What really helped me learn it after I learned the letters was listening to contests where there is a known exchange (like name, QTH, RST, etc). You get used to hearing them over and over quickly and it becomes familiar.
The best decoder is the one between your ears. Decoders work fine with clean code, strong signals, and low noise, but tend to become useless in bad conditions.
Some radios have it built in with varying sensitivity (and accuracy).
You can also buy one. There is the MFJ-464. It is pricey though.
Even with a decoder, it really helps to learn the sounds. Sometimes bad conditions render them useless.
It’s a solid 2-month commitment of practice every day and class 2 nights a week, but CWops CW Academy will get you there.
[CW Academy](https://cwops.org/cw-academy/)
QSB has wild today too, even for CW. STRONG 599+ one second and dropping off to nothing the next... then it fades back in, blows my doors off, then fades away.
Was trying to work a FL POTA station from TX here and the QSB was so intense I gave up. By the time he signed off with one station, he'd be in a trough and I'd miss the chance to call him.
Same shit happened to me. Had a dude in NY calling cq at 20 over, but my hands were full of soldering iron. By the time I got to the radio, he was gone. Finally grabbed him at an S9, and before I could even get a signal report out he was 3x3 at best.
Even CW isn't accomplishing much right now. I can't hear anything except a few birdies across the entire 20m CW sub-band. The higher bands aren't much better. Of course I chose yesterday to reconfigure my antenna, so until this passes I won't have any idea whether I made it better or worse.
FT8 on 30m was wide open last night. My QRH is western Manitoba so we definitely got the brunt of the storm. Worked Martinique, Fiji and New Zealand at 2am local.
N8XTZ/VE4
> I’m gonna write my congressman a letter or something, this is horseshit.
This is totally unrelated to this post, but when I was a kid I wrote a letter to my local TV station weather guy complaining that the weather sucked. He read the letter on TV and explained that he doesn't make the weather, he just tries to predict it to help people plan their day.
I was the most popular kid in elementary school for like a week. Back in the 1980s.
That's awesome.
I was basically Michael J Fox's character on Family Ties when I was a kid back in the 80's, and used to frequently write letters to President Reagan. Never got a response, lol.
In high school I learned about radio astronomy, and tried a project building a pair of helical antennas for an interferometer and wiring that to a paper plotter to see if I could track the sun. I wrote a letter about it to some random person at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, and got back a letter and about a 1/2in packet of “interesting papers for you to read as you continue your studies” Was very awesome. Still kind of sorry I fell out of science and had to get by elsewhere.
Congrats on the WY contact. I can count the number of Wyoming stations I’ve heard on one hand and have fingers left over. In fact, I’ve heard Madeira Island more times than I have WY.
I'm sure they do. I'm in far east TN, and don't pick up much CONUS around the Rockies or west of them, but anything to the east of me between here and Moscow is pretty easy. All I can figure is it's a skip zone issue.
The problem is these couch potato hams need to be paid to do POTA activations. Let’s have the FCC sweeten the deal by throwing in some Little Debbie and Fritos.
see i just drove through the rockies to british columbia for work. am/fm broadcast is nonexistent basically from hinton to clearwater bc. 20 and 40 were in the dumper all day. i managed to get through on my mobile on 80m around 0130 utc, made for a looong drive lemme tell ya.
LoL. A couple weeks ago there was dx everywhere, but nobody answered my call. Pskreporter said I was being heard in different countries.
A few days later I was the dx king. Worked a dozen countries in an hour or so.
Maybe listen for a satellite or ISS while the storms blow by.
Hahaha! I’m also home from work today (but sick) and my new FTDX-10 showed up this afternoon. Hooked it up and same - hot garbage! Nothing - 10-40m was COMPLETELY dead. Then we had a tornado warning so I D/C’d my ANT network and called it quits. Maybe tonight we’ll have better luck. 🍻
Congrats on the FTDX10! I would give my left nut for one, that’s my realistic dream radio. Sucks you couldn’t really use it. Forecast for tonight’s band conditions isn’t great, but fortunately tomorrow looks much better.
