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sitting here listening to some code on 20.
I played around with code back in the day when i 1st got my ticket on 6 and 2. but 2001 i had to walk away. now here I am 10 years later and I can still pick out letters here and there.
cq totally pick that out.
heard a couple vvv as well.
your residual talents are amazing!
Only 23 letters left! Way to go!
Now, if you can copy the CQ sent with a rusty fist on a straight key from a drifty 350...
well. I can pick out C Q I H E T K M V S OQuote:
Originally Posted by W1GUH
If you ever work someone named Voshtekim, you're in business.Quote:
Originally Posted by W2IBC
lol. hey who knows maybe it will all come back to me. figure this winter ill study up on code.
W1AW still does code practice bulletins. And the code is machine perfect.
I know a number of hams who also have hearing loss, and they can do code better than voice.
i notice that to be true. when i get the tone of it set to a certan point I have no problem. So this winter will be study up on code and find me some paddlesQuote:
Originally Posted by WØTKX
I like contests for code practice. I don't participate, just listen and see how much I can catch at those crazy speeds. I'm in the habit of using a straight key... probably get faster if I used the paddles more.
The code practice and learning at AA9PW.com is excellent...
This page will generate practice MP3 audio files that you can save.Quote:
Most of what you’ve been told about learning Morse Code is wrong — dead wrong.
Amateur radio operators traditionally have used the slowest, most frustrating, most painful and least effective techniques possible for gaining code proficiency.
You can gain real code proficiency. You can do it in a reasonable amount of time and with a minimum of frustration and pain. In order to do so, you must approach code training from a different perspective and use different techniques from those common among amateurs for the past half century.
http://aa9pw.com/morsecode/
There's an iPhone app too. http://forums.hamisland.net/images/smilies/icon_lol.gif
http://lcwo.net/ looks ok. havent quite played fully with it.
When you want to try a cw contact, give me a shout. I don't use it as much as I should and I'm a little rusty, but it comes back pretty fast if you just keep up with it. If you can copy enough to get an idea of what is being sent, and just keep going, you get better and better with fewer missed characters and errors. It really is a fun mode.
ill keep that in mind. id have to get me some paddles 1st. and without a doubt study up alot.Quote:
Originally Posted by K7SGJ
Nobody ever tortures themselves with a straight key anymore. ;)
Au contraire!Quote:
Originally Posted by WØTKX
Oh, goody! We should beep at each other someday.
I have a Nye Viking and a Vibroplex Original set up on the operating desk next to my keyer paddles. SKN wouldn't be the same without them and if I hear someone's CQ that doesn't sound machine generated I'll answer with one of the hand pumps.
You'd be surprised. There are some real masochists out there... :evil:Quote:
Originally Posted by WØTKX
[No, not me. I have a glass arm, I start trying to send with a straight key faster tha 12 WPM, my arm starts to ache.]
Go for the burn! Although I have paddles, keyers, etc., I still like a straight key from time to time. I still have the one my Grandma gave me in 1961 or so.Quote:
Originally Posted by W3WN
I've tried, I really have. But I can't operate fast code with a straight key, and that's all there is too it.Quote:
Originally Posted by K7SGJ
Who said anything about fast or even good. Fun! Just before the arm falls off, then go to the bug. Bowflex ought to make a "ham" version of their home gym. Have a place for a J38 so part of your exercise regimen is doing a bunch of cw reps. Maybe even mount a screwdriver antenna on top, and a place for a QRP CW rig. Maybe have a "Worked All Gyms" (WAG) award. Or maybe not.
I'd like a Swedish Pumper style straight key.
I have a J-38. I even use it on occasion. Well, I try to, at least.Quote:
Originally Posted by K7SGJ
Operating in pain is not fun.
Your either not using the right painkiller, or not enough. The more you take, the better your code sounds. To you, that is, and not the guy on the other end.Quote:
Originally Posted by W3WN
could be worse. could be one of them people who shakes real bad.
your cq call would look like
---------- ........... ---------- .........
