I’m still a little land-locked but as my wife continues to improve after her surgery, I will be able to get a away. That hasn’t stopped me from tinkering in the shack and playing radio. Today I graduated from CWI and I am now an Alumni. For those wishing to improve their CW Skills, I recommend attending CW Innvations https://cwinnovations.net
One of the things I did today was shake up the shack a little. I had the Elecraft K3 installed at the home QTH. As I looked at the radio, I realized that it looked and felt out of place. In reality it is the best field radio I have and with that in mind I pulled it off of the desk and put it in a travel box. I like to take this radio out for my local club events like Field Day, Winter Field Day and the Support Your Parks on the Air Weekends. In its place I moved one of my IC-7300’s to the desk. The 7300 is a very versatile radio capable at home or abroad. The 7300 compliments the IC-7610 as they operate in a similar fashion.
I also made another version of my Cootie Box using a DPST light switch and a 1/8″ TRS plug cable. It cost about $15 and 30 minutes of time. Parts are from amazon: Stereo Cable DPST Light Switch No soldering required as the switch has screw down terminals. Here is a shematic:
I have a male end on one side and a female end on the other. I have some paddles with the cable attached so having the female end is for convenience. The cootie box is not much bigger than the cables I normally use.
Having a male/female end allows me to coil it up.
This Cootie Box is small enough to take anywhere and allows me to work straight key events without having to bring an extra key with me. The switches I bought come in two’s so I may make another one. 73 — Scott
I’m in the doldurms again – radio doldurms. This time it is due to my wife having a hip replaced. It happened quickly. She saw the doctor one day and a week later she had a new hip. Over the years, recovery times have decreased but there still is a recovery time. Each day she gets a little more steady on her feet. The caveat is, I still have to do a lot of things around the house. Yes, she is worth it.
I haven’t been on the radio much. I mostly turn it on to do some head sending for my CWI class and sometimes I listen to a QSO. I try to make my codebuddy skeds as long as everything else in the house is copasetic. I try to do some of the CWI exercises at night when things quiet down. I am still doing the things, at a slower pace.
I have goals I want to attain. While in the doldrums, I have switched from my bug to a singlepaddle/sideswiper. I also use paddles and I found it difficult switching from the bug to the paddles. The bug requires a heavier hand, especially on the dit side. You have to hit it a little harder to get the pendulum vibrating. A sideswiper has a similar feel to a paddle. One thing to note, is I cannot set the contacts on a sideswiper as close as I can on paddles. It tends to mush the dits and dahs together. I am currently using a KN4YB SL-85 sideswiper. It has a shorting bar so you can use it as a single lever paddle or a sideswiper.
One negative about using a single lever as a sideswiper is it bothers my arthritis. I have it in my fingertips and it can get painful after a while. I may switch to a cootie key that bends and softens the contact. I have spent most of my CW time with paddles using a keyer. I thought in retirement I would give a straight key a go. I have been practicing and I am using my code buddies as crash dummies. They report that I am doing a pretty good job. One of the reasons I am trying a straight key, is I have 4 nice county parks in my county that are not POTA regulation. My nearest POTA parks are about 45 minutes away. So I joined SKCC and when life gets a little more normal around here, I want to start working on SKCC from home and portable.
Another goal I have is to become more conversational in CW. I have close to 2,000 CW contacts in POTA but they are just exchanges. It’s the reason I am taking a CWI Class. I want to have pass-the-time-of-day QSOs on CW. Right now my code buddies and I are around the 20-25 minute mark for a QSO. We are operating around 17 wpm. POTA exchanges I can do at 22+ wpm.
The good thing about CWI is the end of the class is not the endgame. What CWI does is give you the tools to practice and teaches you how to use them. They teach you how to diagnose any problems you have and what tools to use to fix them. Even though I am a little behind right now, when my life returns to more normal, I will be able to continue my studies.
Finally, I wish to get my code speed up to 25-30 wpm. I am one of two CW ops in my club and usually do CW during the Field Days. I am okay at around 25 wpm or so when searching and pouncing however, I would like to be able to run and hold a frequency. Once life returns… I have plans to participate in some of the CW activities such as CWTest, and I may try for a CWOps number. That may be a ways a way.
