"Pre-register by surfing to cwevent.org."

That should be cwfun.org. OOPS!

CW Fun Events were created a little over a year ago by K2RFP of the Straight Key Century Club. Think of the concept as a non-contest contest. What distinguishes the events from contests is that participants pre-register and how the exchange varies from contact to contact. CW Fun Event-6 will begin at 0000UTC Saturday March 23 and continue until 2359UTC Sunday March 24.

Here's how it works. Pre-register by surfing to cwevent.org. Leave your call sign, name and email address. You will receive via email a list of 210 5-letter groups to printout. And those codewords are what will make each contact unique.

On the air, you will call or answer CQ FE.

Exchange true RST S/P/C NAME and 5-letter code group (Code Word).  Start at the top of the list and scratch them off as you use them. The first contact gets codeword 1, etc.

All contacts must be made using straight key, bug or cootie. Keyers, keyboards, and code readers are not permitted. Having fun is mandatory. And if you have considered jumping into a CW contest but have been held back by lack of confidence, let this event be your training session. There's even a website where you may solicit contacts during the event   

Go to www.cwfun.org for more detailed information and links.   
   

>>I use the "dit dit" most of the time but what does "shave and a hair cut" refer to? I've only been doing CW since Jan 2007 so I'm still learning the lingo.

Mike<<

"Shave and a hair cut" refers to the pattern generated by the letters ESE. Tap that out. You'll recognize it. It's not just a ham thing. It was even a gag in the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

The words are "Shave and a hair cut, two bits." When used in Morse it's sent as ESE. And the answer is two dits.

It has been a long time since anyone actually sent me ESE.  But I do frequently exchange the two dit salute.  

Oh. The TV show on FNC.  That's gibberish. My previous post was about the bumper played on his radio show. When he was on CNN, they sent the letter B as a bumper.

It is an historic clip from a US Coast Station WX broadcast.  What sounds like (umlaut) U, is a special line feed character for a mill.  The TA0WBC followed by a series of numbers is the preamble.  And, if you listen--yeah, you must use your greyware music filter--the last words are "offshore waters..."

This coming weekend is the CW Sweepstakes.  It's a two edged sword.  The first edge is that the CW portions of 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 will be packed with participants--myself among them.  But the WARC and phone subbands will be unaffected.

The other edge of that sword is that there is no better opportunity to boost your CW speed by several WPM, and get WAS in a single weekend.  

The limitation of that is that CW contest speed and CW ragchew speed are two different skillsets.  But if CW contest speed does nothing else, it increases your confidence to attain ragchew speed goals.  

Like the man said, just get on the air. SKCC now has a specific Elmer frequency for the those just starting out on CW. Members monitor 7.114 specifically for key frighted beginners.  Just call CQ, someone will answer.

Steve
SKCC #8

I've had mine on a 30ft. tower since October 2006. It's...adequate. It's a great TX antenna, if all you want is flat SWR, but don't expect it to hear very well. If you get one, use it for transmitting only and use a different one for receiving.  

5NN is 599 in cut numbers.  Other cut numbers are T for 0, and A for 1. The others are not used very frequently except in very specific net circumstances, mostly.

And yes, they are used mostly in contests.  I would say that in a DX contest, or for rare DX where pileups are continuous, it would be a good idea to learn to recognize your own call sign and 5NN at very high speed--30WPM might even be slow in some circumstances.
And since most contest exchanges involve either number or letter/number geographical indentifiers. For example, my own CQWW exchange is 5NNT4--for 59904.  So learn to recognize the numbers at high speeds.

And be aware that contest speed and ragchew speed are different skill sets. I can go up to 40WPM in a contest, because I more or less know what I'm listening for. But I'm embarrassed to admit my conversatioanl speed. So don't worry about how fast you are during your first QSO.  The other op will likely slow down to your speed.  And you can always hunt and pounce in a contest and listen to a station until you figure out his exchange before you call him (or her).

I'm embarassed to admit, I don't know the difference between the two.  But then I use an iambic keyer in a non-iambic manner via a single lever Vibroplex.

Now, I have the grey key MM-3.  And I see no refrenece to iambic A and Iambic B modes.

But, *C738 puts the MM into Curtis A.
*C739 is Curtis B.

Is that the same thing?

Steve

K8DJW, if you have not done so yet, join SKCC.   It was founded on Jan 2, 2006.  And there are already more than 4000 members internationally.  

The idea is a full time, year round, emulation of Straight Key Night--no keyers, but bugs are considered okay.  Members still use keyers and keyboards for QSO's with non-members, but for SKCC honors and awards, the QSO's must be made using either a straight key or bug.

And the best part about the club is there are no dues!
You can find out everything at SKCCgroup.com

73,
Steve SKCC #8

I don't remember the call sign of my first QSO, 27 years ago. But I remember he was in CO.  And I remember that the vast majority of our QSO, after I sent "UR MY 1ST QSO," consisted of exchanging full mailing addresses for QSL. My callsign was too new to be in the Call Book, and I did not have one to look up his. It lent a topic to the conversation and greatly helped to settle my nerves.

Don't worry about how your first CW QSO goes.  You will be better next time, because the nerves will be gone.  

A lid is a poor operator.  And since you're just starting out, you don't qualify in that regard.

I think I used a combination of techniques over the years to learn the code. I started in my youth (maybe 10, or so) trying to memorize code tables.  I got frustrated by math, so I gave up the idea of getting a ham licnese.  Yet, when the Star Trek episode Space Seed first aired, I was able to recognize CQ as soon as it crackled through the speaker--just on that memorization.  It would be years before I learned the rest of the code and the math to get my Novice license.

When starting out, whatever technique you use, don't think a letter then look it up. Learning aural skills like languages progresses best by a format of NEW term followed by OLD term, i.e. foreign followed by native equivalent. That's why Shep's tape was formatted the way it was:  ". E . E. When you hear . write E."  That's also why most code courses avoid teaching letters in alphabetical order. And I think that's where many students fail today.  They try to learn A, B, C, D and it needs to be learned J, Q, E, M, without a preconceived pattern.

To build on that beginning, though usually takes immersion in the environment where the language is used. Speed of speech and comprehension build best as a result of conversation, not simply recitation (keying) and listening.  Are there any code courses that provide simulated QSOs for practice purposes?  I have a keyer that provides that capability.  It seems logical to me it should be possible with full blown software.

For whatever value it adds to the discussion.    

Art Bell might want me and 100s of other hams on his show.

It is 3+ years since Art declared code dead and almost 3 years since ITU amended their rules.  And yet, I keep hearing and having Morse code contacts on all HF bands, and occasionally on V/UHF.  Every now and then, I still call or answer CQ in that allegedly dead mode.

So if that mode is dead, I and those whom I contact must be either media (mediums, for those who put any credence in Bell's opinion)or time travelers. Maybe with some guidance from Art, we can figure out just what we are.  Or might it just be that we are hams--as opposed to others who occupy our spectrum, dead from the neck up, except for the part between the chin and nose?

Hmmmm--good question.  I would take along the 160M dipole, even though I have never heard a FD signal there.  If nothing else, all that wire can make one
heck of a receiving antenna!