Have you ever tried one of those long armed pump keys? You actually keep your elbow and forearm off the table. Dang things are expensive, and massive, but I've played with them long enough to know it's a lot more comfortable... even though I don't have an issue with a glass fist.Quote:
Originally Posted by W3WN
Even use my right hand that was crippled from the motorcycle accident. I want one!
http://taggart.glg.msu.edu/wb8dqt/hk802.jpg
The Eriksson, its a BIG Swedish key, but when adjusted properly, its smooth as silk. I have about 40 keys, i dont use electronic at all. My main key is a mid-60's Vibroplex Standard, and when i need to go really slow, i just use it as a straight key sideswiper style...manual CW is a blast. One of my smoothest and fastest hand pumps is a turn-of-the-century Triumph from some old railroad station, like melted butter.
Hang out in the novice bands until you get your chops up, then call CQ at a speed you are comfortable with down in the subband. Most CW ops will answer at the speed you send out of courtesy, if they dont, dont answer them.
I used a Lafayette (Japanese) "coffin" bug as a kid. Never had a keyer back then.
When I got back into radio after a 26 year absence, I got paddles and a keyer... started messing around with it.
Now when I try to use a bug, I swing horribly. I can't get the rhythm right. But I still got the beat with the straight key. :lol:
I built my first keyer way back from an article in Hints and Kinks. It was made with germanium diodes, a couple of electrolytic caps, and a very sensitive relay. I believe the dit vs dah timing was a function of the caps, something like 3:1 or so. The paddles were a couple of J38s bolted base to base with a couple of ell brackets to mount them. Obviously there was no speed control, or any other control for that matter. Although crude by todays standards, it was cutting edge back then.
Although my fist sucks, I still like using a straight key from time to time.
Did google-fu on "Swedish Pumper" and got three groups of images. One was a fire truck, one was a code key and the other was, well, a "Swedish Pumper." Dunno which is more fun.
Only a ham would have to think about that.Quote:
Originally Posted by W1GUH
Shame on me for not doing the SKCC thing since last winter. I just visited their much improved website.
They have a "learning center" with practice audio files and a matching text file. The audio files are setup in "speed bands" like this:
War of the Worlds
- 01-Chapter 1 - 10 WPM/
- 02-Chapter 2 - 11 WPM/
- 03-Chapter 3 - 12 WPM/
- 04-Chapter 4 - 13 WPM/
- 05-Chapter 5 - 14 WPM/
- 06-Chapter 6 - 15 WPM/
- 07-Chapter 7 - 16 WPM/
- 08-Chapter 8 - 17 WPM/
- 09-Chapter 9 - 18 WPM/
- 10-Chapter 10 - 19 WPM/
- 11-Chapter 11 - 20 WPM/
- 12-Chapter 12 - 21 WPM/
- 13-Chapter 13 - 22 WPM/
- 14-Chapter 14 - 23 WPM/
- 15-Chapter 15 - 24 WPM/
- 16-Chapter 16 - 25 WPM/
- 17-Chapter 17 - 26 WPM/
Check out their list of text files:
War of the Worlds
Gettysburg Address
Jabberwocky
Night Before Christmas
Hams Christmas
The Raven
Alice in Wonderland
Tower Trouble
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Kubla Khan
The Enchanted Typewriter
My First Lie
T.S. Eliot, Cats
Holy crap, how cool is that?
I know there are some SKCC "celebrities" on the IOMH because they have really cool numbers. I'm boring; 1068.
Only had a few QSO's with it. Schade, schade, schade.
#410...im special...in my own head. :lol:
Brings a whole new meaning to pounding brass, eh?Quote:
Originally Posted by W1GUH
thats actually pretty neatQuote:
Originally Posted by WØTKX
I've downloaded Jabberwocky in the higher speed ranges.
I'm gonna annoy the crap out of my co workers. :lol:
Thanks for the heads-up. That wouldn't be a good practice package for me. I've got all those works memorized word-for-word so it wouldn't be very much practice! Unless, of course, they have it in a version written in some Eastern European language. THAT would be a challenge!Quote:
Originally Posted by WØTKX
Use the AA9PW site and plug in your own text... grab something public domain from archive.org
Or maybe this program, I have not tried it. ebook2cw