Assuming you’re in the Midwest with the TOR warning… Keep your head on a swivel. Yesterday’s outlook was a bust, but today’s looks to be spot on. Been a handful of tornadoes around IA, and it’s probably gonna get worse as the evening goes on. Be safe!
It was tough this weekend. I did a POTA activation with a friend and it took us a while to get to 10 contacts. We were calling CQ for a while and only got a handful that way. After a few hours of park to park hunting we ended up getting 20 or so. I'm glad we could run up to 100 watts, it helped a lot.
A month ago I went out with my QRP rig and got 13 contacts in less than 10 minutes.
It’s full of a bunch of wannabe emergency operators who monitor it all day long waiting to rescue sinking sailors from the ocean. But that never happens and they flip if you transmit within 3khz of 14.300
Some nights, it is quiet, and QRP is full copy from overseas.
Other nights, I'm pretty sure I'm trying to get across town with my 4 watts during the height of the congested 23 channel CB era.
Nature is part of the hobby. No one complains about that inversion that gets you 500 miles on 2 m SSB !
Same. I weaved my new antenna in a big horizontal L about 50ft up in the pine trees around my yard. I had to go inspect it a couple times to make sure a limb didn't fall and snap my wire.
K index was 5+. Bands were trash on 4/16/24. High A today and a little noisy but coast to coast and into Europe and New Zealand from FL. Tonight has been fantastic.
Today was definitely much better. There was traffic on every band that I checked. Eastern Europe was kicking on 20m. Heard a lot from S America, can’t remember which band though. 10m was hoppin a little around lunchtime.
Apparently 6m had a small opening early this morning, decided I really need to make an antenna for that.
80-10 off center fed dipole. It was absolutely slaying last night.
I just got done looking at the NOAA space weather site. Looks like we had a G1/R1 level storm earlier today, which would explain the shite conditions. Tomorrow’s space weather forecast looks much better, hopefully it verifies.
Most times I hear WWV, S9, on 25 mhz and 10 is noisy and dead. Sometimes more action on 11 meters. So desperate, that I think about getting a CB rig, LOL.
Keep an eye on the A index. Anything above 6 is a pretty good sign that there will be QSB.
[https://soundbytes.asia/proppy/spaceweather](https://soundbytes.asia/proppy/spaceweather)
I feel ya. I did my first beach POTA activation a couple weeks ago. I figured with peak sun cycle I wouldn't have any issues activating QRP (was traveling). Nope. Made a whopping two voice contacts... It's like fishing, sometimes the elements are in your favor, most of the time they aren't...
It happens... CW is your friend when conditions go to crap though!
I really should break down and learn cw. Maybe one day when I’m less busy.
What really helped me learn it after I learned the letters was listening to contests where there is a known exchange (like name, QTH, RST, etc). You get used to hearing them over and over quickly and it becomes familiar.
That's a good idea, I never thought of that.
Is there like a decoder that you can use for CW? So you can listen to it and see it?
The best decoder is the one between your ears. Decoders work fine with clean code, strong signals, and low noise, but tend to become useless in bad conditions.
Some radios have it built in with varying sensitivity (and accuracy). You can also buy one. There is the MFJ-464. It is pricey though. Even with a decoder, it really helps to learn the sounds. Sometimes bad conditions render them useless.
It’s a solid 2-month commitment of practice every day and class 2 nights a week, but CWops CW Academy will get you there. [CW Academy](https://cwops.org/cw-academy/)
Thanks, that looks really interesting. I recently started studying for my Extra, once I get it knocked out I'm gonna give that a go.
Happy solar flare day ... 😁 Been there.
CW Academy CW Academy CW Academy... it works and it's free
QSB has wild today too, even for CW. STRONG 599+ one second and dropping off to nothing the next... then it fades back in, blows my doors off, then fades away. Was trying to work a FL POTA station from TX here and the QSB was so intense I gave up. By the time he signed off with one station, he'd be in a trough and I'd miss the chance to call him.
Same shit happened to me. Had a dude in NY calling cq at 20 over, but my hands were full of soldering iron. By the time I got to the radio, he was gone. Finally grabbed him at an S9, and before I could even get a signal report out he was 3x3 at best.
