MY CW YEAR

 

I passed my Morse test in 1995 to gain my callsign, G0VGS.  For those of you who are not aware of how the licence used to be structured in the UK, it consisted of two classes of licence.  The B licence and the A licence.

Both of these were full licenses (despite claims by some ;)) and the difference was that the class A licence allowed the use of the HF bands (30MHz and below).

I passed my City and Guilds Amateur Radio Licence in 1994, gaining the callsign, G7RXM and then started studying for my Morse test. This was a 12wpm send and receive test and in my case was taken at my local club.  I actually passed 2 Morse tests but I will maybe go into that another time ;)

Since then, I have never really used the mode in anger.  To be honest, I found it really stressful.  I can be quite hard on myself and I was frustrated that I was missing letters and words!  If I lost track, I could miss a whole sentence until I was able to focus again.

At the end of 2022, I was talking with a friend and he mentioned that we don't worry on SSB if we miss things, we just ask for a repeat.  No stress.  That made me think.  Why should it be different on CW?

I made a decision to get my CW up to scratch in 2023 and the decision was totally made for me when I got back in touch with an old friend, G0TUE.  Ray is a great CW proponent and very enthusiastic and encouraging.  We set a sked and had a contact on 40m.

This year (2023) I have disconnected the microphone from my K3s and I am only working CW from the home station.  I made a resolution to have at least 2 CW contacts a day this year.  This sounds a simple enough task but actually, due to the usual life events and poor band conditions, I am slightly behind.

I started around 12wpm and was missing words as I have always done.  This time though, I didn't worry about it.  I stayed around the FISTS frequencies to begin with and started calling CQ.  That way, I should be able to control the speed of the conversation.  In the most part, this worked.  There were still some who insisted on going at their own speed but hey ho, if I can't copy, I can't copy.  I thank them and move on.

Since then, I have increased my sending speed slowly and I can now copy around 16wpm and head copy is getting better.

During my last attempt at improving my CW, I was lucky enough to purchase a really nice Begali Simplex key.  That's the one on the right in the photo.  It is a lovely key and I find it very comfortable to use.  It has spring contacts and occasionally needs re-tensioning.  This year I reached State Pension age and for my official 'retirement' and birthday present, my lovely wife, Linda (G0YLM), bought me a fabulous Begali Pearl.  That's the one on the left in the photo.  This has magnetic 'springs' and is much more reactive.  I am still tweaking a bit ;)

I love Begali keys.  Pietro engineers them beautifully and Bruna Begali is fabulous to deal with.  Their customer service is legendary and I bought directly from them.  I cannot praise them enough.

I also have a portable key from CWMorse.  I have their N0SA key and it's great.  You will see this key in later YouTube videos.  Again, great customer service, although I could do without the religious tracts that come in the box.  Still it is a small price to pay for a great product.

I am really enjoying my year of CW and it actually felt really weird to try SSB on a portable activation.  I hope to meet you on the bands at some point :)