Does anyone do anything besides CW while DX'ing? I still have to
learn/practice CW but would like to try my hand at DX. I know that CW
is generally most efficient at low power, but if you don't yet know
it..it isn't much help..

Jeff wrote:
Does anyone do anything besides CW while DX'ing? I still have to
learn/practice CW but would like to try my hand at DX. I know that CW
is generally most efficient at low power, but if you don't yet know
it..it isn't much help..

Since you did not say where you are or give a callsign, I'll assume
you are in the U.S. The FCC slants DX contacts twoard CW. During the
sunspot low, the prime DX bands are 80m and 40m. Outside of the America's
80m is 3.500 to 3.850, most of which is CW only in the U.S. 40m is
7.000 to 7.200, but until very recently it ended at 7100.

You can work split, where you transmit in the ssb portion of the band,
while a DX ham transmits in their voice band. Arranging such contacts
is difficult, and here when there is propigation to the U.S. on the
3.850-4.000 and 7.100 to 7.300 bands, they are full of broadcast
stations, and it is almost impossible to hear anything else.

These stations start going off the air around midnight local time,
but so do most of the local hams.

Many hams outside the U.S. have little or no English and therefore
prefer to use CW beacuse there is no languange problem. Others
speak it perfectly well.

As the sunspots improve the chance for voice contacts improves
as the higher bands open. 20m is occasionaly open now, but not
all day.

My suggestion to you is to get a rig, get out there and start
making contacts. The skills you learn apply to both CW and voice.

There are a million ways to learn morse code, the best one IMHO
is an audio/visual course called "code quick". It was the best
$50 I've ever spent on a hobby.

Another method that works for MOST, but not ALL people is to
get on the air and ask local hams for the name of an Elmer
(mentor).

Note that ACCURATE sending and copy is far more important than
SPEED, so once you can send and copy accurately, then you can
get on the air and start making contacts. The best way to
improve you speed is to use it.

If you don't have an HF rig yet, I suggest that you look into an
older Ten-Tec rig. They are excelent for CW and SSB and you can get
an older rig fairly cheaply. It won't have a lot of "bells and whistles",
but it will work well. Ask around for advice on buying a used rig,
and buy it from someone you trust. Avoid auction sites.

73,

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/

On Jan 21, 9:54 pm, (Geoffrey S. Mendelson) wrote:
Since you did not say where you are or give a callsign, I'll assume
you are in the U.S. The FCC slants DX contacts twoard CW. During the
sunspot low, the prime DX bands are 80m and 40m. Outside of the America's
80m is 3.500 to 3.850, most of which is CW only in the U.S. 40m is
7.000 to 7.200, but until very recently it ended at 7100.

Yep, I'm in the US. Also, I already have an HF rig, but my antenna is
a "work in
progress" at this point in time. Basically my gardener cut it in
half :-{
I know that before I aspire to DX I need to improve my antenna
situation,
but DX is mostly why I got into the hobby. I want to see how far/who
I can
make contact with. Also, I'd like to get into some of the homebrew
QRP
stuff as well. The main problem I have with morse is
synchronization...
by that I mean, I can learn the tones, but at some point I can't
distinguish
a dit from a dah, and then I lose track of where I am in a character
and it
all seems to mix together...need more practice. My dad tells me about
the
guys he knew in the service who could use dual paddles and send code
all day
long while simultaneously reading something else.

Jeff wrote:
The main problem I have with morse is
synchronization...
by that I mean, I can learn the tones, but at some point I can't
distinguish
a dit from a dah, and then I lose track of where I am in a character
and it
all seems to mix together...need more practice.

There are various methods for doing that. Code Quick converts the
character into words which makes it processed in a different part
of your brain.

After 29 years of trying unsucessfully to learn morse code by being
beeped at, I learned it in a few months with code quick. At my peak,
I was able to copy 35 wpm.

Jerry Zilliak, KB6MT, produced a high speed words course in the
1980's which once I learned with code quick, helped me get up there.
He still sells it.

Code is no longer required for a (U.S.) license, so that should
not stop you from getting on the air. You can learn good operating
procedure, how to find and contact DX stations and so on with SSB.

Once you get your code speed up to a reliable, accurate 5 wpm, you
can move to CW, and build your speed on the air.

As for an antenna, a random wire would do for a start.

73,

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/

Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
Does anyone do anything besides CW while DX'ing? I still have to
learn/practice CW but would like to try my hand at DX.

get on the air and start making contacts. The best way to
improve you speed is to use it.

