1 February 07

First Morse Code Contact

It was hardly to New Zealand or some other far-off place, but we have to start somewhere. Yesterday evening I set up the radio and antenna on the 40 meter band and began my routine. The two simplest ways to make a contact are tune around and listen for somebody calling CQ — that is, announcing to the world you’re seeking a contact — and reply to them, or to call CQ yourself and hope somebody replies to your own call. I had been doing a good mix of both when I put out yet another “CQ CQ CQ DE KG6KDJ KG6KDJ K”. And I’m gobsmacked when somebody comes back — loud. I don’t quite catch his call sign but reply in kind, very nervously and with lots of mistakes. He slows way down to accommodate me. The first thing I say to him is that he’s my first HF (high-frequency bands) contact, before getting to the basics of name, location, and signal report.

His location turns out to be Davis also, about three miles from here. We get into a good long ‘rag chew’, at the raging pace of about 5 words per minute. He is incredibly patient with me, despite my keying going to pot due to nerves. I definitely did better with my listening than sending. After an hour or so we say our goodbyes — 73s in ham lingo — and I go off the air. The experience was fun and nerve-wracking at the same time. And it gets easier from this point on.

Posted by at 07:13 PM in Radio | Link |

  1. congratulations! this was the stumbling point for my ham license – now that there is no longer a morse requirement, I may give it a try again. I’m the black sheep – only one in the family without a license – my dad is KD3NO, brother K3VL, and sister N3UVC. have lotsa fun!


    — connie    3. February 2007, 17:21    Link

  2. Congratulations! I live in Davis, AND amazingly, my first CW contact while calling CQ was with N6KIX who also lives in Davis. I need to do lots more practice. Hope we can make a contact sometime! greg kg6sjt


    — greg Kruckewitt    3. February 2007, 18:31    Link

  3. Yes, this CW contact was with N6KIX too! Hope to catch you on the air – KG6KDJ.


    — Numenius    3. February 2007, 19:34    Link

  4. I called CQ again tonight – after putting up a 40 meter ant that Rob gave me last week.. and he cambe back to me again! He has the band covered! :-)
    He was nice and slow and put up with my sloppy keying.. cheers! kg6sjt


    — greg Kruckewitt    3. February 2007, 22:30    Link

  5. Hi Allan, just wanted to drop you a line to say I enjoyed the cw qso…welcome to real ham radio! Let’s do it again…73, Rob


    — Rob Brunk, N6KIX    3. February 2007, 22:47    Link

  6. One of my first CW QSO’s was also with N6KIX way back in 1992. Keep up the good CW work!
    -Zachary, KD6DXA


    — Zachary, KD6DXA    17. December 2007, 05:08    Link

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