KA9S Web Log
Where opinions abound (mine)
CW - My kind of mode!
CW (continuous wave) is otherwise known as Morse code. I have operated 100% of my on air time using CW. My rig came with a hand held microphone (which I have stashed somewhere in the garage) but I'm not sure I know how to operate it. My primary activity is HF CW rag chewing (otherwise known as shooting the breeze).
There are many
Hams who harbor a hatred for CW and CW operators. It used to baffle me.
I see
now that CW is a skill that is not easily learned by some and even
harder to
learn by those who have no interest in learning it. As such, it
represented an
unreasonable arcane throw back to a by gone era. It’s
proponents (CW operators)
were the enemy, perpetuating the odious burden on the public.
The FCC has
now dropped the requirement to learn Morse code as an element of
obtaining an
amateur radio license. Morse code has been dropped by radio services
the world
over. It pretty much only exists on the Ham bands now.
CW still
persists. I am a living example that learning, knowing, and using this
communication skill is rewarding to the many who dare to try it.
If you want to learn more about it, check the definitive work done by William Pierpont - N0HFF "The Art and Skill of Radio-Telegraphy".
I guess our
hobby reflects our society in general. People who put the work in to
achieve a
skill (CW in this case) do not want to squander that investment by
alienating
the very people they depend on to participate in their hard earned
skill.
People who have put no effort into leaning a skill (gurgling into a
microphone)
have nothing to loose by being rude or belligerent. There will always
be
another idiot with a microphone they can abuse tomorrow, when they come
a
dime-a-dozen.
Conversational CW
CW
is talking.
This is a stumbling block for
many who “know” CW but never use it to hold
conversations. I find there are
three primary camps of CW operators. People tend to adopt one, two, or
all
three of them:
Contester,
DXer, Rag Chewer
(Traffic
handlers are a fourth group.
They usually make good rag chewers too, but they are not that numerous,
and are
not included in this line of reasoning – sorry guys)
Contesters and
DXers are competitive, aggressive hams who “want to
win”. Both of these
specialties require great skill. The top performers are able to conduct
CW
contacts at high speeds under great pressure and rough crowded
operating
conditions. Who can say these “Big Guns”
don’t represent the pinnacle of CW
operators? Yet I find many of these high speed big guns fall flat if
you
attempt to hold a simple CW conversation with them. They have the skill
to make
quick contacts exchanging predefined information in a specific order,
but do
not fair well with the unstructured, unpredictable nature of a casual
conversation.
You may encounter a contester easily cruising along at 35 wpm (words
per
minute) but if you try and strike up a conversation with him at that
speed, you
will often hear him slamming on the breaks, and slowing down to
something
around 20 wpm. Even then, he is likely to end the conversation quickly
after he
has failed to copy your comments and exhausted his normal list of safe
topics.
Holding a
conversation using CW is it’s own skill. A skill that is not
as appreciated as
it should be. It is a non-aggressive endeavor, and no one has to be
vanquished
in the process. In fact, the opposite is true. Everyone involved has to
be
accommodated for the CW conversation to succeed. A person who
technically knows
CW does not, by default, know how to conduct a CW conversation. There
are
additional skills that must be learned and mastered before one can
comfortably
proclaim they are fluent in conversational CW (a.k.a. – Rag
Chewing).
A CW
conversation is like writing a letter in “real
time”. By this I mean the sending
station has to formulate something worth saying, convert it into Morse
code and
send it out at the rate/rhythm of the code speed being used. They
cannot “type
ahead” (unless they are using a keyboard keyer). We call this
multi-tasking,
and it does not come without practice. I think of it as typing out each
character of word, a sentence, a conversation, that I am composing
“on the
fly”, one character at a time to the rhythm of a metronome.
Then I have to add
in the proper spacing between the letters, words, and sentences to make
it
readable. Doing this puts a lot of pressure on a person if they
haven’t put in
a lot of practice first.
Receiving a CW
conversation is also more of a challenge than running a contest contact
or
bagging a DX contact. In both of these cases, the other station sticks
to a
predictable predefined set of information delivered in the same order
(RST,
QTH, OP, serial No., etc.). The receiving operator can anticipate what
will be
sent next. This is a great advantage in “decoding”
what is coming in over the
air. In a CW conversation, the receiving operator has no idea what is
going to
be coming next. Every one has something different to say and has a
different
way of saying it. This forces the receiving operator to copy
everything, all of
the time, without any hints as to what is coming next. Again, doing
this puts a
lot of pressure on a person if they haven’t put in a lot of
practice first.
