[Elecraft] On Digital

[Bill Frantz]

I took a somewhat different path from Wayne, and as a result 
fell in love with the digital modes.

I started as an electronics nerd in junior and senior high 
school. I loved building electronics projects, especially kits.

There was a radio club in high school which encouraged me to get 
my novice ticket. I still remember sometime in 1960, getting on 
the Long Island Railroad to ride into Manhatten to take my test 
at the FCC office. I had ridden the train into New York many 
times before, but this time I turned way downtown instead of 
uptown where I had gone on all previous trips. I arrived at the 
FCC office more than a little bit scared. I managed to pass both 
the written and code tests, and anxiously waited for my ticket 
to arrive in the mail. When it did I was WV2NOO.

I rounded up SX-99 receiver and a Heathkit 40W transmitter kit, 
and then I hit a serious snag. I am dyslexic and have a great 
deal of difficulty with written English. However, CW QSOs are in 
written English with a big does of CW OP jargon. The jargon I 
could handle, but I could not get a string of letters to become 
a word at any speed. Even now, I need to write them down before 
I can recognize which word they represent. My novice year went 
by with almost no QSOs.

Fast forward to the year 2000, 40 years later. Somewhere about 
1975 I had learned to write English, although I was and am a 
slave to spell checkers. My software startup has just gone 
bankrupt. I was at loose ends and said to myself, "I'll study up 
and get a no-code tech ticket. I have caving friends who use the 
WA6BAI repeater in Kings Canyon National Park to communicate. I 
can join them."

I studied the ARRL book and took the test. I aced the test and 
the examiner said, "Why don't you take the general test, it 
won't cost you anything." So I took the general test cold and 
passed. I walked out with a database entry that became KG6JOH 
and a piece of paper that said in essence, "Learn 5 WPM CW in 
the next year and you can have a general."

I had learned 5 WPM 40 years earlier and figured I could do it 
again. So I got the CW CDs and learned the code. At the same 
time I studied for the extra exam because I wanted to stop 
having to jump through hoops and just be a ham. Within the year 
I had passed both exams and became AE6JV. But I still wasn't 
doing very much on the air. I was one of those hams that build 
equipment but rarely use it.


I joined the West Valley Amateur Radio Association (WVARA) 
because the West Valley is where I live and I wanted to support 
at least one open repeater to give back to the hobby and "pay" 
for the open repeaters I used with my caving buddies.

WVARA takes Field Day very seriously. As a new member, I went up 
to the site and saw the CW tent, the 3 SSB tents, and the 
digital tent. I was invited into the CW tent to do some 
operating. I declined because learning 5 WPM for the test 
doesn't mean you can make it in the real world. I did a bit of 
operating in a SSB tent, and then Phil, W6PK who was in charge 
of the digital tent, invited me to do some PSK31 operating. I 
had found my niche. PSK31 was like the computer chat rooms I had 
supported in my last job. Typing I can do with my eyes closed 
and the incoming words appeared in print, so I could read them 
the way I read books, papers, etc.

I look back at my log and see the first 3 years as exclusively 
PSK31 contacts. Then I branched out to RTTY for the North 
American QSO Party. Finally in March 2013 I decide to try to 
contact TX5K on Clipperton Island. On 15M I managed both a SSB 
contact, and my first CW contact. I was decoding the CW both by 
partially ear and partially with the K3. I was sending from the 
K3's memory. After listening to my call many times in the 
pileup, I could recognize it when TX5K came back with it and 
press the other button to send the exchange.

Six months later, my log shows what I described as my first CW 
QSO with Al, W6SQQ in Orange, CA. The log shows he was using a 
K3 with a G5RV and had nice cool weather. I am sure I copied all 
that by typing it into my computer and reading the screen. The 
log from that time shows many digital contacts and a scattering 
of SSB and almost no CW. Then came the W1AW portable operations. 
I was hooked on contacting the W1AWs, and I made many more CW 
contacts, but these were certainly not rag chewing. They were as 
mechanical as the digital contacts when the operators just play 
macros at each other.

These days, when I operate CW, I am either contesting or DXing. 
In either case, the vocabulary is small enough that I can 
recognize the words -- CQ TU 5NN ? -- without having to think 
about the letters. If I need to think about the letters, I still 
use a computer to change them into words, eliminating many of 
the real advantages CW has. I can use a straight key, but slow 
down alarmingly when confronted with a paddle.

Somewhere along the line, I managed to earn a DXCC and a Grand 
Slam WAS -- WAS on CW, digital, voice. I still consider digital 
to be my "home" mode. I have had many enjoyable rag chews on 
PSK31, particularly with Michael, VE3NOO and Mary, KC9TIE.

As and example, today I got a LotW acknowledgment for a FT8 QSO 
with Jim, ZL1LC. My log shows two other QSOs with him on PSK31. 
It also notes that he operates from Waiheke Island, Oneroa with 
a Icom 707 and a Cushcraft vertical. I don't know if we got away 
from the macros, but certainly exchanged more that signal 
reports and grid squares in those QSOs.

I will continue to struggle with CW and be happy that there are 
so many modes people can use. Almost anyone can find something 
that works for them.

73 Bill AE6JV

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Frantz        |"After all, if the conventional wisdom was 
working, the
408-356-8506       | rate of systems being compromised would be 
going down,
www.pwpconsult.com | wouldn't it?" -- Marcus Ranum