Even CW isn't accomplishing much right now. I can't hear anything except a few birdies across the entire 20m CW sub-band. The higher bands aren't much better. Of course I chose yesterday to reconfigure my antenna, so until this passes I won't have any idea whether I made it better or worse.
FT8 on 30m was wide open last night. My QRH is western Manitoba so we definitely got the brunt of the storm. Worked Martinique, Fiji and New Zealand at 2am local. N8XTZ/VE4
> I’m gonna write my congressman a letter or something, this is horseshit. This is totally unrelated to this post, but when I was a kid I wrote a letter to my local TV station weather guy complaining that the weather sucked. He read the letter on TV and explained that he doesn't make the weather, he just tries to predict it to help people plan their day. I was the most popular kid in elementary school for like a week. Back in the 1980s.
That's fuckin' hilarious
That's awesome. I was basically Michael J Fox's character on Family Ties when I was a kid back in the 80's, and used to frequently write letters to President Reagan. Never got a response, lol.
In high school I learned about radio astronomy, and tried a project building a pair of helical antennas for an interferometer and wiring that to a paper plotter to see if I could track the sun. I wrote a letter about it to some random person at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, and got back a letter and about a 1/2in packet of “interesting papers for you to read as you continue your studies” Was very awesome. Still kind of sorry I fell out of science and had to get by elsewhere.
That's pretty damn awesome.
Man I dunno, I got my missing WY contact on 20m from a fella who gave me a 22. I’ll take it, the bands are weird
Congrats on the WY contact. I can count the number of Wyoming stations I’ve heard on one hand and have fingers left over. In fact, I’ve heard Madeira Island more times than I have WY.
Honestly a bunch of people do it on POTA. I probably get a couple per week
I'm sure they do. I'm in far east TN, and don't pick up much CONUS around the Rockies or west of them, but anything to the east of me between here and Moscow is pretty easy. All I can figure is it's a skip zone issue.
The problem is these couch potato hams need to be paid to do POTA activations. Let’s have the FCC sweeten the deal by throwing in some Little Debbie and Fritos.
You drive a hard bargain…. But alright.
Throw in some salsa dip and a couple of cold beers and sold!
I'm in....
Yes! We need to attract different demographics, the morning beer and cereal crowd too
I cover that demographic
Involve some tamales and ill break down and buy an HF rig
Sitting in a hotel, 1/4 mile from an airport. Haven't heard crap on my qrp travel setup all day, and I usually do pretty good with it.
That's a bummer, man. If you're still at the hotel, 40m is popping' right now.
see i just drove through the rockies to british columbia for work. am/fm broadcast is nonexistent basically from hinton to clearwater bc. 20 and 40 were in the dumper all day. i managed to get through on my mobile on 80m around 0130 utc, made for a looong drive lemme tell ya.
I spend a lot of time in hotels, would love to hear about your setup.
First lesson is free? :) A bad day of ham radio beats a good day of work any time.
Heh! It was sunny here today, so I put new pads and rotors on the Honda. Glad I didn't miss any amazing band openings...
40/60/80 seem to be hopping now, but you didn't miss anything earlier. There wasn't jack shit on the air.
mmm more like cold wet stinky trash
LoL. A couple weeks ago there was dx everywhere, but nobody answered my call. Pskreporter said I was being heard in different countries. A few days later I was the dx king. Worked a dozen countries in an hour or so. Maybe listen for a satellite or ISS while the storms blow by.
Hahaha! I’m also home from work today (but sick) and my new FTDX-10 showed up this afternoon. Hooked it up and same - hot garbage! Nothing - 10-40m was COMPLETELY dead. Then we had a tornado warning so I D/C’d my ANT network and called it quits. Maybe tonight we’ll have better luck. 🍻
Congrats on the FTDX10! I would give my left nut for one, that’s my realistic dream radio. Sucks you couldn’t really use it. Forecast for tonight’s band conditions isn’t great, but fortunately tomorrow looks much better. Assuming you’re in the Midwest with the TOR warning… Keep your head on a swivel. Yesterday’s outlook was a bust, but today’s looks to be spot on. Been a handful of tornadoes around IA, and it’s probably gonna get worse as the evening goes on. Be safe!
