Session Ø6, July 17 with Recording

New Characters introduced this session:

Q W        


Comprehensive list of all characters introduced so far:

E T A O N R I S D K Q W     Ø 5 



Prosigns:

Remember, most prosigns sent correctly have no space between the characters, but you will often hear many ham operators include a space between prosign characters anyway.  You should learn to comfortably copy and understand prosigns both with and without the space between characters, but learn to send with the characters correctly blended together as one big character.  

A good fist, and getting these little operating details correct will help you get noticed by experienced CW operators which will encourage them to want to make contact with you.  An inconsistent fist or being sloppy with your operating practices will tend to cause many good operators to turn the dial to find someone else.  Don't effectively attenuate your signal by being sloppy.  Having a clean fist that is easy to understand and using the proper techniques and procedures can act like a big amplifier on your signal, helping the contacts roll in.


New Prosign covered this session:

AS  (wait)

SK  (End of final transmission for this QSO.)  
KN  (Invitation to transmit for the specific station that was called ONLY.  Similar to saying, "Over" on voice, but more specific.  That little two letter prosign is the polite way to say, "Over to the one station whose callsign I just listed.  Everybody else shut up so I can hear them."  But is said in a nice way with a 2 letter prosign, so that makes it okay.)


Comprehensive list of prosigns covered so far:

AR (end of message)
K  Invitation for any station to respond.
KN ('over' to specific station)
SK (end of QSO)
AS (wait)



New Abbreviations and Q signals covered this session:

QRN (Static, or Natural Noise)
QNI  (Net Check-In Invitation. Usually sent by a Net Control station asking for stations to check-in to a CW net.)
QRS (Send Slower)  
QRT (Closing Station, similar to saying "Clear" over a repeater.)
QSO (A contact or a conversation)
QST ("Calling all Radio Amateurs",  most commonly used by W1AW when transmitting items such as news bulletins.

QSK (Break-in mode.  Indicating you are able to hear signals in some of the gaps as you are transmitting.   Semi QSK indicates you can hear signals between words, and sometimes between characters as you are transmitting.  Full QSK indicates you can hear signals in between individual dots and dashes.  QSK allows a station to get your attention and "break in" in the middle of your transmission.   Very useful in long conversations, during contests, in emergency operations, and various other times.  Makes operating CW very conversational, but also better able to adapt and respond rapidly to changing conditions and situations.  

I HIGHLY recommend eventually learning to operate Full QSK.
It takes practice to get used to hearing the the receiver make noise between dots and dashes as you are sending without allowing it to break your concentration or lose your train of thought about what you are transmitting.  IT IS WORTH IT.  When two skilled Full QSK CW operators are in a QSO, the conversation flips back and forth much like a full duplex voice conversation.  It's extraordinarily fun.  Good friends will complete each other's thoughts, laugh at a joke for 1 second and hand it back, and carry on very fluently.  CW truly becomes a second language in Full QSK mode.


Example structure of a common QSO transmitted during tonight's class:

CQ is called by KEØDRO   (I did not transmit this portion of the example.  We will introduce the character C in the next class.)

I answer his CQ by transmitting my callsign
NRØR

The CQing station responds:
NRØR DE KEØDRO KN

I might respond with a transmission similar to:
KEØDRO de NRØR RST 5NN ES QRN IS S5 AR KEØDRO DE NRØR KN


What does the above transmission mean?

It was a transmission directed at station KEØDRO from station NRØR.  NRØR reported that the Readability, Strength, and Tone, RST signal received from KEØDRO was 5NN.  The 5 means the signal was 100% readable.  The first N is a cut number representing the number 9 which corresponds to an S9 signal strength on the S meter on the Receiver.  The last N is another cut number representing the number 9 which represents the best possible tone quality for the signal.  It was a clear note that did not waver, had no clicks, no hash, no warbles, nor buzzing.  ES represents the word "and".  QRN is the Q signal for static which is being reported to have a reading on the S meter of the receiver at the NRØR location of S5.  AR means "end of message."  The trailing part of the message again indicates the transmission was directed at station KEØDRO and came from station NRØR.  The KN at the end of the transmission turns the conversation back to KEØDRO only.  All other stations that might be listening are requested to remain silent and allow KEØDRO to transmit in the clear.

Look at the length of the paragraph that I just typed to explain that one line of a morse code transmission.  It took much longer to type that explanation than it took to transmit the original morse code of that message at 6 words per minute and I can type type pretty fast.  That is the power of learning the lingo used in morse code.  The procedures, abbreviations, and Q signals are powerful tools, but the must be used correctly to be useful.


As we add more characters our simulations will become more and more realistic.

Try to include something similar to what you see above in your practice sessions, but change a few things around like the callsigns, and use a different message.  "Work downtown in rain was wet."  Get creative.  Have fun inventing messages using the character set available.  Start using the abbreviations and Q signals in messages.  Get used to them.


Scrabble List:

Nouns	Verbs	Other
radio	takedown	I
Iraq	skirted	and
downstairs	ordinates	a
knitwear	dread	to
networks	rationed	it
worker	darkens	in
twine	asteroid	so
kindest	teardown	its
wordiness	drink	on
twitter	drank	or
western	winked	not
wind	drown	one
aware	are	at
we	see	no
	eat	as
	ate	too
	do	into
	is	our
	dont	and
	did
	does
	know
	was
	were

Session Ø6, July 17 Recording





See Everyone Friday at 7pm

Mark
NRØR