Why, I hear many people say....CW is oldfassion and not of use anymore.

Partly true, commercial-wise it has been replaced by digital and satelite communication.

Hamradio-wise it is mainly said by people who do not wanto take the effort to learn or read about morsecode(CW).

Wake up please!..morsecode or CW (continuous wave) is still very popular and can even get your signal futher around the globe then, for example, SSB mode in some occasions.

A contact with much QRM, QSB, or other interference can be made far more easy in CW.

And....I worked many new countries in this mode from a crowded citylot through pile-ups!

I also experianced that often less can be heard in SSB, or spotted on the DX-cluster, while there is  many DX available in the CW portion of the band.

I have a couple friends who were not really into CW and got their licence many years ago.

Somehow they got interested again and started practicing the code again or just to get on speed again.

In my opinion, learning CW is like learning a foreign language or ice-skating.

Even if you did not use it for years you have not forgotten the basics, right?

For those who like to know more and wanto get started again I collected info to start all over again or just to speed up.

If you wanto start learning morse-code(CW), you need to know the morse code-alphabeth and numbers:

I would suggest to start slowly and just a few letters or numbers a day, 20 minutes will do.

This can be done with the help of available morse tutors which are free for download from the internet.

I found a few url’s for you but must admit that I have no experiance with them so far:

CW-PLAYER: http://f1orl.club.fr/cwpeng.html

JUST LEARN MORSE CODE: http://justlearnmorsecode.com/

QRZ.COM morse downloads: www.qrz.com/download/morse/index.html

SUPER MORSE: www.murrah.com/sm/

These are for PC use but what if you are on holiday or in your car.

In your car?.......yeah I used to do that, play cassette-tapes and sing (dah-dit-dah) the city’s mentioned on the traffic signs.

Today, al lot can be found on the internet for this purposel aswell.

The ARRL has lot’s of MP3 files from 5 to 40 WPM for download which you can putt on a CD and play them on your mobile CD-player, car CD-player or on your home equipment.

These files can be found here: www.arrl.org/w1aw/morse/Archive/

Ones you can identify all letters and numbers you could start making QSO’s on the bands at low speed.

You will hear that, in CW, abbreviations are common and first time it will sound like “abacadabra” to your ears.

I collected the most used Q-codes and abbreviations in a regular QSO for you:

QRT : I will stop transmitting

QSB : Fading

QSY : change frequenty

QRM : man made noise

QRN : static noise

QTH : city/position

QSL : acknowledge received info

QRL : I am busy

QRA : callsign or name of your station

QRP : low power

QRO : hig power

QRG : frequency

QRS : transmit slower

QRZ : who is calling?

QSY : change frequency

QRV : are you ready?

GM : good morning

GA : good afternoon

GN : good day etc.

GB : goodbye

ES : and

TNX : thank you

FER : for

GD : good

RST : report

OP : operator

RIG : equipment

ANT : antenna

NR : near or number (mainly in contests)

TU : thank you

CUAGN : catch you again

= : space between parts of transmission

HW : how copy ( example: HW? = is how copy?)

TEMP : temperature

GL : good luck

Of course you can just communicate in your own language without abbreviations as well!

Don’t hesitate because, if the other operator is a good HAM he will slow down at your speed to make the contact go smoothly.

Another good point to start with is write down the things you would like to mention during the QSO.

For example:

ZL4IR de PA3GVI = TNX ED FER DE CALL ES GM = UR RST IS 599 5NN = OP  IS ROB ROB = HW ? = ZL4IR de PA3GVI BK

I know it will be scary the first time but when you get used to make QSO’s, you will be happy that you learned CW!

Thanks for reading and hope to hear your dit’s and dah’s one time!

Last comment:

When you are on speed and like contesting, this program will test your skills through QRM and QSB:

www.dxatlas.com/MorseRunner/

It will train you to get calls, RST and serial numbers at different speed.

It helped me to get my speed up to 35 WPM !

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