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Author Topic: Why Do You Like CW?  (Read 11081 times)

N2SR

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RE: Why Do You Like CW?
« Reply #30 on: January 02, 2019, 02:22:05 PM »

because it's not ssb

and cw Q's are worth 2 points on FD

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KD8IIC

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RE: Why Do You Like CW?
« Reply #31 on: January 02, 2019, 05:00:15 PM »

  A1 ops are seemingly more disciplined than the fone ops. No harsh words or politics.
  The average CW op IQ seems to be higher too.  ;)
  Hard to find a drunk CW op vs the Single Bubba Band.
  There are more organized operating clubs and events to keep a CW op busy vs fone.
  Vintage equipment and crystal control is in use and accepted more than on fone.
  It's the last mode that requires one to learn something other than how to op an appliance.
  QRP is more effective with A1 than fone.
  The mode lends itself to better signal clarity in bad condx. I.F. and audio filtering is more effective.
 
  Learn Morse. Do CW. 73
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KF0QS

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RE: Why Do You Like CW?
« Reply #32 on: January 09, 2019, 10:35:36 PM »

I got my novice ticket in 1968.  Though I remember my year as a novice with great pleasure (lots of fun QSOs), I couldn't wait to get my general and get to use SSB.  Once I got my general, I didn't look back and had a lot of fun making phone QSOs.

In 1975, I got busy with grad school and went QRT.  After that, I moved around in apartments a lot for a number of years and although I had some old gear in my parents' basement, I never got back on the air.  However, the one time my license came up for renewal, I did renew it.  Then, in 1991, I ran into a fellow professionally who happened to be a ham (he actually had a small station in his office).  I ID'd the rig immediately and we got to talking about ham radio.  He gave me a couple of old QSTs and after a few weeks, I went down to HRO and bought a TS-140s.

The interesting thing was that, as I was buying the radio, I was thinking about all the fun I'd had making CW QSOs as a novice.  So, I bought a paddle and an external electronic keyer just a couple of weeks after I bought the radio.  I had a feeling I could get right back into CW without a problem and that proved to be the case.  I've been primarily a CW op ever since and still love it.

I think the reason I've loved CW all these years is that there is a "romance" in hearing those tones come at me out of the headphones.  It makes me feel I'm doing something exotic.  As many have noted, I can hear distinctive fists and distinctive operating styles.  In my limited excursions into the realm of SSB, I have noted that CW operators, by and large, are more professional, and so the pleasure of a QSO is enhanced by engaging in something with another person that I can't do on phone, i.e., have an exchange of info, chat and the like that requires a mutual exchange of skill.  It is pleasant to work with someone else seamlessly to have a great CW QSO.  Finally, as noted by many on here, it requires enough of my mind that I can't daydream or get distracted.  It requires all of my attention and I become totally absorbed in what I am doing.  That doesn't happen to me with an ordinary SSB QSO.  

I also want to agree with the people who mentioned the efficiency of CW as opposed to SSB, for long-distance communications.  I have certainly worked DX on SSB (and have even done it QRP), but it is so much easier to pull off on CW.  Busting a pileup on CW is also a thrill, especially when I hear my callsign coming back to me from the DX.  

I'll mention one thing I remember reading.  I am a white guy, but I read that, for years, black American hams tended to like CW because no one tell they were black and so could not hold their race against them if all they heard was their fist on CW.  It's an interesting point, but what it means is that CW is the great equalizer.  You can brag about your rig, your antenna, or whatever, but the fanciest 1.5kw radio, operated by the wealthiest person in the world, sounds exactly the same as someone operating a 1 watt tuna tin rig into a dipole.

I'll close by remembering a CW QSO I had years ago with a ham who was in his late 80's.  He was telling me that his XYL of many years had died the year before and that all he had to look forward to (since he couldn't get out much any more) was his daily CW QSO.  He said, without it, he wouldn't have anything left to live for.  His fist was a bit erratic but I swear to God I could hear his emotion coming through while I was copying him.  Somehow, I don't think he'd have been that blunt if we had been on SSB.  God bless him.

CW forever!
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N9FB

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RE: Why Do You Like CW?
« Reply #33 on: January 10, 2019, 08:01:39 AM »

Quote
Why Do You Like CW?

because of threads like this :)

Quote
Maybe you have a story to tell?

In my first attempts to learn morse code in early 1976, i hit a wall and was pretty frustrated.  School came pretty easy to me, yet this wasnt going very well.  Then i channeled my frustration and made up my mind to wrestle with learning the code as if it were a bear.  i began listening to a code cassette tape and started practicing sending with a code practice oscillator, and still did not feel like i was getting anywhere, until -- BOOM! --  suddenly  i had it!  Shortly thereafter, in late 1976, I passed my Novice test and my uncle helped me get a HW-16 and put up an inverted vee.  Making contacts on air from my house was the thrill of a lifetime, and i dreamed of some day working Alaska, Hawaii, or the Yukon Territory. My initial goal of getting a General Class license so I would have HF phone privileges remained, but getting my code speed up to 13 wpm seemed unobtainable.  But by early 1977 i found my speed had naturally increased in the easiest way possible -- by making on air contacts! :)
So in Spring 1977 i took a commuter train to the downtown Chicago FCC office and to my great surprise passed the General, and then the Advanced exam a month later. 

