From bmarx at bellsouth.net Sat Jun 1 15:15:02 2019 From: bmarx at bellsouth.net (Bill) Date: Sat, 1 Jun 2019 15:15:02 -0400 Subject: [QCWA Everglades Chapter #69] The Long Island CW Club Message-ID: <49c6be2b-dc6e-7b62-b6a3-3b752c50a0d4@bellsouth.net> Interesting Site: https://longislandcwclub.org/ From bmarx at bellsouth.net Tue Jun 4 15:53:35 2019 From: bmarx at bellsouth.net (Bill) Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2019 15:53:35 -0400 Subject: [QCWA Everglades Chapter #69] Washington Post Article - Morse code revolutionized communications 175 years ago Message-ID: <8457d377-6473-f246-0fd8-9104217a17b6@bellsouth.net> Morse code revolutionized communications 175 years ago Washington Post - By Eddie King June 2 The first message sent by Morse code???s dots and dashes across a long distance traveled from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore on Friday, May 24, 1844 ??? 175 years ago. It signaled the first time in human history that complex thoughts could be communicated at long distances almost instantaneously. Until then, people had to have face-to-face conversations; send coded messages through drums, smoke signals and semaphore systems; or read printed words. Thanks to Samuel F.B. Morse, communication changed rapidly, and has been changing ever faster since. He invented the electric telegraph in 1832. It took six more years for him to standardize a code for communicating over telegraph wires. In 1843, Congress gave him $30,000 to string wires between the nation???s capital and nearby Baltimore. When the line was completed, he conducted a public demonstration of long-distance communication. Morse wasn???t the only one working to develop a means of communicating over the telegraph, but his is the one that has survived. The wires, magnets and keys used in the initial demonstration have given way to smartphones??? on-screen keyboards, but Morse code has remained fundamentally the same, and is still ??? perhaps surprisingly ??? relevant in the 21st century. Although I have learned, and relearned, it many times as a Boy Scout, an amateur radio operator and a pilot, I continue to admire it and strive to master it. Morse???s key insight in constructing the code was considering how frequently each letter is used in English. The most commonly used letters have shorter symbols: ???E,??? which appears most often, is signified by a single ???dot.??? By contrast, ???Z,??? the least used letter in English, was signified by the much longer and more complex ???dot-dot-dot (pause) dot.??? In 1865, the International Telecommunications Union changed the code to account for different character frequencies in other languages. There have been other tweaks since, but ???E??? is still ???dot,??? though ???Z??? is now ???dash-dash-dot-dot.??? The reference to letter frequency makes for extremely efficient communications: Simple words with common letters can be transmitted very quickly. Longer words can still be sent, but they take more time. The communications system that Morse code was designed for ??? analogue connections over metal wires that carried a lot of interference and needed a clear on-off type signal to be heard ??? has evolved significantly. The first big change came just a few decades after Morse???s demonstration. In the late 19th century, Guglielmo Marconi invented radio??telegraph equipment, which could send Morse code over radio waves, rather than wires. The shipping industry loved this new way to communicate with ships at sea, either from ship to ship or to shore-based stations. By 1910, U.S. law required many passenger ships in U.S. waters to carry wireless sets for sending and receiving messages. After the Titanic sank in 1912, an international agreement required some ships to assign a person to listen for radio distress signals at all times. That same agreement designated ???SOS??? ??? ???dot-dot-dot dash-dash-dash dot-dot-dot??? ??? as the international distress signal, not as an abbreviation for anything but because it was a simple pattern that was easy to remember and transmit. The Coast Guard discontinued monitoring in 1995. The requirement that ships monitor for distress signals was removed in 1999, though the U.S. Navy still teaches at least some sailors to read, send and receive Morse code. Aviators also use Morse code to identify automated navigational aids. These are radio beacons that help pilots follow routes, traveling from one transmitter to the next on aeronautical charts. They transmit their identifiers ??? such as ???BAL??? for Baltimore ??? in Morse code. Pilots often learn to recognize familiar-sounding patterns of beacons in areas they fly frequently. There is a thriving community of amateur radio operators who treasure Morse code, too. Among amateur radio operators, Morse code is a cherished tradition tracing back to the earliest days of radio. Some of them may have begun in the Boy Scouts, which has made learning Morse variably optional or required over the years. The Federal Communications Commission required all licensed amateur radio operators to demonstrate proficiency in Morse code until a rule change in December 2006. The FCC does still issue commercial licenses that require Morse proficiency, but no jobs require it anymore. Because its signals are so simple ??? on or off, long or short ??? Morse code can also be