[CW] Flavours of Morse

[Donald Chester]

Back in the early 1970s I worked Hack on 40m CW quite regularly.  I eventually inherited his National SW-3 regenerative receiver, via a 3rd party friend after both he and Hack had gone SK.  Hack and I traded a few vintage transmitter components while he was still active and I was building new transmitters.

 

Not only is CW from the perfect keyboard / electronic keyer boring, so is CW from the perfect transmitter.  I find that a SLIGHT chirp may actually enhance the readability of a signal, especially if the keying is excessively soft.  One of the reasons I don’t work CW as much as I used to is that the majority of CW contacts in recent years have tended towards the rubber-stamp QSO, with the usual exchange of name, QTH, signal report (often 599 regardless of poor readability), rig (a series of  letters and numbers run together designating some plastic radio, totally meaningless to me), followed by TNX CUL 73 QRZ?.  Oh yes,  I forgot, in recent years, age of the op and the number of years one  has been a ham have become part of the default exchange.

 

I pay particular attention to signals with (again I emphasise) SLIGHT imperfections, like just a little audible bit of chirp or 60~ hum modulation on the signal.  That suggests to me the distinct likelihood that the other station may be running homebrew/ vintage/repurposed equipment, and that a conversation about some topic of interest to me may ensue.  Of course,  this does not apply to DX signals, since practically none of them, regardless of  what they are running for a  station, ever want to go beyond signal report and QSL information, which is the reason why I rarely ever attempt to work DX even though my station has the capability.  I’d love to ragchew with DX stations located in countries where I have lived or visited, but that just never seems to happen.

 

In recent years, I have found homebrew transmitters on CW to be almost as rare as homebrew transmitters on SSB (other than the likes of novelty QRP rigs built in a cat-food tin).  Actually, most of the homebrew and converted military/commercial transmitters, and over-the-air discussions about technical aspects of the radio art, these days can be heard on AM phone.  But even there, the plastic radios and button pushers are beginning to dominate, as more and more of the newer commercially built transceivers incorporate AM capability that actually generates an acceptable quality signal.

 

Don k4kyv

 

 

w4foa at comcast.net <mailto:w4foa at comcast.net>  wrote:



I see a lot of talk about "perfect CW" yadda yadda yadda.  Well, speaking as a CW guy for more than 60 years, I find perfect CW quite boring.  In fact, I do my very best to avoid the keyboard CW stations because they are generally boring, spelling out each and every word, and most of all "dumping" their memories while they go eat breakfast, hi.

My mentor was one of the very best CW ops in his time (Hack, W4DIJ, later K4KP).  During my "side saddle" time with Hack, he never said "send perfect CW" but he did stress, DO NOT run everything together

 

Tony W4FOA



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