areas, and only lightly covers each subject area.
In the next post – I show the LM567, the schematic and give you the list of parts required.
Nifty I Phone Morse Code Decoder
HOT PAW
MORSE CODE DECODER FOR I PHONE
Screen Snap of Hot Paw Morse Code Decoder
I recently installed a ham radio station in my truck. Since then I’ve been having a lot of fun with it, using SSB mostly, since that is a novelty for me. Most of my operating has been using CW, but taking a side trip into PSK occasionally. Logging is somewhat cumbersome in a truck. I used big elastic bands to attach a small clip board to my leg so I could quickly write down a call sign and very basic information. This information would be then transferred to a computer log at home. I tried using the computer in the truck also, and that proved even more cumbersome, having the laptop jammed into the steering wheel.
I like to use a keyboard to send code but no matter what I used, it was a bit awkward in the truck. At the very least, the laptop stays put when its jammed into the steering wheel. Using the passenger seat would require my changing the radio head orientation, the antenna control and paddles which are all set up for easy use from the drivers seat.
Occasionally I’d switch to CW and fumbled for a pen to write down a call sign, time, and band. The guy I was chatting with on 40 meter CW was running just a tad too fast for me to copy ‘everything he sent’, so I missed some of it. It seems that the ‘buffer in my brain’ is smaller than I’d like it to be and with FIFO being the rule, the beginning of a word vanishes as I copy the ending.
(FIFO, First In, First Out’) Some folks may complain that using a ‘decoder’ is cheating somehow. Yes, for a contest, but for every day QSO’s its not cheating at all. If you don’t like it, don’t use it!
I discovered this app and tried it last night for the first time. Wowzah, can it copy code! Just lean it up against your radio, or just near it, and it copies CW. This is a really great help when someone is sending just a ‘tad faster’ than my ability to copy ‘everything’! Its also handy to ‘get the entire call sign’, while I was fumbling with other things in the truck! It works pretty well even in poor band conditions, and has Farnsworth Method as well as regular copy. It has ultra high speed copy, but I have not tried it. 1oo WPM code is hard to come by on the air.
This proves very useful in the truck, but my guess is that other hams will find it handy in other ways.
PIXIE 2 QRP Transceiver build
PIXIE 2 QRP Transceiver build
Listening to code practice
"Whoa! What's that now? How can listening to code practice help improve sending?" you might be asking yourself (and me).
By listening to the timing gents (and ladies) ...... it's all in the timing - and the spaces.
Too many times I get carried away and ignore my spacing. Spacing between individual characters and spacing between words and even spacing between sentences is critical. Ignore spacing and I'll bet you dollars to donuts that you leave others scratching their heads trying to figure out what you're sending. You probably run into a lot of "Gotta QRT now" scenarios, too.
By paying attention to your timing and spaces, and you'll be that guy that everyone wants to QSO with - you'll be that guy with the "good fist". Run on sentences and run on words are not only hard to read - they're also hard to hear.
So I listen to W1AW to remind myself from time to time what perfect code sounds like. The more often I hear perfect code, the better I am equipped to emulate it. Oh, and this doesn't apply only to the QRQ guys, although I suspects it's more important for them. Proper spacing applies to the QRS guys as well - no one is exempt.
Do yourself a favor and tune into W1AW every now and then - especially if you feel you don't need to.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Happy Morse Code Day!
Does this make Samuel the original "Old Man"? Sorry Mr. Maxim*, I think Mr. Morse has seniority on you for that title, as Mr. Morse would be celebrating his 224th birthday today, were he of the kin of Methuselah.
Now that QRPTTF is over, except for e-mailing in my log summary, I thought I'd post where my signal was being heard on Saturday, according to the Reverse Beacon Network.
Bob W3BBO and I were discussing QRPTTF yesterday amongst ourselves, and it occurred to both of us that the western half of the nation seems to have reported larger QSO totals than the eastern half of the nation. This based on e-mails sent to QRP-L that we had read. Not sure what that means, but so far I haven't seen many e-mails from anyone east of the Mississippi with log summaries of around 40 QSOs or so. It will be interesting to see how it breaks down geographically once the results are in.
The EARCHI does get heard, and being on the top of a high hill (we call those mountains, here in NJ) sure makes a difference. And this makes for the other important lesson I've learned from events such as these. As nice as it would be to come in 1st place in a contest such as QRPTTF, the real prize won is enjoying a day outdoors, playing radio in the fresh air and sunshine, being able to forget about everyday worries, cares and concerns, even if it's just for a couple hours.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
* - For those of you who are new to the Ham radio game, Hiram Percy Maxim who founded the ARRL, often wrote editorials under the pseudonym "The Old Man". Since HPM lived from 1869 - 1936. I guess that makes Mr. Morse the rightful holder of "The Old Man" title.
January Special Event – Straight Key Century Club and K3Y/0
All month long, during January 2015, a group of volunteers using the special event callsign, “K3Y” with a slant-region number (i.e., “K3Y/3” or “K3Y/0”), were on the amateur radio HF bands (and some, on six meters). I was one of these volunteers, operating nearly every day of the month for at least one hour, but some times a few hours per day.
“K3Y,” the Straight Key Century Club’s annual January celebration, commemorates the club’s founding in 2006 following the American Radio Relay League’s Straight Key Night. A small group of participants wanted to extend the fun of SKN throughout the year. The SKCC is the result.
For the first three years, the club’s founders used 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 K3Y call 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 see this operation at my ham radio shack, as I am the control operator of the special event station, “K3Y/0”, during one of the many shifts. “K3Y” is the special event callsign of the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC). The special event operates each January.
In the following video, you can see some of the QSL cards associated with this year’s operation, and then some other QSL cards in my collection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOsNjT7OCyc
+ The SKCC website is at http://skccgroup.com
+ The “K3Y” special event page is http://www.skccgroup.com/k3y/index.php
+ My page is at http://NW7US.us
+ My Morse code page is http://cw.hfradio.org