That’s the long and the short of it. I hope to see y’all out there once QRV becomes more of a reality. 73 – Scott
Sometimes you got to go both ways. I recently decided I wanted to do more straight key stuff and I setteled on a sideswiper as my weapon of choice. However, I am still much more proficient with a set of paddles. Often when I go to the field for activities such as Field Day (both) or POTA/SOTA I use paddles. Now that I’m gearing up for the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC), I want to have the opprtunity to make SKCC contacts also. I do own one sideswiper key from KN5YB, Tom makes nice keys and I like the one I got from him very much. I did realize that the feel between a sideswiper and paddles is very close and since I have some nice paddles, why not make them work like straight keys.
To make a paddle into a sideswiper all that is needed is to short the Dit and Dah contacts together. This can be done with a jumper or my cootie cable https://kk4z.com/2024/01/26/cootie-cable/. While these work, I wanted something a little easier to switch back and forth so I came up with the Cootie Box. Inside is the cootie that makes the magic.
I connect 5 wires on one of the jacks 2 for the Dit and 2 for the Dah contacts. One of each goes to the other jack and one of each goes to the switch. The fifth wire is the common. Since I had wire that was too big, after I cut away the insulation on the Dit and Dah contact wire, I separated the strands into two groups. I then cut the insulation off of the wires that goes to the switch and attached them to the contact wires.
I soldered the two wires together and then trimmed them before I attached the other tail to the jack. I used heat shrink to insulate the connections
Before you go any further, feed the one jack you finished soldering through the project box and thread one nut with all five wires and fasten the jack to the project box. Then thread the nut to the other jack with the three wire that go to the opposite jack. Do not thread the switch wires through the second nut. Pass the wires through the hole in the project box and solder them to the opposite jack making sure you have the Dit and Dah contacts wired correctly or they will be reversed (trust me on this one).
With the switch wired and soldered it should look like this.
Wire and solder the oppsite jack, put together, label the switch and Viola! Cootie Box.
It does not matter which end of the Cootie box is plugged into what – completely reversable. One thing I like about the box over the cable is I feel the box is more durable.
Here is a short video of the Cootie Box in action:
Carlos is my Elecraft K3…”cause he’s so smooth”. I’ve had Carlos since June, 2023. He came to me as a basic 10 watt K3. He had the 144 MHz K144XV, the KXV3 interface option and 2, 5-pole filters. I got the radio in a trade. Owning a K3 always lingered in the back of my mind, so I took the trade. That started my journey.
Carlos has gone through several iterations since I got him. First I swapped out the 2, 5-pole filters for 5, 8-pole filters (2.8 KHz, 2.1 KHz, 1.0 KHz, 400 Hz, and 250 Hz). Second, I added the KAT3 autotuner. I wanted the internal tuner so I would have less stuff to fool with when using antennas like my random wire. My next upgrade was to add the KSYN3A synthesizer and KIO3B interface. This brought my radio up to a K3S. Finally, I added the KPA3 – 100 watt internal amplifier. I wanted the amp for a couple of reasons. I enjoy Winter Field Day and ARRL Field Day with my club, the West Georgia Amateur Radio Society. I am currently one of 2 CW ops in the club so I usually run CW to help with multipliers. The QSK, the filters, and the ability to run near other radios makes it a no brainer. Also, when I operate portable while camping, I like to run a little more power than QRP; usually in the 20-35 watt range. That is more than enough power for CW. I did all the mods myself and found them pretty straight forward. Elecraft did an excellent job kitting and making the instructions. The couple times I had an issue and they were mine, Elecraft did an excellent job helping me work through it. I did have to send it in last year because of a goof I made, but while it was in the shop, they completely went over the radio and brought it up to spec.
Carlos does scratch a couple of itches. To me, it is like owning a vintage car. It has a nostalgic look and feel about it. The radio was produced from 2008 until about 2015 when the K3S came out. Mine is a later edition with the serial number 8640. The radio is a generation or more older than the current flock of radios. Like a vintage car, I may have more money into it than I should have, but if only accounting for the enjoyment factor, it is money well spent.
I was first licensed in 1995 and my first radio was an old TenTec Omni D. The K3 has a similar look and feel as the old TenTec allowing me to reminisce about all the fun I had as a Tech+ making my first HF contacts using CW. During that time I worked second shift. When I came home from work at night I was able to slip on a pair of headphones and make contacts wihtout disturbing the family until I was sleepy enough to go to bed. My first DX contacts happened then. The K3 gives me the form factor of the older radios with the performance of the newer radios. One other difference is the ergonomics of the K3, which is best in class.
