I agree, even though sometimes hands do their own thing, a harm up before transmitting always helps!

That's very useful information. One thing I hadn't thought off is to listen for my own call being returned. I've been struggling to get my CW back for a very long time. I still don't have the confidence to do so but your information is very well worth knowing. 73. HS0ZLQ. G0MIH.

E T A O N I S H R D L U

Your video has certainly convinced me to come back to CW and to join the SKCC. I had about 12 words per minute years ago, but am very rusty, so find the typical QSO's intimidating. Now I know where to go to get better! Your humbleness and willingness to show a QSO with all the warts left in is very inspirational. Fine work! 73

I'd like to take the Long Island cw club course but unfortunately with exceptionally poor internet service and an ancient computer that has no video conferencing geegaws on it and no budget to upgrade, it's unlikely I'll be able to do that.

Made my first CW contact with the help of a club Elmer during Indiana QSO Party. Hope to work you on the air from my own call sign soon! I took part on the local club net last night and I had to correct my call sign twice, it's just how it is--I wanted to be there and I made sure they copied correctly... It's the same on CW and even more relaxed for the elmers in my short experience. Thanks for your insights VE3SVQ!

Thanks! Great tips.

Gotta tell ya, as a novice I worked a lot of Canadian's on CW. My Elmer and my dad installed my antenna one day while I was at school. It was oriented East West which meant the main lobes went North Sout. I didn't understand his comment when he left, "Don't work any Canadians". LOL. Had many a QSO with them!

It takes awhile. I ended up North American because that was the type of key I bought in 1990. It was what I could afford back then.

Yes, still figuring it out

congrats!!

I have the same straight as you. The nye viking master key. By chance do you know when they were made.? I picked up one at hamfest. Its pristine shape. Good video also. Dave, KQ4CW

Very useful information. Thank you for taking the time and effort to bring us this helpful presentation.

I never got above 5-6 wpm. I barely passed my novice test back in '88. I then immediately got my technician license, but had to wait a really long time to upgrade to general. To me, once you get much above 5 wpm, it just becomes an unintelligible mess. None of those "guaranteed to work" methods worked. I have never used code on the air, and have no desire to do so.

You have a contest call, do you have a rag chew call, a net call, a traffic call, a ssb call, an FT8 call?

Great Video ! I love mine I also work 40 and 20 meters on Pota your right they do great DX I worked Australia , Sweden, BC, Alberta, Portugal , Alaska, Colombia and so on happy DX Pota on brother ! Sal / KM4PPV

Hi, I still use one after 40 years it helps 😊

What?

Incredible thanks a lot for this

How do you get to have two VE3 call signs?

I don't care about your tips, really. No one cares.

Super! Thanks for the encouragement. 73 K6KRG

Thanks for this video. Several thoughts: 1) A script was absolutely crucial when I first got on the air with CW. I didn't write mine down, however, I just practiced it until I memorized it, and could send it confidently. Sure, I was still nervous, but eventually the script was second-nature to me, and could use it for any QSO. It has changed over the years, but I still use most of the elements that I had in the original. 2) Joining SKCC was absolutely the BEST thing I could have done to get on the air with CW. Because there was a set exchange that every SKCC contact had to have, you knew EXACTLY what was coming from the other operator, and exactly what you needed to send. It was great; it made it easy to copy. It really gave me the confidence to get on the air with CW. It even gave me the confidence to call CQ - especially during Week-end Sprintathon. 3) When I had the 'brain freeze', what eventually ended up helping me was the good ol' prosign of 'BT'. I would send BT several times until I could think of what to say next. That really helped calm me down. So, again, thanks for the video. I'll have to remember to share this kind of stuff when people ask me what I do when I get on the air with CW. DE K7RLN (SKCC #19199)

Can you please share the template of those scripts ? 73's /ct1bsd

Excellent video and great info. Thank you for posting.

Thank you for this down to earth kind of info. I’m into my learning journey right now with LICW and I’ve started listing more on the radio and is a beautiful thing how our brain starts picking some characters where a few weeks ago it was just indecipherable code. 73 de VA6JLG

@k8byp_542

Thanks for sharing Keith! Looking forward to giving this a try.

This is one of the beauties of the Reverse Beacon Network, you can set your freq, set the speed and see what's about.....great for a newcomer!

I needed this! I'm learning CW currently on LCWO and am monitoring POTAs from my shack. Getting on the air is still really intimidating but I feel like with this script I may give it a shot this week since it's so simple. Thank you! 73

I had internet issues while this was uploading yesterday. Final edits done this morning with correct title plus added links to the script and two other excellent KZbin CW sites. Ed W4EMB and Evan K2EJT

great and helpful video. tnx 73 Ron

Thanks Keith!

