Maybe this year. I was set to give it a go last year but real life intruded.....

Very cool. Yesterday my puny 25w was picked up by 2 of them on 30m. I cant see the point of the DX Cluster and the like, but I can see the point of the RBN skimmers to check where you are getting to.

I need to keep my hand in with SSB. Last time I tried it I was a bit dodgy.  Forgot my phonetics and generally how to do stuff.

My thrill never left me (only been on CW a year or so) but I had been having a lean patch these last few weeks. last night after reading about the RBN I decided to see if anyone of these skimmer things could hear me, and if my poor fist was good enough to be deciphered. So I tuned to 10.130, listed for a bit, and a bit more, sent a QRL?? de 2E0OZI and then when I heard no reply sent a 3x3 call. I was mighty surprised when a DK station came straight back to me - that is I think only the second time anyone has every answered a call of mine. Hans and I had a nice qso despite me being disorganised and fluffingt things from time to time. When we finished I remembered about the RBN so I searched for my call and I was there!  A Station in Wales and one in Belgium had picked me up, and apparently I send my call at 10-12wpm. Thats fine by me.

Then I noticed this RBN thing was saying my freinds GS3PYE/P were on the air on 40 so I went to where they were and sure enough they were there, and after getting me as OGI at first I corrected it a few minutes later and had them in the log fine.

All in all a good nights CW for me.

Need to get me a W4RT 500Hz filter and that will just about make my 718 perfect for my casual style of non-contest CW.  I've been going for a year on CW and enjoyed it greatly, but as a new guy there are times when adjacent stations get on my goat.

IC718 don't read no morse... But my coffee soaked and cold addled brain does and a I just made a contact with RA2FF in Kaliningrad (Sergei) straight key all the way baby! 

I too don't see the attraction of these reader doohickies and I am a morse newbie.

Spotting clusters? Unclean unclean burn the witch!!!

Hi Rick, when everything is "just so" I am able to get CW qsos pretty calmly. Its when I turn on the radio and I have not even had my morning coffee, or my daughter is pestering me, or the wife hurrumphing that I am not helping with the dinner, or the pen won't work or there's no paper....that it all goes pear shaped. 

Congrats!! Its a thing that oddly takes a hold of you the more you do it. I came to CW via a severe leg injury where I had to stay at home for 8 weeks, and I thought I'd learn something. Used the Morse Machine and LCWO, then started copying calls of the air and more of the guts of the qsos. Then did it myself. 

I'm outside the US.  Here we dont look on the Union flag the same way as you do with your flag. It's still considered a bit ostentatious to fly the flag on  pole outside your house...although oddly enough I see plenty of Cornish flags (the cross of St Piran) flown over the border in Cornwall. If you know your history of the British Isles you would understand why. 

To circumvent a covenant on the property? Caveat emptor I would say. But I think a "no antennas" covenant here would have lawyers rubbing thier hands with glee!

Still a few of those chirpy Russian ops out there Zenki - I heard one a week ago sounded like he was squeezing a parrot!

Congratulations!! No going back now. I thought I would still operate on the phone portions of the bands. I could handle it. I had it under control. 

Turns out that since that first CW QSO in March 2012 about 95% of my qsos have been CW. I even joined FISTS and SKCC....

What do you mean some guys don't ride???  BTW I like the Stone, it will probably replace the Breva in 2014. 

Next week OK Lane? I'm off work next week and 40m might be worth a crack. 

Transatlantic??