I was considering acquiring an older radio for fun and the K3 fell into my lap. It has become one of my favorite radios. I use it portable for things like POTA and Field Day. Because of its QSK, it is my favorite CW radio. When not in the field, it resides on my desk as a part of the home team. I have a set of paddles and a sideswiper hooked up to it. Hopefully I will get some time today to have some CW fun. 73 — Scott
Over the past couple of days I have been trying my new keys. One is a bug and the other is a single lever/sideswiper. I kind of switch back and forth between then as well as use my paddles. I am the zippyest with my paddles so far. So here are some of my first impressions.
Single Lever/Sideswiper. It’s okay. Coming from years of paddle use, it seems it takes more effort to run a sideswiper. Between my paddles/keys, it is the slowest. I can run around 17 wpm. I also seem to be more error prone. In single lever mode, again it’s okay. I have trouble in my head switching from sideswiper to single lever. I could probably train out of it. I think the bottom line is, if I continue to use the key, it will be as a single lever.
Next up is the bug or semi-automatic key. A bit of history. Even though I wasn’t licensed until 1995. I built a Heathkit HW-8 in the early 80’s and was interested in amateur radio since the 60’s. Back then there weren’t electronic keyers or paddles. I was very enamored the Vibroplex key. I thought they were so cool. When I finally got licensed I started out with paddles. The philosophy I followed was start with the key/paddle type you intend to use from the beginning. I have been a paddle guy since 1995 until now. With my venture into SKCC, I needed a key. I was always a little intimadated by bugs. They were complex, had to be set-up and required additional skill to run one. I held off until now.
I was in for a pleasant surprise, I got one of Tom’s KN4YB’s bugs and after watching a YouTube video by him to help me set it up. I was off and running.
The conversion from paddle to bug was pretty easy. I was worried about my dah spacing after hearing some not-so-good bug operators, but what I discovered was my years of paddle use kind of ingrained my dit/dah spacing in my head.
After some practice and adjustment I tried the bug on my code-buddy. I did forewarn him I was using a bug for the first time. I set the bug for about 17 wpm. With my current setup,by moving the weights, I can go from 17 to about 21 wpm. By altering the setup, the bug has a range from 13 wpm up to about 40 wpm. I started the QSO, and afterwards, I called him on the phone for a critique. He said he wrote down my side of the QSO and only missed one letter. It was an “S” for an “I” in the word rain. That was also an SKCC contact (my first) and I passed my SKCC number to him. Besides being able to run the bug at the same speeds as my paddles; I am comfortable with the bug at 20 wpm, it also seems easier to transition from bug to paddles and back.
It appears I am bitten by the bug. My IC-7610 and my K3(s) have both a straight key and a paddle input so I can leave both hooked up at the same time ready to go. I am in a CW Innovations class and one of my goals is to get my copy speed above 25-27 wpm. Those speeds are very doable with the bug and the paddle. Because of the size and design of my bug (model DL-151RA) It is easily field portable. I am going to get a small padded case for it and take it to a park.
A new key, a new venue, and a new adventure awaits. Retirement is grand. I am having a blast. Stay safe, play nice and 73 — Scott
Yesterday, I decided to list my Yaesu FTDX10 on QTH.com. Surprising to me, it sold in a couple of hours. I got my asking price and the guy I sold it to has been helpful and communicative. The radio ships out Monday morning.
I am going to take the money and get the KPA3A 100 watt amp kit for my K3(s). It is currently a 10 watt radio. I put the 3 in parenthesis becuase my radio is a converted K3 to the S. I plan to use the radio in the shack and for field days. I mainly do CW these days and the QSK on the K3(s) is sublime.
Speaking of CW, I recently received 2 keys from KN4YB. He is a one man shop that makes Bugs and keys. I was intrigued by his designs and bought a couple to try out.
The first one is a bug, model DL-151RA. It is unique in that it is a dual lever. It has one paddle for the dits and one paddle for the dahs. By moving the dit weights, you can adjust the dit speed from about 13 wpm up to 40 wpm. Mine is set around 16.
As you can see, the bug is rather compact. I have it sitting on a silicone pad on my desk and it does not move.
The other paddle I got is a Single Lever Paddle/Sideswiper. The difference between a single lever and a sideswiper (also called a Cootie Key), is a single lever paddle is used with an electronic keyer where the keyer generates the dits and dahs automatically. Note: I use the term paddle to designate a key that uses an electronic keyer and a key to designate a straight key. A sideswiper is more like a straight key where the dits and dahs are generated by hand movement. This model, the SL85 has a shorting bar which allows you to set it up as either a single lever or a sideswiper.
