Last night I was fiddling around with my Elecraft K1. Couldn’t get it to work properly. Couldn’t even spot myself on Reverse Beacon Network. Eventually I got out my Kenwood TS-590. Turns out my home-brew coax patch-cable didn’t work! Aaaargh, stupid mistake of course.
After a few spins over 20m and 40m I heard a faint station and after a few of his CQ’s I decrypted that it was M0JRS, Jonathan from England! With shaky hands I send my call and he came back! Now I really start to sweat all over, of course I couldn’t make much of his message because I dropped letters left and right. But I did understand he send my RST and his name (which I already looked up on QRZ.com). When he finished transmitting I tried to send his RST and my name but it didn’t go so well. When I started to listen for his return, two other stations where interfering and I missed his message completely.
Nevermind, I logged him and it’s my first CW contact with hand!
So Jonathan: thank you very much for your patience and excuse me for my bad return, I’ll work hard to get better!
PA8E
Dutch Radio Amateur Station
When you get the CW fever you’r better prepared……..It will never go away……….
Good Luck and 73, Herman ON5ABS
Thanks Herman! It’s about time the virus hit me, I’m practicing on and off from since late 2010 now. So I really needed to dive in the CW-water. It’s an interesting world on it’s own. I really like it, but am not there yet. Hope to meet you on the air sometime! 73 de Jim
Toch knap. Zelf ben ik ook van plan het ooit nog eens te leren. Maar ja, er zijn zo veel andere dingen in de hobby en daarbuiten die ik momenteel belangrijker vind. Succes Jim, 73, Bas
Thanks for your comment Bas. I recognize your situation. And when the urge to learn the code is high enough, you have to have serious patience, invest a great deal of time (not so much per training, but to be determined and do every day training) and be prepared to meet a lot of frustration (at least I did). But when you make your first contact, it is all worth it! It only gets me more motivated to train more and get better and to make more contacts. Maybe some day you will find the motivation to start. I did all my training on http://www.lcwo.net. Maybe it is a good tool for you too. 73 de Jim