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Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 280
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To George
'''''''" Say good night, Gracie "
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Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 280
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Paul You say 12 wpm, thats not too bad, I knew a CPO who could receive and send 40 wpm and that was when he had had some time in he claimed he did better during the war, when he came out of A school. When I went through A school we had to qualify at 20wpm send/receive, of course this is 30 years ago and only the subs recieved CW, but thats all changed now to VLF, and satilite communications. TSK tsk too bad it was fun.
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
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I self-taught myself Morse years ago and could read up to about the 12 wpm, but I must confess I'm kind of rusty now. Still, probably just a little practice would works wonders.
The code is still a way to get a message across under conditions which make all other modes unreadable.
I admire the guys who can read it at blazingly fast speeds -- I'm sure some of them must be almost able to decode 50-baud RTTY in their heads!
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Joined: May 2001
Posts: 717
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Hey, I hate to turn this into a CW discussion. I used an MFJ code sender to prepare myself years ago for my 20 wpm. It goes to 60, and I occasionally still use it to 'polish' when I find myself slipping below my normal 25. A member of our club was a Western Union telegrapher (he does just as well with both code styles) was standing at our testing session one day, and I jacked it up to the max - 60 wpm. Tom interpreted the cw that was being sent, while in the middle of a discussion of a filter we had all just put on a QRP (low power) rig we had all built. We have several military types that 40 -50 is no problem, but even they bow to Tom.
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
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60 wpm?!!! I stand in humbled silence......
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Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 280
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George and Paul One last item on the CW, 60wpm is awesome, I remember when learning to do 20 we would have it turned up to 30 and could copy about 85%, but what people dont realize is the faster the speed the easier it is, you hear words not just the indiviual characters. When we went to A-school we had code 8 hours a day for 8 weeks, it got to the point youd hear it in your sleep, dit daw Alpha and so on. Words like S H E E T at 30 wpm doesnt always come out to be the word sheet, well you get my drift.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 4,116 Likes: 4
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I recently went to a house that was having a mororized Antenna taken down and wanted power disconnected. I got there, not really knowing what to expect, but found a rigging company getting prepared to cut up and take down an Antenna that was maybe 18" diameter and seemed like 100' tall or more with motor in a shed below fed by a 240v circuit. (It was already disconnected) It seemed to have a 3/4" dia (or more?) coax cable connected to it going into the house. Don't know what was inside the room, but it had it's own 100A panel and several 30A to 50A receptacles scattered around the room. Does Ham equipment use that much power? The Equipment I saw looked like old Tube-Type stuff, not Electronics. Bill
Bill
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Joined: May 2001
Posts: 717
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Bill, Sounds like you ran into some "bad" old stuff. Yes, some ham gear does use things like that. My brother-in-law owns a commercial radio business in Southwestern VA, and is quite involved also in amateur radio. Let's face it, sometimes its the only thing left working, someone gave him this old Collins transmitter/receiver. It was over 6' tall, and well over 200 pounds. We cleaned it up, plugged it in and popped the key. Then we replaced the 40 amp fuses in his shop with 60's and tried it again, yes it was wired for it. I got an amprobe, and informed him if he wanted to continue playing with that old thing we were gonna have to upgrade.....it was drawing 63 amps !!!!! The newer stuff usually does not do this. I can put our 1300 watts with total amp draw of around 24.
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 806
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Good to see other folks interested in Ham Radio these days! How many hams do we have here?
73 es gud DX de N2IXK
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 4,116 Likes: 4
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George, It looked like a situation where maybe the 'Old Ham' passed on and the Family was cleaning out the shack (that's what you guys call it?) I've never seen an Antenna like that before. NJ, Not an enthusiast, but I had a school chum that was and I'd go over there sometimes and watch and look at all the (call?) cards from all over that he'd have hanging up all over the room. Me and Radios didn't seem to get along, I never could get my 'cats' whisker' or my superhetrodyne kits to work. Bill [This message has been edited by Bill Addiss (edited 12-15-2001).]
Bill
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Posts: 99
Joined: August 2003
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