[RVRC] KB6NU's Column for September 2011

[E Drew Moore]

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan KB6NU [mailto:cwgeek at kb6nu.com] 
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 3:35 PM
To: drumor at optonline.net
Subject: KB6NU's Column for September 2011

Hi, folks--

This month's column was written by Craig Miller, W8CR. I worked Craig about a month ago, and when he mentioned that he'd written articles for his club's newsletter, I asked if he'd like to provide a column occasionally.  I hope you enjoy this column as much as I did.

73!

Dan KB6NU

Bitten by the Bug

By Craig Miller, W8CR

Ahhhhh, just put the kid on the bus, and the wife is on her way to the salt mine. Now, I have 45 minutes to see if I can scare up a quick QSO. 

40 meters sounds pretty quiet this morning--no ear splitting static crashes. The usual morning CW junkies must have already headed off to work or out mowing the grass. I spin the dial down to 7.023 to see if any speedsters are still on. Some days, I can even keep up with them at 30-35 wpm. It must be later than I thought, though. Those guys are gone too.

Tuning back up to 7.030, I hear a couple of guys wrapping up a chat at about 20 wpm: "FB FRED MUST QRT TO WALK THE DOG 73 ES CUL…" (translation: "Good copy, Fred, but I really gotta go to the bathroom!  Best regards and see you later.").

I spin the dial up to 7.032, and don’t hear any beeps or boops. I guess here is where I’ll cast my line.  "QRL?" (translation: "Anybody out there working that last rare DX station for your DXCC that I can’t hear?").  Nuttin’ heard.  I’ll QRL one more time before "CQ  CQ CQ DE W8CR W8CR K".    Silence.  Again "CQ CQ…". Just the hiss out of the speaker.  Well maybe this ain’t gonna happen today.  One more time…

Bam – I got one! He's got a nice strong signal too. But, wait. What the …?  What is he sending me?  "DAAAAHHHHHH DIT DIT   DIT DIT DAAAAAAHHHHHH DAAAAAAHHHHHHH DAAAAAAHHHH  DIT DITDITDIT  DIT DIT DITDITDITDAAAAAAHHHHHH."  NUTS!  He’s using a bug, a mechanical key dating back to the old railroad days. It's an ingenious mechanism for sending high speed code, but it takes a lot of practice to send clear, copyable code. I can barely make out my callsign let alone his – this isn’t gonna be fun.

I have two options: 

1. Don’t reply and pretend I didn’t hear him. He’s really strong, though, and most likely I am, too. He knows I can hear him. Plus, that’s the coward’s way out.

2. Answer him and tough it out.

I answer him. We exchange the usual stuff. My RST is 579, his name is Bill, and he lives in Niassa Fihls, errrrr, Niagara Falls, NY.  "Niagara Falls, eh?"  We’ve been wanting to visit there  before our kid gets too old to even want to be seen with his parents, let alone ride in a car for 6 hours to look at water flowing over rocks.  Plus, that’s where Nikola Tesla built his hydro power station that illuminated Buffalo over a hundred years ago.  I’m hooked now – lotsa questions for him.

As our conversation progresses, his dot-to-dash ratio varies all over the map, but I slowly get used his style of CW. It's like listening to British shows on PBS. At first, they’re totally unintelligible, but over time, your brain figures it out.

I have to give him credit, he’s using something that is a passing skill.  I have a bug I bought years ago, but could never master it well enough for me to feel comfortable subjecting others to the noise.

Well, that 45 minutes passed fast.  Time to get to work.  I promised I would look him up whenever we get to Niagara. I guess it wasn’t a total nightmare working him and his bug, after all.  Kinda like talking to somebody with a thick accent.

After all, he is a New Yorker.

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Craig Miller, W8CR, began his ham career in 1974 as WN8TLC. He lives in Ostrander, Ohio. He enjoys HF CW ragchewing with a little bit of DXing and contesting tossed in. He is an active officer in the Delaware County (Ohio) ARES and a member of the DELARA (www.k8es.org) radio club.

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