[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] CW Practice Net Proposal

[Edward Bradshaw]

I have been working to learn CW and wanted to see if anyone else was
interested in taking part in a weekly CW practice net.  There are a few
logistics to figure out, like what freq to operate on (or do we use
something like Teamspeak or even Teams) but wanted to start by getting an
idea how many would be interested.

This would be aimed at beginners but would be open to anyone looking to
either brush up or even be part of Elmering.  While we would keep it slow,
I would like to keep character speed at around 20-25WPM, or as fast as you
can on straight key BUT use character spacing of say, 8WPM with word
spacing even slower.  Most CW trainers agree that using fast character
speeds helps you avoid counting the dits and dahs.  Instead, you learn to
recognize the sound each letter makes, like the "ta-daaa" of an A.  The
spacing gives you a little time to process and not feel pressured into
recalling the letter.

I was thinking a revolving Net Control, with each person getting a go and
having a chance to communicate with everyone else.  We could have a list of
"items" that Net Control wishes to collect, RSTs, WX conditions, QTH,
Gridsquare, etc.  Basically, just a short bit of information to pass, to
get us all used to the flow.  It should also be relatively predictable
responses, which also helps.

As for time, I think the evenings would be best, perhaps right after the
Thursday net?  When you respond, let me know times that would work best.

There are two ways we could go about sending/receiving.  We could either
operate over the air, with 40 and 6m being possible bands.  We could also
open up a Teams or Teamspeak meeting and rely on our microphones to pick up
the code oscillator.  I know a lot of radios allow you to play the sidetone
without needing to transmit.  You can also use a practice key oscillator.
Over the air would be best, I think, but having a chat window would also be
useful.  Perhaps we could start out on Teams, then progress to HF once
everyone gets into the swing of things?

Pete Hadley, K6BFA, of Vienna Wireless gave a great talk on learning CW
that is well worth watching.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT973YhjdR4

Let's start by getting a list of people who are interested and we'll go
from there.   Send me an email at w4edf at arrl.net to let me know if you'd
like to participate and what a good time for you would be.

73,

Ed
W4EDF