As stated "just learn morse code "  great program . I listen  files i have copied off the net and pasted to the program and converted to morse for my mp3 player . I'm listening to case files on Jack the Ripper at the moment and also Treasure Island .

your 25wpm with wider spacing is a good way to progress , personally i went with 20 but now at 22wpm with standard spacing

however you do it the above program is great for making files however you want them to be ..

 

billy

SSB , There is no need for language like that   

Thanks for the replies chaps , i have just made a 55 foot doublet with 25 foot of 300 ohm feeder to a 1.1 balun and then a very short piece of 174 ( about 7 inches) I was talking to steve G3TXQ who suggested this config and modelled it, i  would need to strap a 180pf cap across the feeder for 40m which isn't a hassle as the balun/fedder will be near the radio ..

So if wx today is fine i will string it up in the back and see how i get on ..

i'm ordering 2 winders that are used with the yo yo antenna and will make one of those i think .

The KX1 doesn't have a great matching range , 4-4uh and 140pf so the cap strapped across the feeder will just hel;p the atu out a bit ..

i will probably end up just playing with "random" wires  to be honest , i don't want to get to bogged down when my original idea of having the KX1 was simplicity and ease of just chucking a wire out and have fun ..

it's all fun messing anyway

Thanks for the replies chaps ..  the wire i use at the moment is a 42 foot end fed with a 42 foot counterpoise lay on the ground , it's mediocre on 40m great on 30m and deaf as a post on 20m    I thought it would have trouble matching on 30 as the length is near 1/2 wave .. 

Only i have had quite a few "qso's" with people who have bought a KX3 , utilise the reader and think they are morse ops . I had to tell one guy yesterday i simply couldn't read what he was sending . On more than one occasion i have heard people state when the KX3 comes out they are "going to do a bit of cw" 

What i'm saying is why do people want to be morse ops but can't be arsed to sit and learn it first . I can't see the attraction of listening to a load of noise you can't understand only to sit reading a screen and then  1 , send something back using a key that they should be jailed for or 2, type it out and let a pc send it .

Yes , i need 25 foot to get from feedpoint to where radio would be so may start with slightly longer in case i need to trim , i'm just being tight as i have a 20m roll of feeder and don't want to go wasting too much chopping away at it if i can help it ..

Just buy a KX3 and join the other stampeed of new cw ops who are raping the art ...

i wanted to make a 50 foot doublet for 40/30 and 20 using the internal tuner on the KX1 . Can anyone suggest a length of feeder to keep matching needs to a minimum ( 300 ohm unslotted ribbon feeder) ?

I was going to make the Norcal doublet which is 22 foot per side and 28 foot feeder but it doesn't use 300 ohm feeder and i'm not sure if that would need an 4.1 tranny if used with the KX1 ..

any advice appreciated

billy, m0jha

i wanted to make a 50 foot doublet for 40/30 and 20 using the internal tuner on the KX1 . Can anyone suggest a length of feeder to keep matching needs to a minimum ( 300 ohm unslotted ribbon feeder) ?

I was going to make the Norcal doublet which is 22 foot per side and 28 foot feeder but it doesn't use 300 ohm feeder and i'm not sure if that would need an 4.1 tranny if used with the KX1 ..

any advice appreciated

billy, m0jha

Hello, wondering if there are any KX1 users on that use a random or long wire ? if so what lengths have you had good results with on 40/30 and 20m .Im currently using a 42 foot wire with 42 foot counterpoise and do ok but was wondering what others are using ..

thinking about a 50 foot doublet for summer but not sure how this would perform on 30m and if in fact the internal tuner would find a match , i would need around 25 foot of feeder , probably 300 ohm ..

billy

I looked at all the options first then made a reasonably informed decision how i was going to do it . I think it's something that's not a " one size fits all " sort of thing . The main thing is we learn the code in whichever way we as individuals see is the best option for us . I tried a few times going off how others had advised but never got it , when i sat and thought about what it was i was actually trying to achieve and made out a methodical and ( to me ) logical approach i smashed it .

Don't get me wrong it was still a lot of study etc but i made real progress from day one , i didn't see it as a chore , if i learnt one new letter every other day i was happy , i was one letter closer . when i could pick out the odd 3 letter word i was one word closer etc etc ..

as soon as i had learnt the alphabet and nubers that was it i had learnt the code , speed was another matter , as far as i was concerned i had learnt it so that was my first goal sorted , if someone sent me hello at 12wpm i could de code it , i had done what i set out to do , my next challenge was speeding up and getting things to flow ..so on i went on another mission eventually biting the bullet and having a "qso" if that's what you could call it  so i was going forward in small but positive steps but like i say i just did what i personally thought was working for me .

we all have ways best suited to ourselves for learning all manner of things not just code but i do think one of the biggest hurdles is thinking it is some sort of skill far beyond our reaches because it's so difficult when the fact is it isn't , it's just like everything else new to us .

Well first thing is decide if you really want to learn it . Sounds daft but you need to be dedicated in learning the code , half baked attempts won't cut it ..If you do that's half the battle . Code isn't hard , just something new and like lots of new things we may not understand it at first.

Start learning the alphabet and numbers , no slower than about 12-15wpm DONT use any visual aid and DONT count dits and dahs ..

I started off with the alphabet IN ORDER for a week , yes i knew what was coming next after a while BUT it still went in , after that i mixed them up and found it worked for me ..

have a large space between characters to give yourself time to de code before the next character is sent ..

basically start at the beginning , a-z then 0-9 progress onto abbreviations, short words commonly used etc

use the available pc programs to pump out random characters etc and qso's when you get that far ..

just do it methodically , theres no point trying to read a word for example if first you don't know all the alphabet etc ..

above all , try and enjoy the learning experience , don't see it as something that's hard and tiresome , enjoy learning that new letter etc and don't be in a rush to be 100% copy at 40wpm in a month as some would have you believe they did .

good luck .

Well done , keep at it , it just gets easier and more fun ..

Everyone is different but i work only cw now since my first qso . If it wasn't for the key i wouldn't bother with the radio . SSB holds no interest for me , i can talk all day long without a radio 

I agree with what's been said , simply say minus , call for QRS also , most will slow down for you . above all don't make coming back a chore, try to enjoy the actual process of learning it  . i find too many people dread learning the code when they should be making it something they enjoy doing ..

billy

Dennis , anytime you want to try a sked e mail me , i'm not a million miles from you and my dipole is very good for "localised" stuff ,only work 40m though ..

billy