It can be
embarrassing for the receiving operator who is inexperienced in
conversational
CW and finds himself panicking part way into a rag-chew QSO. The CW
that used
to seem familiar and predictable is suddenly throwing unknown words and
phrases
at him, and the world just seems to “lock up”. What
excuse can he have for
this? He just finished breaking a DX pile-up at 30 wpm and is now
choking at 20
wpm? Sending can be as much a problem. Staring at the key hoping IT
is
going to come up with something worth to saying. He never gets tong
tied on
phone.
To make life easier, the
operator who is not comfortable conducting a CW conversation tends to
make the
conversation more predictable. The operator sticks to a predetermined
set of
topics in a predictable order (cookie cutter QSOs). The conversation
goes
something like this:
K4xxx de
W8yyy FB OM UR RST 589 589 QTH Myhome / MI Myhome / MI name John John
WX is
cloudy and cold 43 deg rig is Kenwood TS-570D running 100w ant is a
G5RV Age is
58 es been a ham 42 yrs hw cpy? K4xxx de W8yyy K
This makes sending
easier because the operator does not need to come up with new material
to speak
about and can focus on the technical side of generating Morse code. It
makes
receiving easier because the other operator can predict what is coming
next
making the decoding of the Morse code easier.
It makes the
conversation boring.
My personal un-favorite
is the weather report. I have a computer. I have a television. Both get
the
weather channel. I didn’t set up an expensive radio station
and contact a new
person with unique life experiences to get the weather report from
“Myhome /
MI”. Unless you are currently being hit by a tornado or your
house is being
washed down a hill by a flash flood, while you are talking with me, I
really
don’t care to hear about the weather.
I don’t mind thinking
of
the cookie cutter comments as background information for further
conversation.
But all too often the QSO starts and ends there. I try to extend the
conversation into new topics. This often prompts the other operator to
claim
that the XLY just called and he must QRT – such a waste. I
can understand why
some one who never explores beyond the cookie cutter format would
eventually
grow bored with CW and quit, or, move over to more exciting CW
activities such
as contesting or DXing.
Hams that are new to
conversational CW and want to experience the fun need two additional
skills.
They are, greater proficiency in sending and receiving Morse code, and
general
conversational skills. Time on the air will take care of the Morse code
proficiency issue. Just keep making CW contacts (non-cookie cutter
QSOs) and
your CW proficiency will build. The vast majority of CW rag chewers
will be
happy to QRS to whatever speed makes you comfortable. There is no
reason to be
embarrassed asking a speed demon to please slow down, even if you are
answering
his high speed CQ. We have all been where you are now. We all started
out slow.
All of us. No kidding. We get it. It’s OK.
The conversational
skills are the harder part. There is no absolute here. I’m
not sure I can cover
it properly or can lay claim to being “top notch”
my self. I can only give my
view here and a couple tid bits of advice. You could take a dozen
people who
have a common experience, ask them to describe it to you, and you will
get the
story told in twelve different ways. None of the stories will be
“wrong”, but
some will be more interesting to listen to than the others. Those are
the
people who are good at conversation.
I talk to people like I
have been talking to them all my life. I don’t assume they
know anything about
me, but I do act like we are already best friends and we are just
catching up
on things that have happened since the last chat we had (even though it
may be
our first QSO ever). I pay attention for clues to what may be unique
about the
other operator and then ask a question about their unique aspect. I
look for
common interests we may have (ham radio itself is an obvious choice) or
ask
what other hobbies they may have. I bring up anything unusual that has
happened
to me in the last week or two. If it doesn’t spark any
interest on the other end,
I let it go and try something else. I don’t go back farther
than two weeks
because the conversation takes on an
“autobiographical” flavor (boring). I keep
very short notes in my logbook about the unique things I have learned
about
someone. The next time I talk with them, I look at the notes and bring
up the
ones that weren’t completely covered last time we talked or
those which were
projects that may have been worked on. Oh yes – religion,
politics – you know
better don’t you?
I find it very rewarding when I sense the other operator easing out of the cookie cutter mode. It is gratifying to me when he energetically launches into some topic he is genuinely interested in. The conversation takes on a momentum all its own. These QSO generally runs out of steam about an hour later with the other ham telling me what a great QSO it has been. They often seem surprised that they could hold an hour-long QSO and have fun doing it. I do it all the time. This is my way of feeling like a “Big Gun”.