Things happen and i ended up going largely QRT from ham radio after getting a drivers license and girlfriend at the age of 16 and i did not again become truly active until three decades later.   Yet thru my years of inactivity, i remembered the code and even used to send it on a forklift horn when i had a job that involved driving a fork lift -- and i also found that when i did that it actually made me happy :)

CW will always have a fond place in my heart and it is the mode which i have to credit for getting me back into the hobby -- active and having fun.  Whereas initially, when i was a 1970's teenager, CW seemed like an undesirable hurdle i had to traverse in order to get HF phone privileges -- it is now the mode that i have the most fondness for.  Thank goodness the FCC REQUIRED me to learn Morse Code back in the day ;)

a few unforgettable CW quotes i have read over the years (authors unknown) --

"if you dont know Morse Code, you dont know dit"

"CW Ops hold all the keys"
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PA1ZP

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RE: Why Do You Like CW?
« Reply #34 on: January 11, 2019, 11:53:11 AM »

Hi

Why I like CW?
Because I like the keyboard.
1 or 2 keys to include all numbers letters.
It takes a efford to learn CW (at least it took me a while to get to 30WPM+)
It doesn't take a computer, it can not crash.
And its realy wonderfull to releave stress and modern time frustration.

I also like many of their operators.
They do not talk like: I am using a $2K bought mike and a 5K bought rig and a $5K bought antenna and tower.

My rig 100 watts, my antenna homebrew doublet, my tuner homebrew, my paddles homebrew, my el-bug homebrew. is more my style, my key WW2 or Bug, or homebrew.

My son made a QSO when he was 7 yrs old using his NL12955 RX number to an 85 yr old US ham, 7 days later the QSL was in the mail at our home.
He never asked whats your call sir, my son was using CW so he asumed the little fellow was a ham.
In the Netherlands at that time, you could only get a call when your 12 yrs. or older, it took my son to be 12 yrs and 2 month to get his call.
He was 7 when passed his CW exam.

73 Jos
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KI7RS

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RE: Why Do You Like CW?
« Reply #35 on: January 12, 2019, 07:34:51 AM »

I wanted to learn it for SOTA, but now I'm hooked on learning code.  It has become a mission for me.  I'm just starting the level 2 CWops class, and I'm enjoying it (well not this week  :o )
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KC0W

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RE: Why Do You Like CW?
« Reply #36 on: January 12, 2019, 05:31:42 PM »

 I'm mediocre at CW but have great fun anyway.


                          Tom KC0W
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VU2NAN

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RE: Why Do You Like CW?
« Reply #37 on: January 13, 2019, 03:39:13 AM »

I got hooked on CW in the late 1970s when, with 1.5 W DC input, I could work a station 1000 km away and with 15 W, the world!

73,

Nandu.

VK3KTT

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RE: Why Do You Like CW?
« Reply #38 on: January 13, 2019, 06:35:15 AM »

Quote
I'm mediocre at CW but have great fun anyway.


                          Tom KC0W]
lol i find it very relaxing to learn i practice 15 mins once or twice a day and still do it rarely missing with all the digi modes and even ssb fading i find i get the biggest grin after most cw qso's.
sota and parks have really helped cw grow over here in vk and its a great was for learner to practice.
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W1BR

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RE: Why Do You Like CW?
« Reply #39 on: January 15, 2019, 12:02:52 PM »

I'm mediocre at CW but have great fun anyway.


                          Tom KC0W

Amen!  Licensed for almost 59 years and still struggle with mastering the code, although it is the mode I use 95% of the time!  Nothing beats CW for working DX.
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KU2US

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RE: Why Do You Like CW?
« Reply #40 on: January 16, 2019, 07:35:53 AM »

I got my license when CW was a requirement, back in the 70's. As a novice that is all I could do at 75 watts maximum and crystal controlled-no VFO! I did a lot of SSB work when I upgraded to General then to Advanced. I have lived through several sunspot cycles - 5 to be exact, especially the BIG one in the eighties, when you could work the world with 10 watts and a noodle for an antenna on SSB.

I never got my CW speed up over 12 WPM, but found this was more than sufficient to make contacts. I find it difficult to copy CW at the faster speeds because all the dits and dahs seem to blend in together and hard to differentiate. But that is me! STILL I take pride that I can use CW because most of the times CW will get through when SSB will not cut it!

I started CW again on a serious note and now have lot space than can support a 160m long wire antenna. I am hooked on 160m CW DX. It is a challenge. The sun spot cycle is at a low now, but you can't tell me that! In 2 months I logged 35 DX contacts on 160m all on CW. Some are: Sierra Leone, Greenland, South Africa and the Aland Islands, to mention a few. If you can hear the DX, chances are they can copy you! Yes, the exchanges are short, but try that on SSB!

