What language do you speak best? (Hypothesis: There are many French & German speakers in the Fediverse.)

:fediverse: Boosts appreciated!

First CW QSO 2/2

Alas, the hotel was between a train station and a tramway station on the other side, just under my windows.

These tramways produce an incredible level of QRM, even when idle.

I lost 80% of the exchange in that noisy soup, but all in all, it was great.
And strangely, not that stressful, although, at one time, I felt like I had "completely lost my Morse" !

All that time spent listening to CW at 20+WPM on my phone certainly paid off.

First CW QSO 1/2

#hamradio #Morse

Reviving the #CW100days hashtag.
Or more exactly 100days + 1, as I had my first CW QSO last week.

KX3, pico paddle, 17 WPM, 40M band, from an hotel room with a JPC-7 clone antenna through the window.

Thanks to M5LGM for slowing down to 17WPM for me.

Famous quotes from NASA mission comms:
- Apollo 11: "The Eagle has landed"
- Apollo 13: "Houston, we have a problem"
- Artemis 2: "We are still updating Outlook so everything but email is go"

Hi friends, I've been away for some time...

Does somebody knows what is the strange signal I hear on the 40m band, 4 "parallel" signals between roughly 7.040 and 7.075 ?
It sounds like malformed CW with occasional very long dashes.

On the internet, some people says it is RTTY, but it's not how it sounds to my ears (and 4 frequencies ???).

The signal is very strong (here in the French Alps), seems to never stop and there are some frequency shifts at times.

Probably mostly recv'd in Europe.

I discovered 4 things today :

1) Using a #CW bug is not easy.

2) But setting a bug is easy once you understand what to do, and in what order.

3) Adding weight to reduce the speed also make the adjustment slightly more difficult.

4) My first impression is that the #Vibroplex #6 "Lightning" (1950) is incredibly smooth.
Smoother than the Japanese Hi-Mound "BK-100" (2 of them, of different vintage) and the French "Vibro Mors".

#CW #Morsecode #Hamradio #hamr #radioamateur

Seems like there is an UFT contest this morning.

(Union Française de Télégraphie).

Just hearing F5NIB calling CQ in 20m.

#CW #Morse #morsecode #hamradio #radioamateur.

Any feedback on the Palm Nano Paddle and Pico Paddle ?
I can buy one (not clear which model).

All I know is that these paddles are not manufactured anymore since at least 10 years.

(For portable operation, indeed.)

#CW #Morse #Morsecode

It seems that DL7PIA's Mom is DL5PIA.
A true family afair.

BTW, Germany has vanity callsigns ?

Just got the callsign DL7PIA.

A YL who got her licence aged 12 !

Not the first time I copy this QRZ, she must have a serious amount of watts and / or a big antenna !

https://www.qrz.com/db/DL7PIA

Is there a contest with the name PCC ?
,
I try to listen to #CW 'bad QRM, as usually) and I barely copy some strang ecallsigns, then I realize it is some sort of PCC prefix.

#CW100days
As I only receive QRM on the HF bands this evening, I had a short #LCWO session.
16 to 20 WPM (and a bit @23WPM).

Using lesson 40 (all chars, numbers, punctuation and prosigns)

I didn't write down or type anything.
After so much head copy training, I know instantly if my head copy is correct or not.

Prosigns and punctuation come much more often in the exercises than in the real QSO phrases I practice on my phone.
Clearly, I have to refresh my "instant recognition" in this area !

And this time, as I didn't have to fight that much noise, I wasn't forced to use 50Hz or 100Hz bandwidth CW filters, that can induce hearing fatigue on the long term.

Listening on air is different from using a computer or a phone to learn, I state the obvious...

It is, at least for me, a rather different kind of apprenticeship (much easier, as I've already learned #morsecode).

There is no "Replay" button on air...

#CW100days
This morning, my usual S7-S9+ QRM on 20M dropped to S2-S3.

Probably a gift from "above" to reward my hard work learning #CW and #morsecode 😀

I was also blessed as it was not a contest day.

SWLing from 9 am to 4 pm !!

Many different QSO at various speed and levels of proficiency.

Verification tool : Morse Expert (not perfect).

Many callsigns.

A POTA activator from EA (alas, heavy QSB).

And, very rare, people ragchewing for hours (lamenting that ragchew is a lost art...)

#CW100days
Looks like I'm resurrecting my old habit of head copy #CW on my phone while commuting...

Two days ago, I lost the sound in my earbuds. In the mean time, I noticed quick glances of peoples around me in the tramway.
I was blasting CW through the speaker. 😀

DITTO CW is very cleverly designed, and normally it stops sending when it detects an audio output change, just to avoid that.

@dj5cw
P.S. Listening to QRM and noise thru a 100Hz bandwidth filter for hours, I got a serious headache !

#CW100days

Spent a large part of the day playing with my FTdx10 and my (new to me) 2004 TenTec Orion.
Listened to #CW contets on 40m and 20m.

I was testing how the Orion deals with heavy QRM and QRN, and exploring it's rather special AGC and NR setting.
In the mean time I tried to copy callsigns.

Contesters repeat their callsign ad-lib, and this helps.
Got some, in full or part, between 23 and 28WPM.

I used https://rbn.telegraphy.de/ to check the speed.
(Another Fabian @dj5cw site)

And zooming before the cuttof frequency (1MHz), we cans see there is almost no difference.

#CW100days
Did some Ditto #CW on my phone in the tramway this evening.

The previous days, I went back to #LCWO (thanks again Fabian, @dj5cw 🙂)
As is usual for me now my limitation is hitting the wrong keys on the keyboard and finally loosing track.

I mostly try to copy on the air (still very clumsy antenna setup here + heavy QRM).
I mostly receive the "kW big guns" in contest mode : very fast.
I only copy groups of letters, but now, to my ears it doesn't sound anymore like modulated noise!