The Morse Mode
Roger Cooke G3LDI reports on CWops success, another interesting key and has a couple of NFD stories.
CWops Gold medallions for achieving 90 points in the weekly CWT events were plentiful in the Norfolk ARC this year! However, the rules are changing next year. A new session is being added, 0700 to 0800UTC. This will make it easier on the EU stations, a somewhat sobering hour to operate compared to the 0300 to 0400 slot! Having said that, we normally have at least three ops in NARC who regularly take part at 0300.
The 0700 sessions are live at the moment, but not for scoring purposes. That will commence on 1 January 2022. So, if you find it difficult to drag yourself out of bed at 0300, try the 0700 slot. The only problem there is that for the Gold awards, EU stations will, from 2022, need 120 points, so you might have to bite the bullet a few times!
Norfolk ARC also has another new CWops member. It’s Tony G0OOR, Fig.
1. Tony has been in our local classes for some time and is good at 25wpm plus now, but he now has to work during the day so can only get on for the evening sessions.
Another New Key
Well, it’s new to me anyway! Andy 2E0NDZ emailed and asked if anybody has a drawing or information regarding the Hitchcox triple lever automorse key. It is an Australian-made triple-lever Morse paddle. Andy is a member of the British Vintage Wireless Society (BVWS): www.bvws.org.uk
He bought this key from one of the members. As you see from the pristine one, Fig.
2, this is what it should look like. The other pictures are Andy’s key after he cleaned it, Figs. 3 to 5. The small cut-out includes the maker’s identification. It does look ancient and I don’t suppose there are many in use today, but if anybody can help Andy, please email him: andrewhumphriss@tinyworld.co.uk
HF NFD 2021
NFD was again this year a non-starter for me and also those in the Norfolk ARC. However, the RSGB decided to sanction it and there were a few clubs that took part. Despite the lack of DL portables, because they decided to cancel it this year again, some decent scores were made. I hope this does not have any significant effect on NFD itself. Personally, it is one of my favourite events in the year’s operating calendar.
I guess we have seen the better years however, harking back to the 1960s again.
Ian G3WVG was busy under the call MW5A/P and sent in a report, which would have been a great score under normal circumstances. Quite how he manages to operate alone for all that time beats me. His report makes interesting reading however: “A week before Field Day the weather forecast looked great, so I thought what could be better than a camping weekend in sunny South Wales playing radio. I was going to be operating on my own so I thought I’d make use of the RBN cluster to keep me company. That meant I would register in the Open section.
“Come the weekend the whole of the UK was sweltering in great weather, except where I was in South West Wales, it was rainy and cold all through the Saturday afternoon while setting up and didn’t stop until after midnight!
“I’d got permission from a farmer I knew to set up in one of his fields. I’d loaded my trusty Russian push-up mast into my car however…..My absolute thanks must go to the local ham, Ken GW0RCH (of the GW4CC Gower contest club) who I had contacted in advance. He most kindly suggested that he could loan me, deliver and erect his mobile tower. On the Saturday morning I met up with him and his colleague Paul GW4KTT and they brilliantly helped with the antenna set-up. Nothing special, just simple dipoles. Neither of them have any great interest in CW so they left before the contest started but they most fortunately came back at the end to assist with the de-rig.
“So how was the contest? Well, it was tough on my own, it was the first time I’d done it solo and hadn’t really realised that easily more than half the fun had been the competitive social aspect (I believe it’s called ‘banter’!).
“The lack of DL participation made what is normally a bit of a slow grind through the night into an even slower affair. That’s why I fell asleep for a ‘brief’ nap and woke up a good four hours later. It’s impossible to recover from that in competitive QSO terms so it was then just a question of continuing to play radio until the end.
“There was another contest running at the same time. Most entrants in that TC contest seemed opposed to having QSOs with FD stations so that didn’t help.
“There were some short bursts of sporadic E for me, but it seemed to be highly geographically focused. And, oh yes, did I mention the QRN? Not unusually for FD in
Fig. 1: Tony G0OOR.
Fig. 2: The Hitchcox triple lever automorse key. Figs. 3 through 5: Andy 2E0NDZ’s key after cleaning up.
the summer there was loads of that too. No thunderstorms though. So, this year I was spared the sometime dashes to the Faraday cage of my car.
“Great that quite a few UK fixed stations called in to give points. Let’s hope that next year we can get more intense (in tents) activity. Ended up with just about 700 QSOs and 150 mults.
“Verdict, it’s tough on your own but can, should and must do better! 73 Ian G3WVG aka MW5A/P”.
Peter G3LET also took part and put in a report: “Well, I didn’t sign up for that! So many mults engaged exclusively in the TC contest and refusing to work any /P stations! That said, propagation was better than two years ago, if you could find anyone who would work you.
“Poor preparation meant that for most of the daylight hours the logger screen was all but invisible and entirely invisible during the long periods of full sun. Unlike in previous years, the local substation noise source in Twineham did not let up at any time, which meant that 160m QSOs were limited to those with S9+ signals. That said, my vertical antenna seemed to work well on that band and I was even able to edge in front of some 100W callers, giving me confidence to CQ in the face of an S9 noise wall when there was nothing left to call. Apologies to those who called without result but I really had no other option! Less than half the usual number of QSOs on 160 though.
“Along with the Elecraft K3 and P3, I was using a 20m vertical (supported with guys at 7.5 and 15m) with 50 radials varying from 5m to 20m in length, in the expectation that the centre of operation would be Russia and eastern EU and this turned out to be the case. However, its performance on 15 and 10 proved distinctly wanting − very frustrating. The strangest and ultimately most rewarding QSO came about on 15, when I was CQing in the hope of scaring up one of the few non-TC stations around. After several CQs I thought I could detect a very weak intemittent rough noise on my frequency, so I moved a few hundred Hertz on several occasions in order to avoid it. It seemed to follow me for several minutes. Eventually, it dawned on me that it might actually be somebody calling, in very slow hand-sent Morse and using some primitive rig. Once tuned in to this possibility I was able to catch the odd character on peaks. After several more minutes OK1DZD was revealed, a mult! More minutes went by until I could decipher his serial − he must have been pretty desperate to get any QSO but I was also very happy with the result! Best DX was VR2 (Hong Kong) − he had some ears!
“Not being able to see the on-screen log (or P3 display) for long periods, it looks as though there are a large number of errors with missing received serials, where I had entered the next call without logging the previous QSO. To minimise losses I shall have to go through and mark these up as X-QSOs. Looks like I shall lose several mults as well, so no claimed score yet. Raw QSO total ended up at 472, well down on any previous outing in this event, so we shall have to wait and see . . .”
I still look at NFD with ancient eyes and memories, no keyers, no Clusters, 10W only, no computers, certainly no panafalls or SO2R operations, plus of course there were no other contests on at the same time. So, with a nostalgic view, I think we had the best of times with NFD back then. I guess life changes, but change does not necessarily mean for the better. But, I suppose I should not look for a permanent solution to a temporary situation.
73 and May the Morse be with you!