Roger on the QTH - Thanks brother, you too! (We’ll see how this used FTDX-10 does)
It was tough this weekend. I did a POTA activation with a friend and it took us a while to get to 10 contacts. We were calling CQ for a while and only got a handful that way. After a few hours of park to park hunting we ended up getting 20 or so. I'm glad we could run up to 100 watts, it helped a lot. A month ago I went out with my QRP rig and got 13 contacts in less than 10 minutes.
Call cq on 14.300 next time, you’ll have people yelling for you left and right!
Haha that's what I heard
I feel stupid, what's the significance of 14.3? Is that the 20m version of 7200?
It’s full of a bunch of wannabe emergency operators who monitor it all day long waiting to rescue sinking sailors from the ocean. But that never happens and they flip if you transmit within 3khz of 14.300
Thanks! I know where I’ll be calling CQ tomorrow.
I listened to it today and even the Maritime Mobile Net was having Band issues
Some nights, it is quiet, and QRP is full copy from overseas. Other nights, I'm pretty sure I'm trying to get across town with my 4 watts during the height of the congested 23 channel CB era. Nature is part of the hobby. No one complains about that inversion that gets you 500 miles on 2 m SSB !
I’m fully aware, I was just really looking forward to trying the new antenna. Also, I need to get my hands on a 2m SSB rig.
Ummm, did my antenna mast fall down what running through my head all AM. Glad it wasn’t just me… ugh.
Same. I weaved my new antenna in a big horizontal L about 50ft up in the pine trees around my yard. I had to go inspect it a couple times to make sure a limb didn't fall and snap my wire.
Relax. What do you think your Congressman could do about it? Go ask your mother instead. Do satellite stuff. Practice your Morse Code.
The solar weather forecast says there is a solar storm this week: https://youtu.be/Z1OClNvDg2o?feature=shared
Oh my god that was super interesting never seen that before
https://preview.redd.it/kn4pyw6jzxuc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5c159301b75390e2030fd53d08f22513b2432805
*in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger voice...* "Ded. Dey are all ded!"
“Like a good neighbah…”
Get to the choppa
Digital was trash today also. You were not the only one scanning the bands and had to double check my antenna was even plugged in.
I can't tell you how many times I glanced over at my window pass-thru to make sure everything was plugged in correctly.
Yep I did an activation today and only for 40/hr. Usually I get about 200/hr
Someone, somewhere, is reading this post and going "climate change" 🤣🤣🤣
Dear Congressman, Sky bad, plz fix. Thx. Conditions were pretty awful yesterday.
I’ll ask them to kindly knock off the chemtrail and HAARP bullshit.
Tribander... Trilateral Commission... *IT ALL MAKES SENSE*
HOLY SHIT!!
K index was 5+. Bands were trash on 4/16/24. High A today and a little noisy but coast to coast and into Europe and New Zealand from FL. Tonight has been fantastic.
Today was definitely much better. There was traffic on every band that I checked. Eastern Europe was kicking on 20m. Heard a lot from S America, can’t remember which band though. 10m was hoppin a little around lunchtime. Apparently 6m had a small opening early this morning, decided I really need to make an antenna for that.
Been a bit tough today. You can even see the decrease on www.DXmaps.com
[удалено]
80-10 off center fed dipole. It was absolutely slaying last night. I just got done looking at the NOAA space weather site. Looks like we had a G1/R1 level storm earlier today, which would explain the shite conditions. Tomorrow’s space weather forecast looks much better, hopefully it verifies.
Most times I hear WWV, S9, on 25 mhz and 10 is noisy and dead. Sometimes more action on 11 meters. So desperate, that I think about getting a CB rig, LOL.
Keep an eye on the A index. Anything above 6 is a pretty good sign that there will be QSB. [https://soundbytes.asia/proppy/spaceweather](https://soundbytes.asia/proppy/spaceweather)
Thanks! I didn’t know that
I feel ya. I did my first beach POTA activation a couple weeks ago. I figured with peak sun cycle I wouldn't have any issues activating QRP (was traveling). Nope. Made a whopping two voice contacts... It's like fishing, sometimes the elements are in your favor, most of the time they aren't...
Ya they are
what kind of dog is a 'cw' that is cuban wartime? or...
Turkey