It is also a compact key. The workmanship is excellent and the prices are reasonable.
I started my journey into mechanical keys as the civilty on POTA seems to have taken a turn for the worse. Not as bad as SSB but not like it used to be. I decided to give the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) a try. They only allow straight keys, sideswipers, and bugs, keys where the dits and dah are formed by hand or mechanically. My fascination for CW goes back to the 60’s. I thought bugs were very cool and wanted a Vibroplex. I wasn’t licensed until the mid 90’s and then chose an electronic keyer. My first set of paddles were Benchers. This is my first experience with straight keys.
I spent time with both keys to see which one I was most comfortable with. I went with keys that had a side-to-side motion as that was my experience. I was curious to see how well I could transition from paddles to straight keys. The answer is, not to bad. I think my years of using paddles has helped me with dit and dah ratios. The ratio is already ingrained in my head. Right now, between the two keys, I am doing better with the bug, which surprised me. However, I think over time and practice, I can gain some level of mastery over both.
What about my paddles? They are not going away. I can still send faster with the paddles and will probably use them for Field Days and some contests. It will take me a while to be proficient with keys. Setting up the bug is an art all by itself. So I am off to a new adventure. My code buddies will now have a new challenge as I try to improve my key skills. 73 — Scott
This Winter Field Day (WFD) I operated with the West Georgia Amateur Radio Society. I am one of two CW ops so I got to play CW. We operated under W4F. I typically operate away from the main group so I won’t QRM them. This gives me the latitude to switch bands at will. My purpose is to get multipilers. You get a multpier from working each band. I managed 5 bands. Six meters never came up and I had no takers on 160 meters. Friday night and Saturday morning, prior to WFD, I made a few POTA contacts, had two CW QSO’s and managed to get France on 10 meters. So the antenna was working.
About the club, in general, we are not hard core contesters. We like to do these events for three reasons, we like to socialize, eat, and play on the radio, often in that order. Saturday, John WD8LQT made chili. Along with the chili, we had hotdogs, coleslaw, and various condimets and snacks. My wife Mary K4SEZ, made Graham Cracker Cookies, a club favorite.
I went QRV at 1400 hrs. eastern on saturday. CW during WFD can be a challenge. There are some really good ops that can zip along at 25-30 wpm. I am not one of them. I can usually get the exchnge if I listen to them call a few times. I can send between 16-22 wpm. Sometimes I felt like I was standing still at 22 wpm with these ops at high speed. A lot of times CW ops are operating portable and QRP or low power. I made many contacts with the S-meter not budging off of zero. We also had a lot of QSB and some QRN. You could see the QSB come and go on the waterfall. It was a bit of a challenge, but I felt WFD helped me realize how my CW Innovations class has already helped me. I was able to copy the QRQ stations better than I have in the past. I eneded up making 45+ contacts mainly by search and pounce. I didn’t think I would do well running a frequency — yet. I went QRT about 2200 hrs. eastern Saturday night. I had to leave early Sunday morning so my wife could get to church on time.
Equipment: My antenna was my Chameleon EmComm II ver.1. I ran a 60′ wire in an inverted L withe a 20′ vertical section using my push-up pole and tying off the other end to a pine tree. I had a 50′ counterpoise underneath the antenna. The antenna played well. I have no complaints, it did what it was supposed to do. I think it will be my WFD/FD antenna if I have the space to set it up. The radio was 2nd Peter, my IC-7300. I was running between 35-50 watts. The radio purred along and never missed a beat. I love my 7300’s. I always say that if I could only have one radio, the IC-7300 would be it. For paddles, I used my Begali Expedition. It’s a nice heavy paddle that doesn’t move and is silky smooth. Logging was handled by ACLog WFD edition on my Lenovo Thinkpad.
Everything worked as advertised, so no real changes need to be made to the radios and related gear. We did talk about getting a MESH network between me and the base camp so we can network my computer with theirs. All in all, it was a good time. I got to see folks I don’t see very often, ate good food and ran some CW on the radio. The QSO map is my contacts only. The club is still operating as I write this. 73 – de Scott
As a part of my homework for the CW Innovations class, I (we) have to head send, that is, send code from our head without reading it or using items that we see. This treats the code more like a language. We check our practice by recording and then listening to what we sent. This helps identify if we have issues such as improper character or word spacing. This is a short post and video to help get you set up to record your CW. I know that there are many out there that already know how to do this. This is for those that may not.
