[NvHam] Straight Key Century Club

[Paul Cavnar]

If you have ever participated in the ARRL's annual "Straight Key Night" 
that is held every year on New Year's Eve, then you have probably
enjoyed the casual contacts using your straight key.  Many very
memorable contacts have been made and new friends met during
those events over the years.

Well, a small group of hams asked themselves if that fun event could
be every day and not just one night of the year.  Out of that question
was born the Straight Key Century Club.  The group is dedicated to
preserving CW operation by straight key or 'bug' semi-automatic keys
on the air.  They started a e-mail list to discuss the idea and the list
began to grow and can be found at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/skcc/

They decided to list those who shared their interests in this part of
the ham radio hobby as a 'club' and starting giving them a number
for free membership.  There are also awards available for 100 contacts
of SKCC members as well as a WAS for SKCC that rewards a very
nice certificate.

The originators found there was interest in their idea and the numbers
of members began to grow but, at an exponential rate!  In just over
three weeks they went from a handful to over 1000 people with SKCC
member numbers!  Not only in every state of the union but, several
countries around the world!  If you subscribe to the e-mail list you
will read accounts of wonderful contacts on CW even during our
poor propagation conditions as the bands open and close.  There are
also a lot of members who only use QRP power and they managing
to contact others even in poor conditions.

If you tune up on the HF bands, you will not find large portions of
the bands void of signals but rather many CW signals in the novice
portions of the bands as well as the lower CW portions of the bands.
Amazingly, 80m CW has not only been alive and active but even
crowded at times!

So, if this draws your interest, I would recommend you join in the
fun and dust off your old straight key and make some new friends
on the air.  You will find the SKCC members more than willing to
contact and converse on the air.  Yes, indeed, CW is alive and
thriving on the ham bands.

All the information  to subscribe to the e-mail group and sign on
to the SKCC club is on the information web page link above.

73, Paul Cavnar - NN7B