Hello Jim and other CW addicts,
I too, have been a CW junkie all of my ham radio years. I was first licensed in June of 1960. I can't claim being a total CW operator but that is certainly my operating mode of choice. I did a quick scan of my last five log pages. (I keep a hard copy but I also enter my QSOs into log-EQF so I have a double logging system.) I found only 10 fone contacts out of about 125 total Qs. When we had AO-40 up and running quite well I gave up on HF and devoted all my efforts to chasing DX on that bird. I did actually make nearly 1000 Qs but I will sadly admit that about 90% of them were on fone. It's not that I wanted to work fone but there was very, very little everyday CW operation on the bird. Several expeditions made good use of their time by operating both CW and SSB. Since I was chasing hard for satellite DXCC I worked whatever DX I could hear on whatever mode they were using. My first satellite QSOs were via RS-12 and they were on CW! My first QSOs on AO-10 and AO-13 were also on CW. (Wish I could have been interested in the birds when 13 was in it's prime.) I too, operate , just for the fun of it, in some DX contests but generally have much more fun doing the CW versions. I often wonder if those high speed contesters I work can really copy as fast as they send. I can because I still log on paper first and then e-log later. I too, work Field Day whenever possible but make the stipulation that I get to do the CW operating. No one has ever challenged me for that. Jim, I too am 70 years old and I'm seriously wondering if I'll live long enough to see another HEO bird in orbit. At the current rate of putting such birds into orbit the chances of my living long enough to chase DX on a satellite again seem, as the saying goes, slim and none!! I love chasing DX but the challenge of doing it via ordinary HF is certainly less satisfying than working Cocos Keeling Island with less than five degrees of elevation at both ends and doing so through a hole in an Elm tree across the street from my satellite antennas. BTW, I need only North Korea to have them all on HF but I have only about 120 worked via satellite so the challenge remains for me via satellite but without an HEO bird it's only a vague dream. I favor, at the moment, 30 meters only because there is no fone allowed on this band. I hear quite a few 'struggling" CW operators there but I have to give them due credit for trying. I don't currently operate 40 meters but I too have often called CQ on 30 without any answer whatsoever. Interest in CW is waning and doing so at a fast pace. Jim, let me know if you'd like a sked for a CW QSO. Seems we have much in common. Please promise not to send faster than 25/30 WPM. That's OK in a contest or for a DXpedition but 20 WPM makes for a much more enjoyable rag chew!! Long live CW both on HF and satellite but us old "die hards" can't continue for much longer. Admittedly, we need help. Right, Jim? 73 to all. Frank, KØBLT ____________________________________________________________ Click here to learn more about nursing jobs. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/Ioyw6i3nEvp4TAD4XyeavT3jCbupTx2H...