Thank you for your comment. Good luck with cw. It is a lot of fun.

Thank you so very much for sharing this information. I am still in the process of learning CW but, I have been on the KIUSN website and was a little confused about the learning process. Thank you for making this clear. I can't tell you how excited I am to be learning CW and can't wait till I can actually use CW to communicate, even on the KIUSN website. Thank You KO4UWU 73

It's a good idea. I did this to be sure what I wanted to say and get the spelling correct. I learned it to get my G4 call but was nosey and wanted to know what people were saying anyway. Having learnt it I was not letting it get away. I got my ex army key about 50 years ago and still at school aged 15 or 16 and paid 7/6d or 37½ new pence in today's money. G4GHB.

Great video Keith. I'm looking forward to making my first contact. Hopefully in the near future.

Thank you. Yes they really do, I regularly get dx European contacts from POTA activations

They do indeed work! From Maryland, with either 5 or 10 watts and hamsticks, I’ve worked all manners of DX, as well as many POTA activators. I have the Shark models. 73, Mike K3CXG.

Thank you. I will keep yours in mind for when I activate a park. Much appreciated

Great script! Thanks for making videos like this, Keith. These kinds of videos help create more CW operators for us to communicate with. Here’s my POTA script… A: CQ CQ CQ POTA DE VA2NW VA2NW K H: AC1PH A: AC1PH GA UR 5NN 5NN BK H: BK TU UR 5NN 5NN VT VT BK A: BK TNX VT ES 73 DE VA2NW E E H: E E

Hi Keith, another great video for new CW operators. This is spot on with my experience since getting up the nerve to make that first contact after watching another video of yours about 3 weeks ago. Since then I have made 58 CW POTA contacts according to my hunter log on the POTA website. For those wanting to get that first contact, just follow Keith's advise in this video. From the decoding side you will need to be able to make out your call sign and the <bk>. That is really all that I could do on my first couple of contacts. I am improving but still can't make out everything that is sent my way, but that really doesn't matter at this point. I am making contacts and I am improving every day. Sometimes I will tune into a frequency where somebody is calling CQ POTA and I will follow along with the script to practice decoding what the activator is sending. This is a lot of fun and you will be hooked when you make that first contact. My goal is to be able to activate a park, but I have a long way to go with improving my copy. Thanks again Keith for another great video and 73 for now...

I remember those days. Lots US novice ops at 5 wpm. It helped Canadians as we were 7 or 12 wpm.

I used to write down a tiny script when I was starting out contacting others radio amateurs by Morse. It couldn't be very long because I only sent at 5 words per minute which is 25 characters per minute! That was back in 1965.

Tnx was great in all respects very helpful. Ron KI5USR

I don't use 75/80 either. I know there is a more seasoned crowd down there that talks about declining health and it's one of the few ways they can still feel connected, so I leave it alone since I'm just not ready for that. Also, the band is not useful during the daytime when I am usually able to get on the air. As for 40-10, everything I'm seeing and hearing says it is a really good antenna. I bought one over at MFJ a couple of years ago, but I have not strung it up yet, since I use a Hustler 6-TV as my only antenna. I have a good antenna switch, so I may put it in line with my backup transceiver that is hooked up to the MFJ Cobweb...another STELLAR performing antenna. MFJ (Starkville, MS) is only a thirty-five minute drive from my front door, so I buy a good bit from them. Nice informative video, Mr. Keith. Thanks so much for sharing it with us! K5SFC

Check their requirements on their web page. To be skcc contact I believe it must be a straight key, cootie or bug.

When I first started to learn CW a couple years ago, I joined SKCC but immediately moved to a paddle. I do not use a straight key. Can I still make a QSO with a SKCC member and should I give them my SKCC # even though I don't use a straight key? Yes, I am still new but have enough confidence to make contacts.

Great insight. How about sharing the text files for the scripts so we can modifiy and print?

Hi Keith, love you videos. They are very helpful for us newbies to CW. After watching and commenting on your last video, you gave me enough advice in your reply and enough info in that video to give me enough nerve to make my first contact. It was a POTA contact and actually easier to make than I thought. My problem is that I have a hard time copying CW. With the POTA script I can follow along good enough to make contacts. In the past 2 weeks I have made 23 contacts. I could have had more but I was on vacation for one of those weeks. I am going to tell anybody that reads this that if I can make a CW contact, anybody can. Just follow Keith's POTA script that he shows in the video and that is all that you need. 73 and THANK YOU for all the advice and help!!