used by flashing lights. Many navies around the world use blinker lights to communicate from ship to ship when they don???t want to use radios or when radio equipment breaks down. The U.S. Navy is actually testing a system that would let a user type words and convert it to blinker light. A receiver would read the flashes and convert it back to text. Skills learned in the military helped an injured man communicate with his wife across a rocky beach using only his flashlight in 2017. Perhaps the most notable modern use of Morse code was by Navy pilot Jeremiah Denton, while he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. In 1966, about one year into a nearly eight-year imprisonment, Denton was forced by his North Vietnamese captors to participate in a video interview about his treatment. While the camera focused on his face, he blinked the Morse code symbols for ???torture,??? confirming for the first time U.S. fears about the treatment of service members held captive in North Vietnam. Blinking Morse code is slow, but has also helped people with medical conditions that prevent them from speaking or communicating in other ways. A number of devices ??? including iPhones and Android smartphones ??? can be set up to accept Morse code input from people with limited motor skills. There are still many ways people can learn Morse code, and practice using it, even online. In emergency situations, it can be the only mode of communications that will get through. Beyond that, there is an art to Morse code, a rhythmic, musical fluidity to the sound. Sending and receiving it can have a soothing or meditative feeling, too, as the person focuses on the flow of individual characters, words and sentences. Sometimes the simplest tool is all that???s needed to accomplish the task. Eddie King is a PhD student in electrical engineering at the University of South Carolina. This report was originally published on theconversation.com. Article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/morse-code-revolutionized-communications-175-years-ago/2019/05/31/08f1a2c0-7cd1-11e9-8ede-f4abf521ef17_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b718d5466a66 > > /Mark Twain???s newfangled typing machine > > / > > /Before Twitter and Facebook, there was Morse code > > / > > /New measurement shows when U.S. inventors were most influential > > / > From bmarx at bellsouth.net Wed Jun 5 08:55:04 2019 From: bmarx at bellsouth.net (Bill) Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2019 08:55:04 -0400 Subject: [QCWA Everglades Chapter #69] QRQ or Copying CW over 70 wpm - Tom W4BQF Message-ID: * QRQ = FUN = QRQ**** ???? Tom - W4BQF?????????????????????????????? CW is for REAL HAMS! * Quite often I am asked "How can you copy CW at 70 wpm and higher?" Since it's pretty insulting just to answer by ??saying "Practice, practice, practice", I normally wind up emailing back a synopsis on how I learned to do it. Others have used different methods of achieving QRQ copy by ear. What I have to say on this subject is only my own personal opinion, which normally does not agree with everyone else! I really don't believe in the various methods of learning code. I think learning to copy high speed code is much simpler than following someone else's method of learning to copy QRQ. What I am sharing with you is things that I found to work for me. There are some basic's I think one MUST learn, and the very first one is you must learn to copy ONLY in your head. That's very important! From there you can begin to increase your copy speed. So copying in your head is a MUST. Jotting down notes or 'key words' is fine to remind you of something you want to respond to during your QSO. QSO'ing at 70 to 120 wpm is literally no different than having a conversation on the telephone; you are?? just doing it using a different language! No sending call signs (except as required) and no sending 'bk'. You don't do that on the telephone! Speaking on a telephone is operating duplex, therefore why not do the same thing on CW? A second most important thing you must do is have a radio that has excellent full QSK at high speeds.?? Simply because when operating QRQ, you MUST do it in duplex! You don't stop and take notes when your conversing on the telephone, so why do it when your operating QRQ? The radios that I know of that can run full QSK at speeds over 100 wpm are the Ten Tec Corsair II and the Icom IC-781, and they do it flawless. In my opinion, full QSK is not at what speed you can hear another signal between dots, but at what speed can you hear your fellow ham trying to break you! Hearing between dots is a fine criterion for speeds below about 40 wpm, but is inconsequential over 60 wpm. Unfortunately the more digital circuitry that is added to modern transceivers, the less high speed QRQ capable they become. All high speed code (above about 55 wpm)??is sent with a keyboard/keyer or a computer keyboard, simply because one just cannot consistantly send 'clean' code by hand on a key. Consistently 'clean' code makes for easier copying! I've been a CW operator for over 55 years but I am not one of those 'old goats' who claim that sending CW by any other means than using your had is not 'real' CW. 