Equipment is simple, you need a radio or a keyer, plus a key or paddles to send CW, a couple of 3.5 mm (1/8”) stereo cables, a 1/4” to 1/8” adapter if your radio has 1/4” headphone plug, a recorder, and either headphones/earbuds or a powered speaker. For those that need a 1/4” to 1/8” adapter, here is what I use: Millso 1/4 to 1/8 stereo adapter
The recorders need not be expensive. Look for one that has 2 channels (stereo) and an external mike/line in jack. There are some on Amazon for about $30. You plug the radio (headphone jack)into the ext. mic/line jack on the recorder. Then from the headphone jack on the recorder to the speaker/headphones.
Alternatively, you can record to your cell by placing the cell phone’s microphone close to the radio’s speakers. You will probably pick up more ambient noise this way.
Hopefully you can adjust an input levels on the recorder. On some recorders you have to “arm” the recorder before you can adjust the levels. On mine the first press of the record button arms it, and the second press begins recording (YMMV). Looking at the recorder’s meters, you want the recorded signal to peak around -12 dB (about 3/4 of the meter scale). If you can’t adjust the input level at the recorder, adjust the volume of the radio. Adjust the volume of line out (headphone) of the recorder and/or the level of the speaker if you are using one, to a comfortable level, and you are good to go. One additional thought. Record in MP3 rather than WAV, it is a much smaller file size and you probably won’t notice any difference in quality.
Hit record and start sending. Whatever comes to mind. Have a conversation with yourself, send your call, QTH, WX, the alphabet, numbers, pro signs; anything other than things you read or see. When you’re done, play it back and see how you did. Sometimes it is beneficial to wait a day before you review. Pay attention to character and word spacing. Could you copy your own sending? A common error is to mush characters and words together, When you do that, you are not sending code, but gibberish. Most of all, have fun and don’t be afraid to laugh at yourself. Unless you share, no one will hear this but you.
A final tidbit not related to recording audio. A lot of times during a day activation, I am logging with a pencil and paper. I use a mechanical pencil (0.5 or 0.7mm lead) and a Rite-in-the-Rain notebook. I’ve been using Rite-in-the-Rain (RitR) products for over 40 years. On thing I noticed about RitR products is it has more tooth than other papers. Tooth is the roughness of a paper. Pencil leads come in different hardnesses. They are graded by a number and a letter. The letter “H” stands for hard and the letter “B” stands for black. B is soft and H is hard. Right in the middle of the range is grade HB. This is the most common lead and is included with most pencils you buy. On either side of HB is H to the left and B to the right followed by 2H to the left of H and 2B to the right of B and on up the scale. What I have found is HB leaves too much graphite on RitR paper. It makes it difficult to erase and more readily smudges. My handwriting is already sloppy enough. I have recently switched to either H or 2H leads. It writes a little lighter and smudges less. For many years I have used 0.5mm leads but, I think I am starting to like 0.7mm more. It is less prone to breaking. Like anything else, Your milage may vary. I hope this helps. 72 — Scott
This morning I started waxing philsophically about kits and kitting. Some folks prefer to build a separate kit for each radio or each adventure. That can be a fun past time itself. I have tried that and it doesn’t work well for me (YMMV your milage may vary). When I do an activation or for that matter when I am hunting from home, I like to be familiar with my equipment. I like to know what it can and can’t do. One negative about multiple kits is you don’t put your hands on them as much which means they don’t get inspected or checked for damage, dead batteries etc. as much. I’ve seen many times where someone brought one of these kits to the field and something was missing, broken or dead, and they couldn’t get on the air.
This probably goes back to my Army days. We were issued one set of gear and that’s what we used. You knew how every thing worked and your kit was inspected frequently . A good example is my pocket knife of choice. While in the Army, I always carried a Swiss Army knife (SAK). It was used daily for a multitude of tasks. I developed a close relationship with SAKs. Forward to today, even though I can afford fancier knives and I have a few, my Every Day Carry (EDC) is still mostly a SAK. Why? Because I know the knife. I know the steel, how they are built and how to various blades work. For a while I was a UH-60A Blackhawk Crew-chief and the SAK was routinely used to work on the aircraft. Today, a SAK Small Tinker resides in my pocket. I have carried SAKs for over 50 years.
