[CW] Re Why I like CW

[F6EEQ, Gerard]

This is to answer to W4FOA message dated Sep 30. Sorry, I recieve only =
the digest to avoid mail congestion, and I don't know how to answer =
directly !

I really loved your way to learn CW. It reminds me when I was a kid =
(about 14).

My parents had an old lamp BCL, and one day, I begun to listen =
extensively from bottom to top of SW band.

I found some weird sayings around 40 m, with a lot of abreviation like =
"Maroc", or "Sierra"... I very quickly understood these were ham radio =
operators, and I begun to put on a french map a little flag at each =
place I heard someone. This was AM time, so they were not difficult to =
understand.
Eventually, I learned to meet a ham living in my town (F5TA in Amboise, =
near Tours in the very famous Loire Valle with all the old castles), and =
he introduced me to ham world. He had a 10 tons lamp receiver (AME 7G if =
some of you know the thing), and an home made AM transmitter whom an =
other ham had lent to him. I soon learned about grid, and plate dip...
At that time I was only interested in phone.

Later on when I was student, I was member of F6KFN (University ham club =
in Lyon), and I passed my test, having learned CW the old way with nice =
count of dots and dashes !!
I also found a trick to listen to SSB and CW on a BCL : I had bought a =
Heathkit grid-dip oscillator, and used it as a BFO on the 455 kHz MF of =
the reciever. Not very easey to set-up, but nevertheless working !!

The rest of the story is a classical one. I got married, got a job, and =
enough money to buy a HW101 TRx.

One of my most interesting experience was my stay in the USA in 1977 and =
1978.
I was sent over there for busines and lived in the marvellous city of =
San Diego. I do not recall all the names of the hams I met there (some =
come to my memory : W6INI, W6PDA), but they were many. I was member of =
North Shores Amateurs RC (meetings if I remember correctly on Balboa =
Avenue ??), and I participated at Field Days and other nice events. I =
must say that ham life in the US was (and I suppose it is always) more =
exciting than in France, because ham radio is part of services rended to =
the community, in France is more some "tolerated" weird hobby with no =
actual capability to get involved in service, due to a very tight =
regulation, and the lack of goodwill of the authorities!!

This is during my stay that I learned to enjoy CW with my F6EEQ/W6 call. =
Some work collegue at General Atomics (do not remember the name) lent me =
a bug, and this was really a revelation.

Now I am 53, live in south east of France (about 100 km south of Lyon). =
My equipment is a TS870 and an old TS430. I still use on VHF CW the =
FT221 I bought at this Ham store on Clairmont Boulevard, but the HW101 =
has been traded against a handy talky (now I regret this !!).
Antennas are a tribander at 12 m and a dipole with ladder line for low =
bands.
 Trafic is 99.9% CW, but I am not really a fast one (25 for casual QSO =
30 to 35 for contests or DX).

OK I hope I did not bore you too much with my story, and if some of you =
are from SD area and know whom and what I was talking about, please say =
hello.

Best 73 to all and hp cu soon agn

Gerard, F6EEQ


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