'Real' CW is a dot and?? a dash, no matter how you send it. The idea here is how you copy QRQ, not how you send it! Most computer programs that are capable of generating CW are, for some reason, not designed to exceed about 99 wpm. And most computer programs generate CW either via a serial port or a parallel port. Using these I/O ports causes an inherent problem for smooth CW generation. A computers CPU produces random (to us) interrupts which almost always stops activity in any I/O port FIRST! This leads to a 'stutter' sound in generated CW coming from these I/O ports. VE6YP, who is the author of the program I've been using for close to 10 years, is the only program author I know of who has found a solution to this problem. In his program, YPlog, he generates CW via the computer sound card, which is never interrupted by a computers CPU 'house-keeping'. The user builds a very simple audio detector and transistor switch to key his radio. This system works very good to over 160 wpm. The reason you first want to learn to copy in your head only is because when you get to speeds around 50 to 55 wpm, you have to teach your brain literally to change it's method of interpreting code.(And it takes a while to do this!) Below about 50 wpm, you are still hearing a dot and a dash to form a word. When you are copying at 60 wpm and higher, you do not consciously hear a dot and a dash, you literally hear a word. At that time too, you begin to have to be in, what I call, the 'flow of the conversation', just like you are when your talking on your telephone. If you send me code groups at 70 wpm, I could not copy most of them, but if you and I are in a converation at 70 wpm or higher, THEN I can copy pretty solid. To increase your copy speed, I recommend a code reader...and don't be shocked by that! The reason I recommend a code reader is because the process of learning to copy from about 50 to 60 wpm is where you literally have to teach your brain to copy code in a different way. The problem at these speeds is if you miss a word, your brain automatically freezes and tries to 'guess' at what that one missed word is. While the brain is trying to decide what that one word is, many more words go flying by, and you actually get very confused and lose track of what is being sent to you. When you start using a code reader, a first you're going to just read the screen, but subconsciously the brain is associating the dots and dashes with what your reading on the screen. The more you do this, you will find that the less you read the screen, but only glance at it when you miss that one word! This gets you over that 'brain freeze' that is caused by missig just one word! Once you get to copying around 60 wpm, when you DO miss that one word, your brain realizes it, but then just continues to copy, ignoring or filling in that one missed word. Don't worry about a code reader being a crutch, simply because when you get to where you can copy around 60 wpm, you will find that you can then copy code better than a code reader! A code reader is not very good at handling high speed code in the presence of normal band noise of your receiver. About 60 to 70 wpm and they are not capable to keep up anymore because of noise crashes, but your brain can easily filter out the noise. A code reader is an 'aid' to helping one learn to copy code faster, it is NOT a crutch! *[[just for info: Although you will not be conscience of copying dots ad dashes, if the sender mis-spells a word, somehow your brain will notice that. Say the sender sends the word 'will' as w'E'll, your mind will notice that one dit that was missed, but you will have trained your brain to ignore that one missed dit, and it will continue copying. I'm not truely sure of this but I think somewhere above about 70 or 80 wpm, since your mind is now really in the 'flow of the conversation', you probably are not literally copying every word that is sent to you, but your brain is copying enough to make sense out of what is being said!]]* Two big things about QRQ: 1) You HAVE to make it just another FUN thing you want to do with your hobby. 2) You are not going to learn to do it over night! But *anybody* can learn to do it. I got started doing QRQ sometime in the late 60's when I heard two hams talking to each other on their regular skeds on 40m, at 100 wpm. I thought it was just very fascinating, and just decided that was something I WANTED to do. And it took me about a year to go from 30 wpm on my keyer to over 60 wpm. That includes the time it took me to change from a QWERTY keyboard to a Dvorak style keyboard. The neat and fun thing I found, is that once you get to where you can copy between 60 and 70 wpm, your mind seems to just open up to copying QRQ. Going from 60 wpm to say, 100 wpm, seemed to be a breeze compared to retraining my brain to get through the 50 to 60 wpm 'brick wall' we all have to go through. I really don't know how fast I could copy, but I used to have QSO's with KB9XE and NU2C at about 120 wpm and could fully understand what they were saying. NU2C tested me once and he would send me two questions, which I had to answer both, then he would go up about 5 wpm . Finally at 145 wpm, I got only one of his questions! I have read that recently a German ham did copy a call sign being sent my RUFZ (a high speed competition program) at 200 wpm! Copying CW at high speeds, either 145 wpm or 200 wpm, is one thing, having a conversation at those speeds is something quite different. Again, two