Subj : Re: New Adventures in Old Tech To : n2qfd From : Ed Vance Date : Fri Jul 19 2024 03:45 pm > FLDigi is a bit of software that came about as the sound card's got better > in PC's and you could use them to make/decode digital signals for HF. It has > a CW decoder in it but like most machines it really can't get a great copy on > human made CW. This is where we'll always beat the machine! The human hand > and brain trumps the machine sent/received CW. > Now this is something to try doing, and great advice. I often would send > alphabet as taught then numbers and prosigns, but reversing it would be good > good practice. > I think sending Japan is a strange word in CW too, at least for my brain. > And I play that car game too, thinking of the letters I'm seeing. It's been > years and years since I've had a 73 via horn on the highway as well. I think > to do it myself when I see a callsign plate but then I also think, well... > don't want to scare him + probably doesn't know code... > Milliwatt sprint last night with NAQCC was difficult. I was tired, and this > is a poor starting point. Working for the utility NYSEG we've been cleaning > up from storm damage thru NY this week. Then conditions were not super. Lots > of lightning crashes, fade and interference. Signal reports were 229 339 some > 459's but not much better and I was using 4 watts unlike some of them really > squeezing the electrons and sending 72 at the end of the QSO! > We go to the radio with the conditions we have eh? There were a few dozen > working the sprint and we made it happen so can't beat that. > I'll work on good lid, haven't had anyone send QLF in a while... probably > deserve it after that sprint! > Best 73 to you too. > Mal > N2QFD{Queen City BBS}:// "Does this need to be said? Does this need to be > said by me? Does this need to be said by me right now?" - Craig Ferguson > --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Raspberry Pi/32) > * Origin: Queen City BBS (21:1/154) Mal, When I saw QLF , I once put a J-38 key on the floor and used my Left Foot to send CQ and began a QSO using the foot for a bit. BTW, I am Left-Handed. When I use my Bug, I make Dashes with my thumb, but prefer the Straight Key. You mentioned sending CW by Hand. Seeing that reminded me of a movie I saw on TV long ago in which a Telegrapher aboard a ship was killed while sending. A message and then the murderer sent the end of the message. During the Investigation the operator at the land base station told the law that he heard a different FIST sending the end of the message. TKS about explaining FLDigi to me. It not recognizing hand sent CW made me think about the Farnsworth(sp?) tape machines that were used when I was in Radioman School. FLDigi must want that style of code, to IT any other code would have be slurred. I have seen some nice keyer projects, but never built one. One Ham I knew had a CW Keyboard, those are nice, but EXPENSIVE!!! Back in 1984 I got a C=64 program that sent CW as I typed it. Later on used that PC with Digicom for packet. You wrote about tapping 73 on the car horn, some time ago I saw a car license plate with a Amateur Radio Calling and tapped . . . . . . and the driver acted like he got disturbed with 'that guy in the car behind him'. Seeing Japan in your reply had me think of a book the Library had called "A Nmemonic Device for Memorizing The International Morse Code", a Army manual I found in the Library. In the book, for the letter P it said to think of the word PAN, P=A+N. .. - - . Together equals . - - . Those low RST's You gave during the QRP Contest to those stations, was it because of Band conditions or because of the very low power the rigs had? In a earlier post You said you never had Collins Gear, the Navy Ham Shack was where I used the Collins S-Line. Before the Central Electronics gear arrive at the station the rig was a (iicr) T-350 XM . That beast had two 813s putting out 700 watts AM or CW. I saved a page showing it - www.isquare.com/personal_pages/t350.htm That address is one I got in 2017, hope it is still good. I don't know how to be logged on the BBS typing a reply and being able to use another session of Firefox to check the URL out. Hope it works. When that thing was keyed up on AM IT created a gap for ITSELF in the Band. The only Drake here is a 2-B with 2-BQ . 73 de Ed . . --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (21:1/175) .