Back to radio stuff, I feel the same way. Even though I have quite a few antennas, I stick to a few that really work for me. I like going on an activation, knowing how my gear is going to work. Today, I was musing that I had my KX2 in its bag that came with the radio. It’s a nice bag but it’s a little tight fitting in my back pack. I decided to put some of the gear in a separate smaller bag. I have a 3D printed face cover and BNC connector cover to protect the radio bits so I can place the radio in my bag by itself. I also thought that my little QRP radios (KX2, IC-705, and QMX) use much of the same gear so I made one bag that all 3 radios can use. Then, when I go an activation, I can just swap out the radio and not worry about leaving something behind. Here is my new radio bag and list. For the rest of the pack contents see my blog post AAR on Bald Mountain: https://kk4z.com/2023/11/23/aar-bald-mountain/
The bag is a Condor Belt pouch. Nothin fancy, but sturdy enough and mashable enough to fit nicely in my backpack. Both my IC-705 and KX2 have a Begali Adventure mount and the Adventure paddle can be hand held. One thing not shown is an anti-slip pad that I use when operating from inside the truck. Here is the rest of the kit: 3’ RG-316 jumper 15” RG-316 with choke Throw line and weight Extra Bank Line Begali Adventure Paddle 28.5 Random Wire Antenna with 17’ Counterpoise Wire to BNC Adapter BNC to SO-239 adapter BNC to BNC adapter 3’ 3.5 mm Stereo Cable Earbuds Power Cable for there IC-705 Power Cable for the KX2 and QMX
My backpack stays packed and ready to go complete with a radio. Because it gets used often, I do not worry if the gear is ready, I just grab and go. Part of my Army training that has stuck with me, is I go through my gear when I come back from the field and get it ready for next time. As I said earlier, I plan on doing a one day activation a week along with one weekend activation a month. 72 — Scott
I hope everyone has had a very Merry Christmas and is looking forward to a Happy New Year. For those not celebrating Christmas, I wish you a joyous holiday season. Bah, Humbug! Is not in my volcabuary this year.
Back in early December, I ordered another Begali Paddle. This time I ordered an Expedition. As you can see in the photos, it was done in Turtle with my Callsign engraved. As a surprise Christmas Gift, my wife paid for them! She’s a keeper. I am planning on pairing the Paddles with my K3(s)/10 radio. I like to keep a set of paddles with each of my portable radios – all set and ready to go.
The Begali’s are a wonderful family. Whenever I order a set of paddles from Begali, Bruna always ensures that I get what I want and we often exchange multiple emails throughout the process. I now own 4 Begali paddles. Her last email was a request that I let her know I received the paddles. I will send her a link to this blog post.
Why the Expedition? I wanted a set of heavy paddles to take with me on POTA activations and both of the Field Days. Weight is not an issue when carrying my kit a short distance. Having heavier paddles keeps them from moving around. I wanted a set of paddles that could take a little knocking around common to portable operations. According to the Begali website: The Expedition is a no-frills high-performance key. It is rugged enough, and not too expensive, to be tossed into the baggage for a DX expedition. Along with the paddles I received a nice Christmas card, care instructions, a microfiber cloth, a cable, and a pen. I ordered some CRC 3-36 oil for the paddles to keep them looking good. I wasn’t sure about the Turtle finish when I ordered them, but hey, you only live once. When I opened the box, I was amazed at how good they looked. The marbling effect has a nice patina and is somewhat subdued. Understated would be a good word to describe the finish. I am very pleased with the finish and the engraving.
How do they play? Very well thank you. The paddles come set up, ready to go, with the contacts closed during shipment to prevent damage. My adjustment is simple. From closed contacts, I back them off until I stop hearing the dits (or the dahs) and I am good to go. I nice feature about the Begali’s is they all have a similar feel. I have no issues going from one set to another. I received my paddles on the 23rd and as a part of my family tradition we open gifts on Christmas Eve. This dates back to my great-grandfather whose birthday was on the 24th. I did spend some time last night trying the paddles out and for portable rugged paddles, they are as smooth as silk.
I have been off the air these past few weeks, mainly due to the holidays, I am getting on the air today to reconnect with friends on the POTA-verse. One of my goals for 2024 is to get better on CW and the only way to do that is to get on the air.
I want to take a moment and thank everyone I have made contact with and especially those that visit this website. It’s you that keeps me going. Starting mid-January, I will be enrolled in a CW Innovations class to help with my new years resolution. I am looking forward to making new friends and new code buddies. 73 de Scott
KK4Z 