things. You have to make this a fun-thing, you have to want to do it, and it can get pretty frustrating at times. You have to be willing to spend the necessary time on the air working at improving your copy. That is the only way I know of that you can do it, as there are no short cuts. Interestingly, of the maybe 10 hams that I know that operate at high speeds, none of the have any interest in records or reconition for their QRQ ability. They all simply do it for the enjoyment of it. W4BQF Website https://sites.google.com/site/tomw4bqf/copyingcwover70wpm From bmarx at bellsouth.net Mon Jun 10 07:19:38 2019 From: bmarx at bellsouth.net (Bill) Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2019 07:19:38 -0400 Subject: [QCWA Everglades Chapter #69] As the Sun Screams - Solar Flares and Radio Bursts - TamithaSkov Message-ID: <344ce58f-50ac-ae6d-012f-99addce44b4e@bellsouth.net> Q&A Live Mini Course: As the Sun Screams - Solar Flares and Radio Bursts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN7C1hQtVxU&feature=em-lbcastemail From bmarx at bellsouth.net Sun Jun 16 18:27:28 2019 From: bmarx at bellsouth.net (Bill) Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2019 18:27:28 -0400 Subject: [QCWA Everglades Chapter #69] W7KXB - Partial List of 200 Radio Items For Sale Message-ID: <57247d3f-7f53-0a66-0a66-6b6ccbd3c1ad@bellsouth.net> https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AA4UDboUOCZmyS4&cid=240A42EE81500C2B&id=240A42EE81500C2B%2112204&parId=240A42EE81500C2B%216219&o=OneUp From bmarx at bellsouth.net Wed Jun 19 08:11:04 2019 From: bmarx at bellsouth.net (Bill) Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2019 08:11:04 -0400 Subject: [QCWA Everglades Chapter #69] Gov Desantis Resolution - Ham, Radio Week In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <046744be-7401-29f1-3b50-ecb9935bdd24@bellsouth.net> From DARC List: Gov Desantis Resolution From: Jim K4JGC Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2019 12:36:14 PDT Attached is a copy of the resolution that Gov Desantis put out in support of Ham Radio. Jim K4JGC Desantis Resolution.pdf https://groups.io/g/DCARC/attachment/649/0/Desantis%20Resolution.pdf From bmarx at bellsouth.net Thu Jun 20 13:49:04 2019 From: bmarx at bellsouth.net (Bill) Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2019 13:49:04 -0400 Subject: [QCWA Everglades Chapter #69] Planetary Orbits May Explain Mystery of Sun's 11-Year Cycle Message-ID: Planetary Orbits May Explain Mystery of Sun's 11-Year Cycle https://www.space.com/planets-affect-solar-cycle.html From bmarx at bellsouth.net Sun Jun 23 08:16:51 2019 From: bmarx at bellsouth.net (Bill) Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2019 08:16:51 -0400 Subject: [QCWA Everglades Chapter #69] A Mystery Frequency Disrupted Car Fobs in an Ohio City, and Now Residents Know Why Message-ID: A Mystery Frequency Disrupted Car Fobs in an Ohio City, and Now Residents Know Why https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/04/us/key-fobs-north-olmsted-ohio.html From bmarx at bellsouth.net Fri Jun 28 07:37:04 2019 From: bmarx at bellsouth.net (Bill) Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2019 07:37:04 -0400 Subject: [QCWA Everglades Chapter #69] FT8DMC.EU Ft8 Digital Mode Club Message-ID: <8bddb31b-98ca-eb31-df62-ad12c37e984a@bellsouth.net> From the DARC Reflector: *I**found this club online FT8DMC.EU Ft8 Digital Mode Club* From: Dan - W4DRK Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2019 18:56:45 PDT I saw some people who had these awards on qrz.com, its free to join, you upload your ft8 log into the database,( ill do this monthly) I then found that I already qualified for a few awards. You have to look close but the two WAC awards are for two different bands, 17 and 40.. The award application took some doing to get the awards worked out, but I got it going, .. From bmarx at bellsouth.net Fri Jun 28 09:19:53 2019 From: bmarx at bellsouth.net (Bill) Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2019 09:19:53 -0400 Subject: [QCWA Everglades Chapter #69] FT8DMC.EU Ft8 Digital Mode Club In-Reply-To: <8bddb31b-98ca-eb31-df62-ad12c37e984a@bellsouth.net> References: <8bddb31b-98ca-eb31-df62-ad12c37e984a@bellsouth.net> Message-ID: <31d0292a-5a56-dc68-9699-1efe87d011e0@bellsouth.net> Here is the link if you didn't see it on the subject line: https://www.ft8dmc.eu/ On 6/28/2019 7:37 AM, Bill wrote: > From the DARC Reflector: > > > *I**found this club online FT8DMC.EU Ft8 Digital Mode Club* > From: Dan - W4DRK > > Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2019 18:56:45 PDT > I saw some people who had these awards on qrz.com, its free to join, > you upload your ft8 log into the database,( ill do this monthly) > > I then found that I already qualified for a few awards. > > You have to look close but the two WAC awards are for two different > bands, 17 and 40.. > > The award application took some doing to get the awards worked out, > but I got it going, .. > ______________________________________________________________ > South Florida DX Assoc. "SINCE 1974" > SFDXA WebSite: http://www.SFDXA.com > SFDXA Repeater 147.33+ 103.5 Tone > To Post: mailto:SFDXA at mailman.qth.net > To UNSUBSCRIBE/EDIT: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/sfdxa > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net >