I feel bad because CW is not a requirement for a ham license any more. Copy 5 WPM? For most giving it an effort-EASY! There are some that can not grasp it though, understandable. Is CW dying?? NOPE!

NOW DIGITAL! Pressing a key on a keyboard and letting your computer translate the return response? For those who love it, I say congratulations, but it is not for me. To easy, no sense of accomplishment, BORING, I can't see two computers talking to each other -WHY?? because I did not do anything! The software did. I am not chiding anyone who is into digital. It is another form of communication, also you can call it an advancement, BUT isn't digital (FT8) the same as CW? One you use your brain, and the other you use a hard drive. If digital brings in more newer Op's to the fold, then I am fine with it.

You will always find me pounding that key or slapping that Bencher!
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AK4YH

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RE: Why Do You Like CW?
« Reply #41 on: January 18, 2019, 12:39:35 AM »

My first contact as a HAM operator was in Morse code. It is the reason I got into amateur radio. To me, Morse is the essence of radio. It's simple, efficient and elegant. As Ray was pointing out in a previous post, you can use a very simple, tiny radio and be successful. For portable operations nothing beats it. With a radio the size of a pack of cigarettes and eight AA cells, the world opens up to you. No other mode can do that, quite yet, though some modern digital modes come close in size and beat CW in efficiency. When contact is impossible using SSB, usually CW will go through. I can decode Morse in my head! It's not just for radio; grab a flashlight and you can communicate over quite a distance at night. You can tap code on someone's arm... There are many ways Morse code can be useful. It will always be my favorite mode.

BTW avoid saying "I'm learning CW." You can't learn CW, the same way you can't learn LSB... You send voice through LSB, or AM, etc. You send Morse code through CW.

I wish conversational Morse was more popular, instead of the 599/73 type of "contact."

Keep your ears open for me, as F4WBY!

Gil.
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WX7Q

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RE: Why Do You Like CW?
« Reply #42 on: January 26, 2019, 09:43:56 AM »


It's different and unique.  Not everyone can or will do it, so there's an exclusivity to it.

The equipment is simpler and efficient, lending itself to portable operation.

Family friendly - I can operate CW with headphones on and no one in the house or car hears me operate.

It's legacy and timeless.  CW goes back to the founding of radio.

Mark K5LXP
Albuquerque, NM
 

All the above wrapped up in the romance and wonderment of it all. Working the oil worker on a oil platform in the north sea. 15 meters opening up in the morning, contacting the European stations.  South America  & JA'S in the  afternoon. VK's and Zl's down under in the early evening. Later, the "watery" signal coming from Russia over the pole.

The wonderment of it all. That I can sit in my home, tap out a message to a fellow ham in another corner of the world...still gives me a thrill.

Getting back into ham radio for the reasons above. Have fun! Enjoy!

Jim
WX7Q
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KD4ZFS

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RE: Why Do You Like CW?
« Reply #43 on: January 26, 2019, 05:43:01 PM »

There is something very elegant and minimalistic about Morse code.  One can send any text message by simply turning something on and off, and it can be received without any computer assistance.  The things that can be used are almost limitless: light, electrical voltage or current on a wire, sound, smoke signals, ... and radio waves.

I have been in love with this idea since I was a small child.

Morse code is why I am a Ham.  I taught myself Morse code with the help of a program I wrote after college, back in the early 1990’s, and I took the Amateur tests to celebrate my accomplishment.  Money and space for gear held me back from getting on the air.  I finally got on the air in 2016 and it’s been great fun!

The technical advantages of CW are quite appealing: lower bandwidth, more effective use of power, better ability to communicate in difficult conditions.  I have found that most CW ops are far more courteous and welcoming than a lot of what I hear on voice modes.  I have had a nice CW conversation with a famous musician, and only found out who he really is when I looked his call up after the conversation.  CW can put everyone on the same level.

Now that I’ve started actually using it, I find that I can usually recognize the type of key that is being used and other individual accents.  Using morse code has an addictive quality to it, and there is a pride in having mastered a difficult skill.  I really like the historical nature of the activity, and feel like I’m connected to a great legacy.

Our numbers are small and diminishing but to me CW is still the heart of Ham radio.

73 de Jon, KD4ZFS
« Last Edit: January 26, 2019, 05:55:49 PM by KD4ZFS »
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KB8FGC

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RE: Why Do You Like CW?
« Reply #44 on: January 29, 2019, 12:26:59 PM »

For me it's nostalgia.  When I first received my novice license, CW was the only way I could get on the lower bands.  I have fond memories of long (as in sometimes an hour and half!) QSO's with other ops in the novice portion of 80 meters.  The "privacy" (no one else in my home knew code ;-)  ) allowed for all matter of discussions...I remember one where the operator and I were discussing the good and bad points of our respective girl friends (hi hi).

Later on, I used a pc to generate and receive the code, but it wasn't quite the same...not as personal.  I've been out of the hobby for a while and recently dropped back in.  Sad to say, my cw skills have atrophied but I'm working to get back up to speed.  Looking forward to again having some nice rag chews via CW.
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