No Code Extra

[WU2D]

I checked in to the OMRN (Old Military Radio Net) CW edition Sunday at 9:00 PM (3570 kc) which is a roundtable of nuts who love to run old military rigs last night. I was playing ARC-5 all weekend and I wanted to give it a try. Anyway, there was KW1I running a Mackay and Scott RX and two TCS setups and a BC-610. I was running the stock ARC-5 BC-696, relays banging..

After the net I decided to take a spin on the old BC-348 and make a modern CW contact with the old station. I heard this weird CW signal on 3550. It was johnny novice deluxe. It was difficult to tell if it was a CQ, the sending was so bad. I managed to copy down something that looked like a call and I slowwwwwwlllly sent it and my call three times...silence. I repeated...silence - I am 4 minutes into the QSO and I have no response. So being stubborn, I tried again. Then he replied kind of - like miners do when trapped by banging on a pipe. We eventually passed enough information that I got his call right and his name - Matt and that he was in Ohio. A signal report was hopeless.

Then I got those magic words - "cool u first contct"

KB1KDW, a 16 year old Eagle Scout sent me an E-Mail today - Matt is an Extra

Thank you SO much for the contact. I know it must have been very painful with how poor my sending and receiving abilities are. I have been able to copy pieces of a few other folks conversations, but most people have had more practice that I and so I can't receive fast enough. Thinking I might find another beginner or someone willing to work with one I threw out my CQ's hoping to find someone with a great deal of patience. Thank you so much for the contact. The fade got pretty bad at the end of the contact. You were 599 up until the fade got us (not to mention it was bed time).

73 -- KB1KDW

My first contact was on a not so shiny BC-696 right from Fair Radio and I was a Boy Scout and 16. I was nervous too because I was bootlegging my friend Billys call because my ticket was in the mail - Hi.


Mike WU2D

[WA3VJB]

Great story.
Did you tell him you were the same age in your first contact?

It strikes me that back then, the rig was shaky and maybe so was the operator.

We've improved the hardware.

[n3lrx]

Congrats to both of you. I know in Ham Radio terms you're first contact CW or otherwise is one of those moment you never forget! Kinda like falling in love for the first time!

It feels great to know you've brightened up someones day don't it? if only the rest of life were so simple..

[k4kyv]

I hope there will be more like him.  He didn't get his ticket, go out and buy a ricebox, fire it up on slopbucket, and three months later put it on e-Pay because he finds ham radio "boring."

[KI4OWV]

I am impressed. You gentlemen have demonstrated the true spirit of ham radio.  Hmmmmmm.. Think it has anything to do with spending hours tinkering with old boatanchors ?

[AB3L]

The Eagle Scout is at the fork in the road. Does he continue with the "tuff" cw challenge or does he continue with the "easy" email?

Since we are on the No Code subject, I talked to a guy at work yesterday who is considering getting his license . I told him about the change in licensing, he went on to explain that the code is what held him back. He works for a Physics professor that is a ham and has been on him for years about getting the ticket.
Another example of a technically gifted person who couldn't hack the CW but he would be a good addition to the hobby. Hopefully they are welcomed into the fold kindly.

[WB2RJR]

Since we are on the No Code subject, I talked to a guy at work yesterday who is considering getting his license . I told him about the change in licensing, he went on to explain that the code is what held him back. He works for a Physics professor that is a ham and has been on him for years about getting the ticket.
Another example of a technically gifted person who couldn't hack the CW but he would be a good addition to the hobby.

This year, 2007, my Alma Mater, the University of Colorado at Boulder, is requiring all new students in the College of Applied Sciences and Engineering to have completed 3 years of study in a single foriegn language in high school. You can be accepted without this, but you must begin on meeting this requirement your first semester and all following until it is done. If you don't, you are pitched out immediately.

Oh No!, Oh No!..........technically "competent" people won't be able to get a degree in engineering because they can't learn French, or Spanish, or German, or code, or whatever.

What do you suppose it is that the faculty of the College of Applied Sciences and Engineering, who made this new requirement, knows that you do not?

The answer is in the word "competent" (with the quotes).

73, Marty WB2RJR

P.S. Nice job hanging in there in order to give that fellow his first CW QSO. I've done it before as it was done for me, by that kind fellow in Medina, Ohio. Hey!, Hamburg, NY to Medina, OH was a big deal for me with a 6DQ6 oscillator and a POS S-107 in 1963. The longest journey.....begins with a single step.

[K1MVP]

The Eagle Scout is at the fork in the road. Does he continue with the "tuff" cw challenge or does he continue with the "easy" email?

Since we are on the No Code subject, I talked to a guy at work yesterday who is considering getting his license . I told him about the change in licensing, he went on to explain that the code is what held him back. He works for a Physics professor that is a ham and has been on him for years about getting the ticket.
Another example of a technically gifted person who couldn't hack the CW but he would be a good addition to the hobby. Hopefully they are welcomed into the fold kindly.

I could understand where a guy might use the "I cant learn cw" excuse when
the requirement was 13 and 20 wpm, but NOT the basic 5wpm that has
been the requirement in the past few years,--I must be "missing" something.
                                          73, K1MVP
 

[k4kyv]

Don't the navies of countries worldwide still require officers in training to learn how to rig the sails on sailships?

That's where the sailing vessels came from that were displayed at the famous "Tall Ship" event at Boston during the Bi-centennial celebration.  These weren't all the property of millionaire hobbyists who purchased and refurbished old ships, or had new ones built to use as fancy yachts, but many were ships commissioned by the navies of numerous countries for training purposes.


For example:

Built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, the Rose operated as a sail training vessel from 1985 to 2001.

http://www.tallshiprose.org/

http://www.apparent-wind.com/tall-ships-faq.html

[W1RKW]

I could be wrong about this as a requirement but the US Coast Guard I believe does this too.  Cadets train on the Barque Eagle which is stationed here in SE CT.

[K1MVP]

You also had to send code via a straight key as part of the code exam.

One had to copy 1 minunte of code correctly, and I think it was 1 minute on the sending part of the test as well.   You'd think sending would be a no-brainer,  but I remember I was mightly tense in front of the FCC boys.....

I was also a bit "tense" when I made my first cw contact as a novice, and that
was after passing a 5wpm test.
I could not even imagine trying to get on the air with no cw abiliity whatsoever,
back then(in 1959),--"spitting and sputtering",--almost like attempting to
drive a car without ever taking a motor vehicle test, and no "onroad practice".
                                       
                                         73, K1MVP