Geoff's advice is VERY good, IMO. Concentrate on sending clean code--use
a keyer if you can--and most hams will happily slow down as much as you
need. And if you use CW, you'll find your abilities increasing
dramatically. I got my Tech+ license in 1991 and started working DX on
the CW part of the 15-meter band. Six months later i was testing for
General and 'accidentally' passed the 20wpm code test, which I took just
as a warm-up for 13wpm. No practice at all, just a few hundred QSOs.

And you're right (original poster) that there's MUCH more DX on the CW
portions, more of the time. Even if you wind up using phone or digital a
lot, you'll still want to be able to use CW if you want to be a DXer!

Good luck, original poster (and Geoff too)! 73 de AC4RD



_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD atsign mindspring dotsign com
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001

"Jeff" wrote in message
...
Does anyone do anything besides CW while DX'ing? I still have to
learn/practice CW but would like to try my hand at DX. I know that CW
is generally most efficient at low power, but if you don't yet know
it..it isn't much help..

Lots of DXers work SSB, RTTY, PSK31and even FM while DXing

This is evident by looking at the ARRL DXCC award listings see URL:
http://www.arrl.org/awards/dxcc/ click on DXCC Listings for PHONE

Some DXpeditions and DX stations operate CW only, so it is definitely worth
while to master the code.
My log book shows 2/3 SSB, 1/3 CW and a few data contacts.

When the sunspot cycle is up, you can work tons of DX on SSB with just 100
watts and a good antenna.
In fact when propagation is favorable, one can work DXCC (100 countries)
with 5 Watts of power (QRP) quite easlily either SSB or CW or both (mixed)

Lamont (DXCC honor roll mixed) DXCC Phone - All Time Confirmed + Deleted --
328 (319 Current)

I guess it doesn't really count as DX but are there certain frequencies
on the various bands where people congregate to work on things like WAS?
I have been out of ham radio for a couple of decades but have once again
been bitten by the bug and I set up a couple of HF rigs and some simple
antennae. I thought WAS might be a good target to start with. (I did
work Cuba the other night and was amazed that even with my modest setup
he heard me ont he first call!!)

bill
KB3YV

--
Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves
| and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton |
Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include std.disclaimer.h

Just an idea, and I know it's not "official"...but is it possible to
use software and integrate a PC into your rig to send/receive CW and
convert back and forth into text on the PC? Possibly with some
software and an audio card on the PC? In other words, the PC receives
text from the
keyboard..converts to CW and sends to rig, rig receives CW and sends
to PC which converts
back to text on the PC screen?


On Jan 22, 9:16 am, (Bill Gunshannon) wrote:
I guess it doesn't really count as DX but are there certain frequencies
on the various bands where people congregate to work on things like WAS?
I have been out of ham radio for a couple of decades but have once again
been bitten by the bug and I set up a couple of HF rigs and some simple
antennae. I thought WAS might be a good target to start with. (I did
work Cuba the other night and was amazed that even with my modest setup
he heard me ont he first call!!)

bill
KB3YV

--
Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves
| and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton |
Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include std.disclaimer.h

"Bill Gunshannon" wrote in message
...
I guess it doesn't really count as DX but are there certain frequencies
on the various bands where people congregate to work on things like WAS?
I have been out of ham radio for a couple of decades but have once again
been bitten by the bug and I set up a couple of HF rigs and some simple
antennae. I thought WAS might be a good target to start with. (I did
work Cuba the other night and was amazed that even with my modest setup
he heard me ont he first call!!)

bill
KB3YV

--
A couple of WAS nets
THE TRIPLE H NET ASSOCIATION

http://www.hhhnet.net/index.html

3905 Century Club Net
http://www.3905ccn.com/

DX nets at URL:
http://ac6v.com/nets.htm#DXN

But some DXers prefer to not work nets and find the contacts themselves -
remain pure as it were.

Lamont 5 BAND WAS, WAS 17M, WAS CW, WAS QRP
49 STATES WORKED ON 12M AND 6M

In article ,
Jeff writes:
Just an idea, and I know it's not "official"...but is it possible to
use software and integrate a PC into your rig to send/receive CW and
convert back and forth into text on the PC? Possibly with some
software and an audio card on the PC? In other words, the PC receives
text from the
keyboard..converts to CW and sends to rig, rig receives CW and sends
to PC which converts
back to text on the PC screen?

There has been both hardware and software approaches to doing this
for more than 20 years that I know of. But, when conditions get bad
the best DSP for copyoing CW is still the human.

bill
KB3YV

--
Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves
| and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton |
Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include std.disclaimer.h