[Elecraft] Re: Morse, UK Foundation Licence

Sat Oct 12 15:43:01 2002

On 11 Oct 2002 at 4:01, Brian G0UKB

> Don't forget that here in the UK we have a new licence class - 
> Foundation. This has a 10W power limit on all bands (except 10m) upto
> 433MHz. 
> 
>To allow folks to get
> on HF there is a Morse 'Assessment' in which folks get sent a 20 char
> QSO. The write down what they heard - i.e they write ./ -..-/ .-/ --/
> .--./ .-.././ and after the QSO has been sent they get a morse crib
> sheet and look up the letters (kinda like kids playing morse). If they
> get any wrong it gets resent until they pass. They have to do sending
> to, again they manually code their message into .s and -s and then
> send. 

I have helped with these Morse 'Assessments' at our local club.  As 
Brian says they are presented with a crib sheet of the code and are 
given plenty of time to do the exercise.  I actually found the 
process quite rewarding, but had to ask myself whether it does give 
them any help in understanding CW on air.

At our Bracknell club we have just started sessions of slow morse 
QSOs (3575 1730z Mondays) to try and help some of our members start 
having hf QSOs.  One of our members who I got through his morse 
assessment (now with a M3 call) said afterwards that he could only 
copy about every third character, but he 'appreciated' what was going 
on.

It is good that we are getting more amateurs on hf, but unfortunately 
the only way one can get proficient with on air cw is to go on and 
use it.  And there is simply too big a gap between 5wpm and what is 
needed for proper operating.  Contest QSOs are in that respect a good 
start, with a simple 599001 report and callsign only, it is easy to 
make plenty of QSOs to get the confidence up.

When are Elecraft bringing out the new front panel without the 
microphone hole?.....

73s Dave G3YMC

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